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Hard in second, you can hear the big Michelins approach
their limits before you feel the tail find a new direction. The
slightest lift brings everything back and there is still plenty
of acceleration. The nose will push early, but a rhythmic
balance comes with some seat time and lets everything happen
in the right order. Thankfully, the limits are soft and
there is no nanny.
From a stop, second gear comes up quickly; not instantly,
but without embarrassment. Off the line this is not a holeshot
rocket. Speed gathers, unless, of course, you punch up
the revs and side-step the clutch and hang on. Otherwise
there are 8.3-liters of hardware to get wound up before you
feel the push. All that being said, this car still gathers speed
at a rate that gives you 60 mph in under 4 seconds and 0-
100-0 in 12 seconds. The legendary 427 Cobra, weighing
1000 pounds less, set the original bar at 14. While all this is
being accomplished the new Viper coupe has a soul-stirring
voice. At idle there is a lumpy growl like a fifties street
racer, then within a few hundred revs it begins to run cleanly
and, at its 4200 rpm torque peak, it will produce something
nearing a howl. The split exhaust dumping out either
side is not the way I would have done it. A balance tube and
pair of pipes speaking together would make a more even
sound. Never mind, you'll love it.
Vipers are roadsters; big fat recreations of Cobras – with
attitude. The original show car shocked the sensibilities and
won the hearts of thousands. It was quickly jammed into
production by the courage of Bob Lutz and his team of racers,
and car guys that he had found hidden in the old
Chrysler Corporation. Tom Gale was the design chief at the
time. My former employer had a fine writer go off to interview
Gale at a critical point, and on the wall behind his desk
was a large Bob Hubback painting of a Viper done as a
Cobra Daytona coupe. It was not for public consumption.
We got it in our portrait. We don't know if it was in future
plans at the time, but it was after we published the picture.
The coupe became the race car. It was slipperier. It was
not smaller, but with 8 liters of thunder and torque that
didn't matter. After several seasons of success and the
eventual challenge of GM and the Corvette team, the Viper
began to suffer from its dramatic proportions. Corvettes
wanted a smaller hole in the air. They were faster because of
it. Then they got even smaller.
Vipers are roadsters again. For three seasons it has been
true for the new car. But several European racing teams
loved the old Viper GTS-R. It was so strong. It would do
everything asked of it with little complaint. And the
Europeans fans loved it, too. It was American. Big. And
noisy. And fast. The Corvettes scream from their brilliantly
sophisticated old-school, pushrod V-8, but it is not the same.
The new Viper became available in 2003. It was much
more Corvette-like in proportions. Did DaimlerChrysler
want a race car? We don't know, but the new car certainly
fed the rumors. Then the Viper club racers (they tell us)
asked (with some vigor) for a coupe. They would simply be
faster on club track days. Okay.
Maybe all that played on the minds of the Viper team. I
don't know, but it was time for a coupe. John Fernandez,
Director – Dodge Motorsports Operations, in deference to
the Viper Racing League even pressed for and accomplished
a Viper Competition Coupe. For $130,000 you get all the
appropriate suspension set up bits, brakes, oil coolers, a full
cage with 6-point harness, and a Kevlar-carbon fiber body.
You also get 520 horsepower and 540 pounds/feet of torque.
It qualifies, as is, for several American racing organizations
and is not eligible for street registration. It is certainly not
the last word, but it gets the competitive owner into the ball
game without the horrific development costs. No one will
leave it alone, of course, and we expect to see the traditional
European Viper teams back in the FIA championship series
soon. That long country road past Restaurant des
Hunaudières that has an optional right turn before it runs
into the village of Mulsanne has been very good to GM for
the past few years. That next stretch of that country road
was pretty embarrassing to Chrysler Group's German partners
a few years ago and neither company has had much of
a presence in the Sarthe region since.
In real life, the latest Viper SRT10 Coupe is far more GT
car than the last one. One could do 500 miles across New
England in an old one and almost qualify for a pilot's
license on air time alone. That won't happen with the new
one. It is compliant and competent; impressive without
being edgy. It is not scary and the attitude is nearer disdain
than debauchery. And it no longer sounds like a supercharged
UPS truck.
Oddly enough, in the world of absolute faith in electronic
marvels, the Viper is blessed with a number of old school
fail-safes. A mechanical key lock is tucked into the side
vent. The battery is tucked under the floor of the trunk as in
any well-balanced GT car; what makes it different is the
preparation for human error. If you leave the lights on or the
door ajar and the interior bits still running and the battery
goes flat, the hood opens from the front of the car and there
is a rectangular lug cast on to the body of the water pump to
use as a ground connection for your jumper cable, and a
positive pole is mounted on a fender panel near it.
Inside the center armrest is a 12-volt power outlet so
your phone can be plugged in and remain out of sight while
is receives sustenance. Also in there is a key slot to disarm
the passenger airbag to be used in conjunction with the child
seat restraint connections built into that seat.
By way of electronic fail-safe are the mechanical seat
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