This is exactly why I said I dont trust everything SRT says. They said you needed bigger wheels to fit CCB's. Quite obviously you dont lol. They said the Viper is as wide as legally allowed yet Lambo, Ferrari etc makes cars way wider than the Viper lol. They say CCB's explode and dont offer any significant advantage over SRT's steel offering yet they got beat bad by a ZR1 that has both larger wheel and CCB's. Lets not forget Porsche etc have been running CCB's on there hipo streetcars without incident for quite a while. They called MRC a gimmick yet Ferrari etc are using them and yet again the car that initially beat them, the ZR1, had the MRC on it. They do offer a superior ride and yet provide excellent handing. None of these are gimmicks and are proven both on street and track.
I see a pattern with SRT that rather disturbs me a bit. If you just aren't going to use these available systems and parts just say so. If its not in the budget ok. Some of the old school engineers don't like them? No problem. Just say so. No need to offer ridiculous, unsubstantiated claims that any one with half a brain can debunk or posit a real world rebuttal. I really like team SRT but the way they answer some of these subjects makes you feel insulted lol. Anyway like I said before I hope they are just sandbagging and dont want us to know what coming down the line in a few.
I hear a lot of this anecdotally but much of it could be taken out of context, or old information. You are right that they might be misinformed, sandbagging, or it could be corporate speak of 'we didn't have the time/funds/willingness to do it'.
A lot of the SRT guys are track rats, so I do notice that their point of view is very focused on a privateer racer's mentality, which isn't necessarily a bad thing when you've got such a tiny volume, single platform engine and frame development. Some of the ideas formed do seem to go against the common wisdom (if that's what you can call it, hehe) of what the community does want (Forced Induction, MR shocks, heh). One of the biggest factors that I think the SRT team faces with the Viper is cost, cost, cost.
Historically, they have to be cheap in order to survive, and traditionally it was cut every corner that didn't make the Viper go fast, and do it cheaply. Every engineering hour and dollar counts way more on a Viper simply because they are putting it into a unique platform that only sells 2500 units a year. I can't think of any other small volume company that has engineered the whole deal (DOT and all) and not been under 250k (or lost their a$$).
Traditionally the non-SRT and post-Gale/Lutz Chrysler management has hated (read verachtet) the Viper because it was totally contrary to their volume business model...Conner was
always on the chopping block because it counted against some exec's bonus because the man-hours per vehicle at Conner were through the roof compared to the rest of Chrysler, and the overall man-hour productivity was benchmarked against Toyota's US plant operations...
The hardest part that SRT had was an all-or-none mentality with the Viper...every change wanted to be applied across the line with minimum variation. Hopefully that kind of thinking can change now because it appears like they're lining up smaller volume suppliers, customization is getting better and having Ferrari as a sister division is actually teaching them how to work like a genuine small production facility as opposed to being a skunkworks operation.
However it will always be a challenge to keep the Viper at its price point, and everyone has already noticed the price creeping upwards. Most everyone thinks the Carbon Ceramic brakes are 'better' than the regular old steel brakes, and for about 2% of the Viper owners it will make a meaningful performance difference...is that enough for every Viper to get CC brakes and raise the cost by $9-10k, or make it a checkbox option that adds $15-20k to an unknown number of Vipers? This will be a decision that adds 10%+ to the price of the car.
Personally I think the take rate on CC brakes will be enough to replace the entire line but if you think about it, CC brakes are about as desirable as Stryker Red and most of us will do the same lap time with a CC option vs. the Stryker Red option (me included). Still, I want it all.
It does appear that Carbon Ceramic brakes are a lot better than they used to be, so some of the older information on the brakes may be outdated now, especially on durability/longevity and price. It sounds like they are fantastic performers.
Some interesting background:
http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=177624
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c6-z06-discussion/1867368-carbon-ceramic-brake-rotors.html
http://forums.rennlist.com/rennforu...market-ceramic-rotors-pccb-replacement-6.html
