Just drove a Viper....i wasn't impressed

[Nightrage]

Alright, my mom goes to sleep real early to get up for work at 5. She stays up until i'm home because she's paranoid so she doesn't like me staying out late because then she has to stay up. My dad asked me to hang out tonight but the only way i could was if he picked me up. He pulled up in front of my house in his Viper (96 GTS) He asked me if i had my license on me and i thought it was a bit odd. I said yes and then he goes- "Wanna drive to Lauren's house?" (his girlfriend) "HELL YEAH!" I got behind the wheel and was deathly afraid to drive it due to the fact that he would murder me if i got in an accident or something. Anyhow, i eventually got used to his oddities (the previous owner installed racing pedals and messed up on the accelerator pedal so it's very wobbly. I'm also used to my shifter which is smooth as butter. He has a short throw shifter that is very rigid) and i took it out on the parkway. He kept telling me to floor it. That was fun and all but i just didn't feel that it lived up to it's name. I punched it in 3rd at 55MPH and it didn't throw me against the seat like i expected it to. The steering wheel felt tiny compared to my car. It handled amazingly but i wasn't overpowered by it which people constantly claim they are. I felt in control the entire time. Normally this is a good thing but not this time lol. Who else agrees with me that Vipers are over rated?

[raroZ28]

3rd gear going 55? dude, if I threw it in 3rd going 55 in the camaro it wouldn't do much either. If I'm going 55 I drop it into second and punch it. I would guess you would get more out of second in a viper too. I get almost 50 in the camaro in first gear. You had 500 HP at your foot man, what's not to love?

[Dave M]

1st gear in the viper is good for about 60-62 mph. 3rd gear wouldn't put you back in the seat like 2nd would have. Keep in mind 96 only had 400 ponies I think. Still a lot, but not the 500 of today. For the money, I think vipers offer a lot of value compared to the imports of the same performance.

[fastTa]

The 2nd gen Vipers only came from the factory with 450 fly HP. It wasn't until 2003 when the 3rd gens got the larger displacement motor making a claimed 500 fly HP. The 2nd gens were also about 100 lbs heavier.

I have driven a friends 97 Viper and I wasn't too impressed either. The exhaust note sounds dumb and the interior is pretty dull. It handled OK but for $60K-$90K, I expected much, much, much more.

[Nightrage]

I floored it in first too. Not off the line since i'm still not used to launching off the line as i don't race in my car and popping the clutch doesn't seem like such a good idea to me. I meant to say that it hit 80 real nice in 3rd in addition to what i said before. I told my dad that people claim it isn't balanced to handle properly as most of the weight is in the front. That set him off so he went out to prove they were wrong. We took some tight tight tight tight TIGHT turns (as in marked 10-15MPH) at around 70-80 and the tires didn't even screetch or chirp. I just didn't feel that it was as brutally powerful as everyone claims it is. People have had them dyno'd stock and seen i believe....430 HP to the wheels. My first car was an 86 Monte Carlo with a 4.3 liter v6 (tbi with terrible hesitation and 140 horsepower.) My second was a 88 formula with a tbi 305. Now i have a car with some power but i won't even think about getting on it so i have barely any experience with a lot of torque and horsepower. I had no problem whatsoever taming the 488 cubic inches of MOPAR. My dad had a 1970 Challenger R/T with a bunch of work done to it (probably 500 ish horsepower from what i've been told) and he said he had trouble handling all the power that the car has. I just don't get it. I didn't punch it from a dead stop but i did once i got rolling so i wouldn't have to pop the clutch out. I absolutely adore GM. I'll never stray from GM. Maybe i'll have something else as a project car or something but you can't beat General Motors reliability. I've never had a problem with any of my cars other than the 88 Formula but that was a simple idling problem and the car is 16 years old with over 110,000 miles on it.

[AmericanZ28]

I think looks have a lot to do with the price as well. They have that "Exotic" car look that turns heads. As far as performance, Ive had the opportunity to drive an 04 Viper, and those things MOVE!!! And they brake really well considering the weight! Compared to a ZO6 of the same year, Id say I felt it a little more SOTP in the Viper. Im guessing the Viper has the advantage of better torque on the lower side of the RPM range compared to the Vette. Id say that back in 96, the Viper was a force to be reckoned with. Now a days, however, a 96 Viper will do very little with such stiff competion.

[N20LT4Bird]

I eat vipers for breakfast.

