Sean Malone
10-25-07, 09:51 AM
(No, this isn’t about Scott Sharp or Buddy Lazier. ;) )
“It’s too ‘cartoonish’”, “It’s unrefined”, “It’s unbalanced”, “My pickup called, it wants it’s engine back”, “It’s a Dodge!”
I’ve read and heard all of these and more regarding the Dodge Viper, one of my all time favorite “dream machines”. Since its debut back in ’93 (and actually prior with the debut of the prototype show car), I’ve wanted a Viper. Hell, at least I’d like to put one through its paces.
I finally got my chance this summer. My brother-in-law was in town and we went across the street to play some 9 ball at the pool hall. He asked a buddy of his to join us and told me to I’d be very interested in meeting this guy. I told him I wasn’t gay and reminded him I was married to his sister (he’s not that bright).
Anyway, half an hour rolls by and a fellow walks in and says to the table next to us “there’s a cool Viper out front”. My bro-in-law stands up and says “that’s my buddy, come on”.
Parked out front and drawing a small crowd sat the ugliest Viper GTS coupe I’ve ever seen. Root beer brown with metallic copper stripes, tan and brown interior with copper colored seat piping. GAG!! Just make mine the blue with the two white racing stripes and a black interior please.
After a quick introduction my bro-in-law urges his buddy to give us rides.
I gotta hand it to this guy, he didn’t buy this car to pick up chicks or take to the local car show in the grocery market parking lot. Bro-in-law gets first ride, it is his friend after all.
(a quick sideline about bro-in-law. He has raced amateur motorcross for 12 or so years and has owned several ‘hot rods’. Getting into the Viper was 1, not a dream he shared with me nor was he intimidated by it, and 2, he didn’t really know what to expect. Maybe a nice little slow cruise around the block to wave at the girls.)
His buddy pulls out onto the main road and before the car is even straight in the lane he brings the rev full to the limiter and drops the clutch. For the next ten seconds he’s completely sideways with white smoke bellowing from the massive 335 Michelins for about the length of a football field. He let off and, zoom, they disappeared around the corner. Five minutes pass and from the other direction comes the brown Viper. Door opens and a shaking bro-in-law gets out. Literally, he’s shaking. His hands, his legs. He had to sit down on the curb! This is a guy who can jump 35 feet in the air on his Kawasaki 250.
With a huge grin he looks up at me and says “you’re turn!”. Now I’m apprehensive. I’m one of those control freak guys. Putting myself in the hands of a guy who I have no idea what his skill level is, in a car that has 600hp (turns out the ugly brown Viper is full of Hennessey mods) and weighs less than a ton. Palms sweating, I climb into this thing (literally, its easily 12” from the seat to the door.). I’ve sat in a few Vipers at the dealer so the interior was nothing to gawk at. But the glove like snugness of the seat felt nice and confidence inspiring. The driver fired up the engine and turned and said with a grin “ya better put your seatbelt on. You never know”. Great. He’s going to go out of his way to make this a “let me out of here!” kinda ride.
He told me that his tires are up to temp now so he’ll spare me the white smoky burnout and see if we can’t “hook up”. We pull out onto the four lane highway and he slowly edges it up to about 15mph in 1rst and then nails it. With the force of a locomotive I’m stuck to the back of the seat. I couldn’t move if I tried. He violently hammers it into 2nd while I’m watching the speedo climb like the core temperature of a Russian nuclear submarine. The speedo is just below 70 when he throws the shifter up and out to catch 3rd…which he doesn’t. His foot is on the floor, the rpm’s climb past redline and the grinding sound couldn’t have been good. A single expletive and he gets it back into 3rd, now slightly embarrassed and slightly pissed. I watch the speedo climb past the century mark and he grabs 4rth. The acceleration g’s have subsided a bit but the force that is pushing me back into the seat is still more than most ‘fast’ cars produce in 1rst gear. He easily pushes it up to the 140 mark…enter act 2.
