Had you not posted your unnecessary Question and Answer I might have given you some credit. Please save your political plugs for the niketalk forum or maybe ESPN.com. They'd appreciate that over there. On a forum composed of business owners, professionals, and winners that jab isn't going to be appreciated.
Now to the point. As others have mentioned, yes a lot of F and P cars guys will cross over, TEMPORARILY. I predicted the same thing with the SRT Jeep. They crossed over to have the newest thing on the block, shortly there after they sold it and went back for the snob factor. Going after Ferrari and Porsche guys has to be the dumbest business plan I've heard. I disagree with all of you. SRT could easily have offered one model of Viper, improved the interior without going overboard, and ditched the stupid stuff like the adjustable ride control. Completely unnecessary for a Viper. If you don't like it, don't buy it. There are countless other sports cars and exotics out there within reach.
The Viper was defined by it's flat out refusal to conform and to appease the naysayers. The whole premise of the Gen V is compromise. The Viper NEVER compromised. The Viper said F U to all of you nanny comfort people and made a crude raw machine. Why? Because no one else did. It was great. Now the nanny bots say "purist have their option, we have ours". I say bull****. That dilutes the Viper. Nanny people should not have an option. Well, they do have options, only they are from different manufacturers. So ESC had to be mandated? Fine, I accept that. Put a decent stereo in it, give it nice leather interior, fine, I accept that. But to go over the top with all of the goodies is a slap in the face to the Viper's heritage. The Viper is not a Ferrari no matter how bad some of you secretly wish it to be. The gen V Viper is a lost and confused car. It's attempting to appeal to too many groups instead of the niche market it's best at.
Now we've got a cheapo (sarcasm people) model with a crappy interior being upstaged by a fancy GTS. Lame.
Will I buy a Gen V? Yes, probably after they give it a HP bump. Am I greatly disappointed in the direction SRT took the Viper? Yes. Then again, I'm also disappointed in the evolution of the Viper crowd. A lot of yuppies now.
PS. The Gen III never sold well because it was a terrible design. Flat and angular. It was a huge departure from what made the Viper successful. It had nothing to do with the lack of refinement. Only a stupid bean counter would attribute refinement to its decline. The Gen III/IV survived because of the loyalty of the diehard Viper fan.
PS2. Of the ZR1 guys I know, none paid anywhere near MSRP for theirs. That wasn't long after they were released. Don't forget the Vette's 50 year or so heritage. With that many fans they would have sold regardless of specs.