Automobile Magazine Best Track Cars

KaiPL

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Did anyone else here see the article in Automobile Magazine on America's best track cars?

The Viper was compared with a number of track cars, from the Dodge SRT-4 to the Challenge Stradale. Of most interest to me were the great performance numbers of the Noble. An interesting article. Mostly good things to say about the Viper, although they dinged the Viper for having poor seats, saying that the Neon SRT-4 had much better seats.

Kai
 

Saleen-Explorer

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Poor seats??!? The SRT seats are so comfy and supportive, isn't the SRT-4 seats a simliar/cheaper design of the new SRT-10 seats anyway?

Doesn't the Noble use a turbo version of Fords duratec engine from the Taurus? Gotta agree, the Noble puts up awsome numbers for the price.
 

Lawrenzo

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That little Mitsibishi Evo is the sleeper pocket rocket of the group- 0-60 in 4.7 and just 2.9 seconds behind the SRT-10 :eek: Which was 3.3 seconds behind the Noble on the Barber Motorsports track
 

Viperfreak2

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The SRT-10 and SRT-4 have almost identical seats except the cover materials. I was very suprised the first time I sat in the Neon. I felt at home.

As usual, they throw in a 'street legal' Noble. No one has one, no one drives them if they do, but a good comparison....right. The suprise is the Ferrari 360 was faster around the track.
 

onerareviper

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Does this mag. have a British (UK) influence? It sure seems that way with the Noble, Elise, and Jaguars always getting rave reviews. :rolleyes: How many Nobles are even in the US?

Bottom line: The Noble is a kit car, and looks the part. The performance figures are also way exaggerated, IMO. The Elise is not a street car. How do I know? I drove one, and it is almost impossible to get in/out with the top on. Not to mention the times they quoted in Automobile were WAY exaggerated (1/4 mile in 12). NOT!!! Try around 14 on a good day. It is a fun track car, but for $40,000 for a track only car I could think of many better/fast choices. And Jaguars? Well, they look nice, but that's about it....

Believe nothing you read and drive everything....
 

Guibo

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Here are the test results.

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It appears they didn't extract the most from the Viper, especially under braking. Only 0.94g? That's hardly better than the Evo's 0.90g in this test. Recall the braking ratings from MT's figure-8 test:
SRT-10: 1.14g
Evo: 0.87g
Considering it stopped from 70 mph in about the same distance as the GT3 and Noble, the SRT-10 should have been pulling at least over 1.05g in braking. Even the Lotus which took 4 feet longer ended up pulling 1.00g on the track.
The SRT-10 pulls just as many g's in the corners as the GT3, yet its maximum speed reached anywhere on the track is 1 mph slower? The 360CS's max speed is up by 3 mph over the SRT-10? Hmm...
Then again this track is pretty twisty, so might not play well at all to the Viper's gearing. They noted:
"With gearing that seems to be designed for intergalactic travel, you just stick the manly :)p) shift lever in third and leave it there, relying on 525 pound-feet of torque to render your right hand redundant. Which actually helps, because when you are on it, the Viper needs both hands on the wheel."

They noted that both the Viper and 360CS were tricky handlers. In the introductory pages, they stated they weren't out to find winners and losers. Near the end they said:
"The more expensive cars can be worth the money too, even if they were not necessarily the quickest at Barber, which doesn't have the long straights and fast corners they need to stretch their legs."
Which sorta makes sense. Recall that in Automobile's test of the Z06 and SRT-10, the SRT-10 was clearly quicker in a straight line, stopped a bit better from 70, pulled more lateral g's than the Z06 on the skidpad, and carried more speed through most of the turns at Gingerman, where they compared the two cars. But in the end, the Z06 was 2 tenths of a second quicker on the track. At Thunderhill or the big track at Willow Springs, things may turn out differently (and they have, in the case of Willow Springs and edmunds.com's test of the Z06 and SRT-10).
 

SnakeEye

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Guibo ... thanks for posting the results and related comments. I concur that it does appear the SRT-10's full potential may not have been realized.
 
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