The light up ahead turns red and both lanes have two or three cars. He keeps his foot into it way past the point I thought he would. I kept thinking, “ok, he’ll let off now. (he doesn’t), ok, he’ll let off now (and he doesn’t) x 10. I can practically read the license plates on the stopped cars ahead when he finally takes his foot off the gas (keep in mind it was still nailed) and stands on the brake. This thing hauled itself down from 140+ faster than Tony George can say “um”. I’m pretty sure I was actually zero gravity there for a split second, being held only by the seat belt. We gently pull behind the other cars with out even a squeal of the tires.
I’ve had some fast cars, I have a fast motorcycle where I top 130mph on a weekly basis. But never have I experienced such visceral, violent, earth moving torque monster car than this Viper.
We pull back into the parking lot and while I’m getting out of the car the owner says to me with a grin “Your turn”. I was happy just getting the ride, but actually getting to stomp on the gas myself was awesome! My trip was almost the same as my ride but I didn’t miss 3rd (which I think he was miffed about) and I only topped 110mph. Hey, it wasn’t my car!
Pros and cons; keeping in mind this was an older 2003 GTS (It has the curvier body and less refined interior than its newer version), sitting in the Viper even at a dead stop was…cool. Like I mentioned, the seats were excellent even though the driver position with the steering wheel is a bit skewed. I actually thought the passenger side felt better. Shifting gears is like shifting a ’78 International dump truck or a ’94 to ‘05 Mustang. The throw was too far for my taste and the over all “feel” wasn’t crisp and notchy like I like. The clutch was very heavy (hell, it is a V10 truck engine after all!) and the engagement was mushy (the shifter and clutch I hear is better with the new Viper). The engine does sound like a UPS truck on steroids as one wag once put it. I couldn’t imagine doing laps in this beast at a closed course.
There are few things on the road, that I encounter, faster than my GSX-R, this is one of them and the experience of the torque is something most other cars (and especially motorcycles) can’t even come close to, let alone equal.
Now if I only had an ’08 to compare this one too.
Say what you will about a Viper, if you ever get a chance to drive one or ride in one, take it. It’s fun!
:thumbup:
“It’s too ‘cartoonish’”, “It’s unrefined”, “It’s unbalanced”, “My pickup called, it wants it’s engine back”, “It’s a Dodge!”
I’ve read and heard all of these and more regarding the Dodge Viper, one of my all time favorite “dream machines”. Since its debut back in ’93 (and actually prior with the debut of the prototype show car), I’ve wanted a Viper. Hell, at least I’d like to put one through its paces.
I finally got my chance this summer. My brother-in-law was in town and we went across the street to play some 9 ball at the pool hall. He asked a buddy of his to join us and told me to I’d be very interested in meeting this guy. I told him I wasn’t gay and reminded him I was married to his sister (he’s not that bright).
Anyway, half an hour rolls by and a fellow walks in and says to the table next to us “there’s a cool Viper out front”. My bro-in-law stands up and says “that’s my buddy, come on”.
Parked out front and drawing a small crowd sat the ugliest Viper GTS coupe I’ve ever seen. Root beer brown with metallic copper stripes, tan and brown interior with copper colored seat piping. GAG!! Just make mine the blue with the two white racing stripes and a black interior please.
After a quick introduction my bro-in-law urges his buddy to give us rides.
I gotta hand it to this guy, he didn’t buy this car to pick up chicks or take to the local car show in the grocery market parking lot. Bro-in-law gets first ride, it is his friend after all.
(a quick sideline about bro-in-law. He has raced amateur motorcross for 12 or so years and has owned several ‘hot rods’. Getting into the Viper was 1, not a dream he shared with me nor was he intimidated by it, and 2, he didn’t really know what to expect. Maybe a nice little slow cruise around the block to wave at the girls.)
His buddy pulls out onto the main road and before the car is even straight in the lane he brings the rev full to the limiter and drops the clutch. For the next ten seconds he’s completely sideways with white smoke bellowing from the massive 335 Michelins for about the length of a football field. He let off and, zoom, they disappeared around the corner. Five minutes pass and from the other direction comes the brown Viper. Door opens and a shaking bro-in-law gets out. Literally, he’s shaking. His hands, his legs. He had to sit down on the curb! This is a guy who can jump 35 feet in the air on his Kawasaki 250.
