Kai SRT10
Enthusiast
Some of you may know that I have been without my Viper for almost a year and a half. I blew the engine at a track day (oil starvation, spun the rod bearing, blew rods and pistons, and damaged the sleeves, then the oil leaked down into my exhaust, caught fire, and destroyed my cats.) Rather than rebuild it back to stock configuration, I embarked on a program to build the perfect Viper.
In spite of good advice from a number of well meaning folks, I initially took my car to a local shop without much Viper experience. Fourteen months later, I did what I should have done in the first place and shipped my car to Dan Cragin at D.C. Performance in Los Angeles. Kevin Singleton at Exotic Engine Development built the engine, and Dan Cragin and his crew did the engine install, tuning, clutch, exhaust, and a bunch of other stuff. Last Friday, I picked the car up at DC Performance, and drove it home to Colorado, (including some detours in the mountains above Malibu and twisty Utah canyon roads,) I have to say that (for me) this is now the perfect Viper. There are cars that are more powerful, or more smooth or faster, or better looking, but for me, my car is now the the perfect combination of sound and fury.
I have never driven a wilder car. Thanks to the ultra light clutch and flywheel and a crankshaft that is 30 pounds lighter than stock, the driveline has radically reduced rotating mass, and the effect is readily apparent. It revs immediately, with no hesitation at all. I have a Subaru WRX STi, with a horizontally opposed 4 cylinder engine. I used to think that the STi engine was free revving. My new Viper engine takes it to another level. Revving the Viper engine now sounds like revving a giant V-10 chain saw. It has more “bark” to the engine note, and it drops off just as quickly when you let off the gas. As a practical effect, when driving, throttle response and acceleration is immediate. Initially, it was a bit too immediate, and I ended up lighting up the tires more than once by accident. Driving the car requires a fair amount of attention, as when you shift, the rpm’s drop very quickly, which means you have to really “blip” the throttle on downshifts, and be very very quick on upshifts.
Power is significantly higher than stock. The car put down more than 700hp and 700 lb-ft on the engine dyno during break in. Combined with the very quick throttle response, the effect is pretty frightening. I (inadvertently) managed to break the rear tires loose at over 70mph while passing a group of cars on the way home simply by pressing down on the throttle too hard. I’m going to have to learn to control my right foot if I plan to keep myself and my car in one piece.
The clutch is really surprising. The car has a Tilton 3 disk carbon/carbon clutch and lightweight flywheel. I bought the clutch system from Daniel Lesser at Viper Specialty Performance (He goes by “Final GTS” on this site.) I knew that the clutch would be strong and have serious clamping power, but I expected it to be barely drivable. However, after an initial break-in (courtesy of 3 hours of stop and go traffic getting out of Los Angeles,) where the clutch squeaked and grabbed like crazy, it settled down a lot and is now very streetable and tame. The clutch has a very short stroke, and takes a fair amount of effort to depress, but it modulates easily. Given its torque handling capacity, I still can’t believe how user friendly it is.
The car drives a lot like a race car. It’s obnoxiously loud over 2800 rpm, and it bucks and jerks at low speeds when the rpm’s are between 1100 and 2200. However, I’ve found that if I shift immediately from 1st gear to 3rd or 4th, I can inch along in slow traffic below 1000 rpm without any drama. For all its complaints and finicky behavior when driven slowly, the car simply goes nuts when driven hard. Rear wheel traction seems to be the only limiting factor on acceleration. I replaced the stock transmission with a race version that is not only stronger, but has closer ratio 5th and 6th gears. This makes 5th gear less of a stretch when upshifting from 4th, and makes 6th gear useful for something other than highway cruising. Sixth gear now equates to 2500 rpm at 100mph, which extrapolates to 5000 rpm at 200mph, which I have no doubt the car will do easily given a straight, smooth road.
Another surprising thing was gas mileage. I averaged about 17mpg on my trip home, with several tanks averaging almost 20mpg when I was behaving myself and just cruising along.
I don't have space to list all my modifications, but here are some of the highlights:
Engine:
Pretty much everything on the engine is new. The damaged block was bored out to 4.125, and Darton wet sleeves installed. I retained the stock stroke, for 529 cubic inches.
I had a lightweight solid billet crankshaft made for the car that weighs 30 pounds less than the stock crank. Lightweight billet rods, billet main caps, and pistons, coated bearings, heavy duty fasteners etc. round out the bottom end.
Heads are the top of the line Stryker race heads, with top-end valve train stuff etc. with Jesel rockers, and a custom ground cam from Kevin at Exotic Engine.
The car now has a 3 quart accusump system I purchased from Daniel Lesser from Viper Specialty Performance. Also from Viper Specialty Performance is the ultra light weight 3 disc carbon/carbon clutch and flywheel from Tilton.
