Why do young 'uns want to jump into something fast straight away? More to the point, what makes them think they have the skill to handle a lot more power than they're used to? It's a lot to do with bravado and bragging rights, IMO. When I was 18, I had a 1.3 Belmont, then I moved up to a 2.0 Cavalier, then into a 205 1.9 GTi. Looking back, that was still too big a jump. Going from 75 bhp to 115 to 170-odd. I drove the 205 like a bell-end and got my arse tanned by the Feds a few times. Spun it a couple of times in the wet because I thought I could handle it. Luckily, I never stacked it. I was paying £1300 Fire and Funeral for it, aged 19 back in early 2000.
The upside was, I built up some decent no claims and could easily insure a Subaru Legacy Turbo at 22 for £800 FC.
It's your money, but I feel it's going to end very badly. Especially if you let your mates goad you. Look at it this way, you have the more powerful car now, you have nothing to prove.
Book it on a trackday and find it's limits there, rather than stuffing it into a hedge, or worse, a bus-stop full of people.
A word of advice is "anyone can go fast in a rapid car , its knowing when to back off thats gonna keep you out of the s**t " ,and the only way to learn that is experience.