With a huge grin he looks up at me and says “you’re turn!”. Now I’m apprehensive. I’m one of those control freak guys. Putting myself in the hands of a guy who I have no idea what his skill level is, in a car that has 600hp (turns out the ugly brown Viper is full of Hennessey mods) and weighs less than a ton. Palms sweating, I climb into this thing (literally, its easily 12” from the seat to the door.). I’ve sat in a few Vipers at the dealer so the interior was nothing to gawk at. But the glove like snugness of the seat felt nice and confidence inspiring. The driver fired up the engine and turned and said with a grin “ya better put your seatbelt on. You never know”. Great. He’s going to go out of his way to make this a “let me out of here!” kinda ride.
He told me that his tires are up to temp now so he’ll spare me the white smoky burnout and see if we can’t “hook up”. We pull out onto the four lane highway and he slowly edges it up to about 15mph in 1rst and then nails it. With the force of a locomotive I’m stuck to the back of the seat. I couldn’t move if I tried. He violently hammers it into 2nd while I’m watching the speedo climb like the core temperature of a Russian nuclear submarine. The speedo is just below 70 when he throws the shifter up and out to catch 3rd…which he doesn’t. His foot is on the floor, the rpm’s climb past redline and the grinding sound couldn’t have been good. A single expletive and he gets it back into 3rd, now slightly embarrassed and slightly pissed. I watch the speedo climb past the century mark and he grabs 4rth. The acceleration g’s have subsided a bit but the force that is pushing me back into the seat is still more than most ‘fast’ cars produce in 1rst gear. He easily pushes it up to the 140 mark…enter act 2.
The light up ahead turns red and both lanes have two or three cars. He keeps his foot into it way past the point I thought he would. I kept thinking, “ok, he’ll let off now. (he doesn’t), ok, he’ll let off now (and he doesn’t) x 10. I can practically read the license plates on the stopped cars ahead when he finally takes his foot off the gas (keep in mind it was still nailed) and stands on the brake. This thing hauled itself down from 140+ faster than Tony George can say “um”. I’m pretty sure I was actually zero gravity there for a split second, being held only by the seat belt. We gently pull behind the other cars with out even a squeal of the tires.
I’ve had some fast cars, I have a fast motorcycle where I top 130mph on a weekly basis. But never have I experienced such visceral, violent, earth moving torque monster car than this Viper.
We pull back into the parking lot and while I’m getting out of the car the owner says to me with a grin “Your turn”. I was happy just getting the ride, but actually getting to stomp on the gas myself was awesome! My trip was almost the same as my ride but I didn’t miss 3rd (which I think he was miffed about) and I only topped 110mph. Hey, it wasn’t my car!
Pros and cons; keeping in mind this was an older 2003 GTS (It has the curvier body and less refined interior than its newer version), sitting in the Viper even at a dead stop was…cool. Like I mentioned, the seats were excellent even though the driver position with the steering wheel is a bit skewed. I actually thought the passenger side felt better. Shifting gears is like shifting a ’78 International dump truck or a ’94 to ‘05 Mustang. The throw was too far for my taste and the over all “feel” wasn’t crisp and notchy like I like. The clutch was very heavy (hell, it is a V10 truck engine after all!) and the engagement was mushy (the shifter and clutch I hear is better with the new Viper). The engine does sound like a UPS truck on steroids as one wag once put it. I couldn’t imagine doing laps in this beast at a closed course.
There are few things on the road, that I encounter, faster than my GSX-R, this is one of them and the experience of the torque is something most other cars (and especially motorcycles) can’t even come close to, let alone equal.
Now if I only had an ’08 to compare this one too.
Say what you will about a Viper, if you ever get a chance to drive one or ride in one, take it. It’s fun!
:thumbup: