An interesting GenII - GenIII performance data point

[treynor]

Those of you who attended VOI7 will probably remember that there was an autocross contest as part of the driving activities. There were also prizes awarded for top finishers in both the stock and modified class. Some of you may even recall that the winning times were 34.1 seconds in the stock class, and 33.1 seconds in the modified class. This is amongst ALL the drivers who participated in the autocross, and thus probably represents a fairly good lower bound for the attainable performance of (at least) a stock Gen-II ACR.

As luck would have it, after my SRT driving experience on Sunday the Skip Barber drivers were giving out thrill rides in stock SRTs, using the same autocross course which had been employed on Friday & Saturday for the aforementioned contest. The SB drivers were doing "drift"-style laps, which look impressive but are actually fairly slow. However, being the sneaky fellow that I occasionally am, when I got my 1-lap ride I asked the driver to do a fast qualifying-style lap rather than a drift-style showoff lap. As a result, I was treated to a very smooth, accurate lap as my SB driver piloted the SRT through the autocross course.

As he did so, I timed him on my digital watch

With my 175 lbs of dead weight in the passenger seat, the SB driver drove the stock SRT to a 32.0-second lap on the same course that the stock Gen-IIs had managed in 34.1 seconds the day before. As those of you who autocross well know, 2.1 seconds is an eternity. Granted, the SB driver had been around the course many more times than the 3 laps granted each contestant in the contest, but this was just a single lap rather than a best-of-three for the SB driver, and he had a passenger. Further, the driver actually made a few (minor) mistakes during our lap, so I rather believe the best time in a larger contest would have been a few 10ths quicker.

So... take it for what it's worth. In my book, 34.1 vs 32.0 is a very impressive gain, and a credit to Dodge for making such strides in vehicle dynamics over what is already an extremely high-performance car.

 

[Tom F&L GoR]

I'll get flamed for this, but....

AX results about halfway down

Gen 1 car #128 with old XGT-Zs 3-4 seconds better AX car than all those Gen 2 cars? No, I don't think so. Same happened this summer at Englishtown at the annual AX/drags, on another set of XGT-Z, I was a second quicker than Andrew2KRT10 on Hoosiers.

I think Vipers make us all look good in the quarter mile, make us look like pretty good road racers, but as soon as you take out the straights and have a course that appreciates lower vehicle weight rather than higher vehicle power, you need practice. Many apologies to those who I know must have been at VOI and run the AX course, but even some great road racers have to re-program to run AX events. (Morgan?) When you get embarrased by Miatas and Boxsters, you realize Vipers are bulls in a china shop, and we aren't all bullfighters... but maybe full of bull..

Anyway, interesting data. It'd be great if a future ACR package deleted a few hundred pounds rather than add stickers and shocks.