Suspension & wheel question

17" GT take-offs are an affordable and available option for upgrading your wheels. Do live in snow country? If so, I'd stay with the skinny V6 wheels, since wider tires will be disasterous in the snow, especially with a new driver.

You can upgrade a V6 to GT handling 90% of the way by getting front and rear GT sway bars. The V6 has a thinner front bar and no rear bar at all.

If you lower the car, get an alignment done and MAKE SURE the front end is back within the factory specs. If you are left with just a little toe-out, the result will be oversteer, which your kid doesn't need.
Generally, you can drop a V6 1" or so and still get it back within factory specs. Anything over that and you'll have to add caster/camber plates to the tops of the shock towers.

i found some cheap 17" chrome 99 cobra rims on ebay with tires for $500...i put my 15's on for winter. as far as suspension goes im going to go with the bullit handling kit which drops my car 1", but will only drop your son's car .75", but the advantage to that is you dont need C/C plates