I love this car. I love what it stands for. I love the way it looks, the way it goes, the interior improvements. I would give a lot to have this car in my life.
Sherwayne Morrison I think you meant it should be second because it is third, but I completely agree, even tho you have to give the viper driver credit for handling that monster the way that he did.. 4/10ths behind the gtr nismo is nothing to laugh at.
I am so thankful that Car and Driver was mind enough to upload these onboards for all of us to see. Having said that if only muscles had driving talent...not horrible but not the quality I expect from a company with massive resources. Give me an interview as I would love to
Who the heck is this dude driving? he doesn't seem very fluid or he's no Randy Pobst but, everyone has a bad day every once in awhile....so, who the heck is driving?? and I'm assuming this is at VIR???
A C&D staffer is driving, I just hope all drivers drove all cars and the best laps were chosen. If that isn't the case then we kinda got a few problems - still a cool event though.
Sloppy driving. This guy's braking and shifting were so badly timed entering turns that he misses the apex the majority of the time, in some cases almost missing the entire turn. The Viper stays true to its character; if you're not skilled enough it will try and toss you out. This one looked like it wanted to kill 'em. With that said, I still want one.
what. this guy is dealing with corner entry understeer...and being close to or on the limit, he's deciding between managing the rear end or managing the front end. he opted to keep the back end planted and dealt with the understeer instead of getting the car all unsettled. Given the power and oldschool nature of the car, i think he drove it well. i emplore any of these armchair racers to try and drive something high torque + rwd even remotely this fast. this isn't gran turismo, boys.
I have driven my good friend's Viper GTS launch edition. Yes it has plenty of torque, but it also has more than enough grip when turning so long as you don't wait to the damn near last second to brake and you don't try using all the power exiting. @1:20 The driver in the video is coming in too hot. He's braking and downshifting all while mid-turn so he didn't have both hands on the wheel(mistake). He knew what he did wrong and you can see his frustration in it. A cleaner lap could have gotten another 1/2 - 1 sec off the lap time easy. Lastly with my own driving experience, I also am a fan of the Gran Turismo series and believe that it does an pretty good job at recreating vehicle tendencies. So don't count those armchair racers out.
Yes. VERY sloppy driving. Watch all his videos. His technique on the track is terrible. This coming from a guy who has been learning how to drive much better on a track.
Ouch, that's some not-very-good driving. Wrong gear through a good portion of the track. Overturning many times. Gotta have more faith in the Viper man.
Thank you for uploading these amazing videos. I love watching them all at once - whiners, go away. Unbelievable that commenters criticize the drivers - I'm betting that less than 1% of you would have the balls to drive these cars that hard.
i see a lot of comment saying the driver is bad. after re-watching it a couple times, i can see what everyone is talking about. poor acceleration timing and not cornering the turns very good. he is still much better driver than i am LOL and it is still a great car :)
I'm sorry but this should not qualify was a lightning lap. There are tons of driver error in this. Not saying I would do better, and I understand the viper is a tricky vehicle to drive, but this isn't fair to SRT or the viper to label this the fastest that this car can go around that track. Loads of accelerator input when he should be coasting, turning in too early, a constant error messing up the driver's line throughout the whole video. No disrespect to the driver, but the viper should get a re-do.
Jordan Payne not true. In racing, you're always doing one of three things: accelerating, braking, or maintaining. You come right off the throttle onto the brakes, and immediately back to the throttle to maintain or accelerate (for a typical turn).
Jordan Payne and yeah, seemed like this guy was entering most of the turns too quickly. I have never driven the Viper TA, but from the sounds the front tires were making, id say too much entry speed or braking into a good 60% of the turns.
WTF who is the guy driving. I mean is it 2nd or 3rd?? I mean I would leave it in 4th and throttle adjust it Too much power on exits and very nervous Gimmie the keys
This guy must be blind! He's driving by feel "Bump, OH there is the edge of the road!"... Kiss it with the side wall, not kick it... And damn, back-forth back-forth with the wheel, does that car have that unpredictable of friction point? (doubt it) They'll hire anyone as a driver these days. (armchair driving I know, but I honestly think I could have done better)
I wanna see an SRT test driver drive one of these. I wonder if it would smooth out. They always look so ragged. I knew when the zr-1 smoked the gts at laguna, something was wrong with the design/setup. They need to fire the chassis engineer i think. On another note, VIR looks like a seriously difficult track.
matthew clouser umm...that was PRE-PRODUCTION Viper with horrible alignment, funky parts, and untuned suspension. MotorTrend would have seen a different result had they waited for production vipers to come out.
NOT A VIPER DRIVER. NOT A MANUAL DRIVER. NOT TRACK DRIVER. This is what happens when men just hop in a Viper and do laps- completely out of touch with the car and himself. Drive daily and in 6 months go tracking when your in touch with Viper enough to stay off the fucking grass.
under half a second slower than the nismo AND with a manual gearbox. the only reason the gtr can be so fast is because the zr1 and the TA have manual transmissions and is still almost beat
He missed the apex on the second or third corner. You can here him say shit when he did it. Two of the corners he took, he should have been in second gear not third. I honestly think the drift king should do these laps Americans are used to a 400m race, not lap times
Good lord, did they get that seating position from Fiat? And those center vents look straight out of a Wrangler. Then again, who cares--I bet the bass coming out of this thing is waking my neighbors.
I think its bogus and a bad representation of Viper and Srt to let any driver do these tests The car requires high skill so get someone With that skill level. These publications are the worst at this Especially MTs Worlds Greatest Drag Race Every year they claim they cant get certain cars Then they carelessly drive the cars Launching at full throttle spinning
I think its well worth $100,000, pf course its a handfull, its not a car that just anybody can hop in and tale to a track day and dominate. Why would you want that anyway? If i had enough $$$$ to buy a badass super car i wouldnt want it to be one that everybody could just hop in and tear the hell out of and feel pro, i would wan it to challenge my driving abilities so that i can perfect them by pushing it a little faster each time you hit the track
I have my racing license and I have done track days and this guy is a tad on the shit side, his steering is off, his lines are crap, and his shifting is like he's scared of the gear box, and he holds the shift knob like a plebe.
WOW, that showed very claerly why nobody buys the new Viper. I can't understand why this car is so expensive, even the standard Viper? The engine and gearbox are no jewels exactly and the chassis is no where near being good (compared to the new Stingray for example). And there are so many design mistakes in this car which is why nobody buys it. I guess only a pro can drive it fast safely and that only on a track.
It pretty much is a track car. Of course it is a handful at the limit, it will do exactly what you tell it to do, even if it is a stupid idea or a mistake. I believe the biggest problem with the previous higher price of the Viper is a lot of people are holding out for the new Corvette Z06 or possible ZR1.
What exactly in the video showed why nobody buys the Viper? And what exactly is wrong with the engine? It couldn't be it's weight since it's 130 lbs lighter than the GTR's engine as well as less than the Vettes engine(120 lbs?). It's also naturally aspirated with a torque curve that's as flat as your sister. Did you just pull some shit out of your ass that sounded good in your head?
thybigballs Hard to control when driving fast. That is what was obvious at least to me. Maybe a pro driver can control it better. It's not exactly a sports car for the average driver. And all the design mistakes that you can hear about in all test drives are the reasons nobody buys the car. Plus it's way too expensive for what it offers. Reminds more of the not so good designed super cars of the 70:s.
Doug Harlow News for people holding out for the Z06: Good luck getting a Z06 and if you do get one then good luck getting one for under 110K. No dealer is going to sell these at MSRP and most are probably already spoken for.
