Can you reduce the HP of a car?

Q: Hey everyone,

I'm getting a car for my 18th birthday. The problem is that the car cannot be too fast because my dad doesn't want me to drive strong cars when I don't have enough experience yet.

So my question is if there is a way to block or reduce the amount of HP a car has? I know that you can lock a car so that it can only go to a certain max speed limit, but my dad doesn't want me to be going from 0 to 100 in only a few seconds either. And the cars I'm interested in are all luxury sport cars who all have 200+ HP. So is it possible?
(2012-01-25 14:43:16)

A: Well Stefan... your referring to a factory installed "Valet key" which came with the Chevy Corvette ZR-1 for example. Back in 1995 this was the last year for this generation before the '97 redesign. The ZR-1 was thumping out 405 hp to be exact, and included a keyed switch near the shifter. Activating this Valet feature disabled secondary fuel rails giving the driver "only" 200 hp to play with. Not really the sort of car your Dad would want on his INSURANCE ! Installing a programmable fuel switch cut-off for normal gas delivery or even at a particular programed RPM/speed setting is possible.
Messing with extreme de-tuning, back pressures, and the cars ECU will gamble with reliability and drivability. That's not the train you would want to ride. Test drive some of Honda's VTECs you just might be amazed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvette_(C4)