If you are interested in my full list of modifications, you can see them here:
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/681231/6
Overall, I couldn't be happier. After 18 months and more money than I had to spend, I now have the perfect Viper.
In spite of good advice from a number of well meaning folks, I initially took my car to a local shop without much Viper experience. Fourteen months later, I did what I should have done in the first place and shipped my car to Dan Cragin at D.C. Performance in Los Angeles. Kevin Singleton at Exotic Engine Development built the engine, and Dan Cragin and his crew did the engine install, tuning, clutch, exhaust, and a bunch of other stuff. Last Friday, I picked the car up at DC Performance, and drove it home to Colorado, (including some detours in the mountains above Malibu and twisty Utah canyon roads,) I have to say that (for me) this is now the perfect Viper. There are cars that are more powerful, or more smooth or faster, or better looking, but for me, my car is now the the perfect combination of sound and fury.
I have never driven a wilder car. Thanks to the ultra light clutch and flywheel and a crankshaft that is 30 pounds lighter than stock, the driveline has radically reduced rotating mass, and the effect is readily apparent. It revs immediately, with no hesitation at all. I have a Subaru WRX STi, with a horizontally opposed 4 cylinder engine. I used to think that the STi engine was free revving. My new Viper engine takes it to another level. Revving the Viper engine now sounds like revving a giant V-10 chain saw. It has more “bark” to the engine note, and it drops off just as quickly when you let off the gas. As a practical effect, when driving, throttle response and acceleration is immediate. Initially, it was a bit too immediate, and I ended up lighting up the tires more than once by accident. Driving the car requires a fair amount of attention, as when you shift, the rpm’s drop very quickly, which means you have to really “blip” the throttle on downshifts, and be very very quick on upshifts.
Power is significantly higher than stock. The car put down more than 700hp and 700 lb-ft on the engine dyno during break in. Combined with the very quick throttle response, the effect is pretty frightening. I (inadvertently) managed to break the rear tires loose at over 70mph while passing a group of cars on the way home simply by pressing down on the throttle too hard. I’m going to have to learn to control my right foot if I plan to keep myself and my car in one piece.
The clutch is really surprising. The car has a Tilton 3 disk carbon/carbon clutch and lightweight flywheel. I bought the clutch system from Daniel Lesser at Viper Specialty Performance (He goes by “Final GTS” on this site.) I knew that the clutch would be strong and have serious clamping power, but I expected it to be barely drivable. However, after an initial break-in (courtesy of 3 hours of stop and go traffic getting out of Los Angeles,) where the clutch squeaked and grabbed like crazy, it settled down a lot and is now very streetable and tame. The clutch has a very short stroke, and takes a fair amount of effort to depress, but it modulates easily. Given its torque handling capacity, I still can’t believe how user friendly it is.
The car drives a lot like a race car. It’s obnoxiously loud over 2800 rpm, and it bucks and jerks at low speeds when the rpm’s are between 1100 and 2200. However, I’ve found that if I shift immediately from 1st gear to 3rd or 4th, I can inch along in slow traffic below 1000 rpm without any drama. For all its complaints and finicky behavior when driven slowly, the car simply goes nuts when driven hard. Rear wheel traction seems to be the only limiting factor on acceleration. I replaced the stock transmission with a race version that is not only stronger, but has closer ratio 5th and 6th gears. This makes 5th gear less of a stretch when upshifting from 4th, and makes 6th gear useful for something other than highway cruising. Sixth gear now equates to 2500 rpm at 100mph, which extrapolates to 5000 rpm at 200mph, which I have no doubt the car will do easily given a straight, smooth road.
Another surprising thing was gas mileage. I averaged about 17mpg on my trip home, with several tanks averaging almost 20mpg when I was behaving myself and just cruising along.
I don't have space to list all my modifications, but here are some of the highlights:
Engine:
Pretty much everything on the engine is new. The damaged block was bored out to 4.125, and Darton wet sleeves installed. I retained the stock stroke, for 529 cubic inches.
I had a lightweight solid billet crankshaft made for the car that weighs 30 pounds less than the stock crank. Lightweight billet rods, billet main caps, and pistons, coated bearings, heavy duty fasteners etc. round out the bottom end.
Heads are the top of the line Stryker race heads, with top-end valve train stuff etc. with Jesel rockers, and a custom ground cam from Kevin at Exotic Engine.
The car now has a 3 quart accusump system I purchased from Daniel Lesser from Viper Specialty Performance. Also from Viper Specialty Performance is the ultra light weight 3 disc carbon/carbon clutch and flywheel from Tilton.
If you are interested in my full list of modifications, you can see them here:
http://www.cardomain.com/ride/681231/6
Overall, I couldn't be happier. After 18 months and more money than I had to spend, I now have the perfect Viper.
Last edited:
Congrats on the "new" Viper.