[Performin Norman]

Vipers can feel slow because of the 3.07 gearing. However, they make wicked torque and horsepower. Mine produced 490 foot pounds of torque and close to 435 horsepower at the wheels in bone stock fashion. It takes a lot to exploit the power of a Viper. I owned mine at the same time as my Z06 and I will tell you this, the Viper was faster. Something about the smooth torque delivery and the 3.07 gear makes the SOTP testing feel unimpressive. I know exactly what you mean.

[Nightrage]

My dad is still more obsessed with his car than i am with mine and that's hard to do. I have pictures of my car...IN MY CAR! I sit in my car during my break at work and stare at the pictures the entire time. I have more pictures of my car than i do of my girlfriend. My dad washes that thing like........14 times a day. He's not a "weekend car" kind of guy either which is awesome. If it's not raining or snowing, he's got that out. In the 2 years he's owned it, he's put 60,000 miles on it. Most people think he's crazy but you guys know how it is. What's the point of owning a car if you're not going to drive it?

[markd79ta]

The first gen Viper was a disappointment. It didn't live up to the expectations and got beat on by the ZR1s of the time thus the quick death of the RT/10. The 2nd gen was a brute...what they should have done in the beginning although not up to par with regard to handling in comparison to the other cars in its class as well as the emergence of the C5s. The 3rd gen is supposedly more refined, and more capable of challenging the C5s on the road course. Anyhow, the Viper is a great car, but it fails to be an exotic in several respects. It is not good enough to be in that category yet it is exclusive and out of most people's price range. It seams to lose appeal because of this whereas the Vette is attainable by pretty much anybody who wants one. I thinking the new Ford GT (GT40) is a true classic, exotic, and it fulfills every expectation. The new Z06 replacement will beat on the 3rd gen Viper and cost 20k+ less. Anyhow, it is a great car -the-less and wickedly fast and brutal in the 1/4. If you were more free to lay into it and learn what it can do, you would be amazed. See if your dad will take you to a test and tune night at the drag strip in your area. You will get a better idea and appreciation of what that car can do.

[Dave M]

The first gen Viper was a disappointment. It didn't live up to the expectations and got beat on by the ZR1s of the time thus the quick death of the RT/10. The 2nd gen was a brute...what they should have done in the beginning although not up to par with regard to handling in comparison to the other cars in its class as well as the emergence of the C5s. The 3rd gen is supposedly more refined, and more capable of challenging the C5s on the road course. Anyhow, the Viper is a great car, but it fails to be an exotic in several respects. It is not good enough to be in that category yet it is exclusive and out of most people's price range. It seams to lose appeal because of this whereas the Vette is attainable by pretty much anybody who wants one. I thinking the new Ford GT (GT40) is a true classic, exotic, and it fulfills every expectation. The new Z06 replacement will beat on the 3rd gen Viper and cost 20k+ less. Anyhow, it is a great car -the-less and wickedly fast and brutal in the 1/4. If you were more free to lay into it and learn what it can do, you would be amazed. See if your dad will take you to a test and tune night at the drag strip in your area. You will get a better idea and appreciation of what that car can do.

Dodge still sells everyone of them it builds.

[Kevin - Blown 95 TA]

I eat vipers for breakfast.

Pretty smug now that you got your MAF sensor working

[paxton350]

ive been wanting to race a viper in my supercharged lt1. i have a gut feeling i would eat one

[Kevin - Blown 95 TA]

ive been wanting to race a viper in my supercharged lt1. i have a gut feeling i would eat one

Just keep in mind that those guys can mod their cars too. I had one follow me for a half hour on Sunday - he was making a fool out of his self, and his car sounded ricey through the sidepipes. It had kind of a stacotto tone to it. There was a lot of traffic and I was tired & loaded down with junk from the CC nats car show, so I kind of avoided him, but played around with him and worked the traffic against him a bunch of times. He couldn't get in front of me or beside me for anything. I didn't want to race him, so I outdrove him instead. He ended up racing a guy in a LS1 WS6 for about 3 seconds. Anyway he followed me a long way until he finally turned off. His plates said "Hennessy". I always will wonder if he was really modded & could have beat me, but at the time I was too tired, too loaded down, & just wanted to get home in one piece.

[ryan34]

I think the vipers are great...for $80,000 you have an 11.7 1/4 car....the murcialago runs like 11.6 for $280,000. I mean its like less then a thenth of a sec. off. Not to mention they improved the handling over the 2nd generation. Plus i heard rumors of a "hemi" viper. If they put hemi heads on that thing, it would be out of this world. If i could have one car it would be a viper.