OK, here is my story. A cautionary tale.

I got a 94 Honda Accord DX 5 speed from my parents as my first car. I had no interest in cars at that point and hated the annoyance of having to drive a five speed, and I'd actually wanted my mom's minivan instead. Then I stumbled across a honda webboard and became interested in the hobby.

This car was slow and the only way to make it faster was an expensive engine swap, with which it would still be slow. My parents were strongly against it, but in the end, I decided to sell my car to get another car to modify, my dsm. This is where in theory I made a wise decision by picking a decent platform to start with, but in practice it was a bad idea.

Being a DSM, it was an unreliable car, and continued to be unreliable no matter how much work I put into it. It's only approaching reliability at this point and I've fixed and replaced pretty much everything in the car.

The moral of the story is, listen to the advice your elders have for you, because they've learned the hard way. Keep your reasonably reliable car throughout high school at least. Just deal with it being slow- go get another hobby for now, like dating, having sex with, running into drama because of, and breaking up with high school chicks while you're at an age where it is still appropriate, and legal. Save up money and eventually buy another car with good mod potential, something with a stock turbo and strong engine or something with a good v8. Either sell your car at that point or keep it for a daily. You'll save yourself a lot of hassle.