stanger99 said:
When we start that other thread, we'll be sure to note that (according to the June 2003 issue of Motor Trend) the Viper ranked 1st among 10 high performance automobiles in 60-0 and 100-0 braking. I believe it performed 3rd in the 600ft slaloms.
BTW, nice looking car Scott. Glad to see you get to hang out with your kids at work:xyxthumbs
A couple of things.
1st, i dont trust motor trends numbers, anymore then i would listen to 14 year old kid behind the counter at Pep-Boys tell me how to properly swirl my Turtle-wax on (you know becuase turtle wax is the best *sarcasim*). Motor trend is EXTREMELY Dodge/Chrysler bias to begin with, and their testing methods are more then a little flawed IMHO. Ive been on track with some testers from Motor Trend out at Willow Springs, and they really havent done the cars they where testing justice. One of which just happened to be a Viper GTS. In my friends, virtually stock suspension, stock wheels, with a set of hoosier DOT aprived racing tires, and a 20b under the hood, we where laping on average about a seconed quicker then the Viper. It would catch us on some straights...but just bairly, and then we outbraked it like crazy, pulling a good three to four car lengths on him at the exit of the corner. And with the streets of willow being as tight as it was, it was a nother couple of laps before they would get back to the place of catching us on a straight, and only after we made a preaty big mistake. Like overshooting, or under braking.
2nd, the viper does accelerate well, the viper also brakes well...provided you do it in a straight line. Its when you add the turns, and the lateral load to the car, that its inharent understeer, and rediculasly hard on-throttle oversteer become present. There is no real good balance point in the car between braking, acceleration, lateral grip, and transition. The lateral grip of the viper is high, and it gets good skid pad ratings becuase either...
A: the skid pad is large and the car can push it self around at a high g load.
or...
B: the skid pad is tight, and the car can power slide around it at will.
There simply is no neutral handling point in the car to keep its balance.
Let me walk you through a typical sweeping corner in a Viper.
Hard braking in, car settles down, tires hook up, rapid deceleration. However, over time the brake to tend to get a bit softer, but never really fade. So its difficult to get a good brake feel assesment on the way in.
Downshift to select apprpriate gear for the corner. So far so good.
Begin your turn in still under mild braking to get the car to rotate into the corner, and hug the slip angle of the tires around the corner.
Problem one arises, the car wont rotate under braking. Instead it push steers with the suspension still hunkered down under load from the heavy braking at corner entry. To resolve this we lift off the brakes to mild brake pressure, of lift off completely and hope the car settles itself to a neutral posision.
THe car does begin to get more neutral, however by now you are marginally out of the racing line, and are going to miss the apex of our corner. Solution, apply mild throttle pressure to rotate the rear end under power, and during thottle lift off.
Seconed problem arises. As you apply the thrittle the car over corrects itself and turns in a bit to far, no problem, we will jsut ease off the throttle a bit, and the car will come back into alignment and we should be good. Usually that does the trick. But ocasionally, and quite often, the limit to the amount of throttle lisft off can be a VERY narrow one. And many times what happens is a lift off that will cause the back end to want to come unglued again, and turn in making the car oversteer.
So instead of a nice smooth run through a corner, you are left fighting a heavy car that twitches and lurches its way around a corner at an moderate speed. With so much as a slight deviation from the thin hair line, sending you spinning in or out, depending on which phase of the process your in.
At moderate speeds the car does a great job of holding its own. But the corners have to be taken with alot of care to not go busting through at racing speeds. However at racing speeds the suspension and the poorly tuned LSD cant keep it all together. Fortunatly, a retuned LSD, and some asjustable coil overs, along with a brake kit upgrade can cure most of the ill handling problems, provided you take the time to set it up right.
The diablo is the same way in many respects, excet the mid engine configuration makes the tail want to come out with alot more force, and makes the driver think alot more about the situation then he really should. And to much thinking is a racers worst nightmare.
Its really not much of a coinsidence that most of the exotic cars you see crumpled up on flat beds from race tracks are vipers and diablos. They are siply to twitchy of a car to be handled, especially by an advanced novice driver, at high speed.
Are they nice cars, yes. Do they exude performance far beyond the average car, and are capable enough to be considered supercars, yes. Are they well balanced machines capable of taking the fastest lap at whichever track they visit...not a chance.
If i had the option to, id much rather pick a 911 GT3, or a Ferreri F355, or F360 (preferably the 360), over either a viper or a Diablo. Heck, id even take a Z06 over the Viper or Diablo.
I guess im just weird that way, or maybe ive become spoiled over the years. But in my mind the Viper and Diablo are more status vehicles then they are performance queens.
Again, sorry to go OT...but, what the hey... :wavey
Fell free to kill me later Scott.