Russ M
Enthusiast
Well my cousin came in from out of town and decided that he would rent a Viper. To our surprise they had a red SRT sitting in the lot sitting next to a beat down RT/10 which was a 2001 but looked like it had been through the Vietnam War. Anyways it was a no brainer an SRT which you can abuse and give back a day latter can it get any better than that?
Driving down the road through LA traffic the car does turn heads as much as a gen 2? We purposely parked the car on rodeo drive and stepped off to the side to watch how people react. The majority of people that came buy and look were curious as to what it is. With my RT it is not uncommon to get 8-10 or more people hovering over it when left in an open area like this, the SRT managed to get 4 at once. Most just pointed a finger and kept walking by. There was a funny occurrence 2 guys were driving down the street in a Saleen S7 (Goergeous car) they almost broke their necks when they saw the parked SRT.
The looks of the SRT I guess are in the beholder; my personal opinion is that it’s a great looking car. I looked at it from just about ever angle imaginable, even climbed up on the roof of the house to see what it looks like from up top. If you look at the car from certain angles it looks just plain, but walk a few feet and it starts screaming Viper.
Interior is not much to brag about its what I expected from Dodge, all the claims of much improved over gen 2 do not seem to be justified. One thing that I hated was that it is even more cramped inside than my RT. I hate the gauges which force you to look down at almost your knee height while driving the car. Fit and finish on the interior does seem to be more tight but then again all new cars seem more tight. The seats are great, they grip you and do not want to let go. For some reason though I am the only one out of the dozen people that sat in it at my house like the seats though.
Acceleration on a closed track off course is good; it feels like my RT with 440rwhp. But it seems to have a lot more traction from a stop and while shifting, but that is probably just my tires. And shifting seems to be very smooth and easy.
Cornering is what you expect from a viper with new tires; in this area there is no doubt that this car is a Viper. It feels every bit as good through the turns as my RT with some suspension work. What it does do much better is allow to be much more aggressive on the throttle coming out of the turn. This again may be due to my chewed up pilots on the RT.
Brakes seem to be solid, I wish that my brake review would be more positive but in all honest I did not feel the night and day difference that all brag about. In fact I never had complaints about Gen 2 brakes perhaps that is the problem I may have not tried to take the car beyond the limits of what a Gen 2 braking system will do.
Would I buy an SRT? Hell yes, and would not even think twice. It is still the badest sports car out there south of $200,000.
Driving down the road through LA traffic the car does turn heads as much as a gen 2? We purposely parked the car on rodeo drive and stepped off to the side to watch how people react. The majority of people that came buy and look were curious as to what it is. With my RT it is not uncommon to get 8-10 or more people hovering over it when left in an open area like this, the SRT managed to get 4 at once. Most just pointed a finger and kept walking by. There was a funny occurrence 2 guys were driving down the street in a Saleen S7 (Goergeous car) they almost broke their necks when they saw the parked SRT.
The looks of the SRT I guess are in the beholder; my personal opinion is that it’s a great looking car. I looked at it from just about ever angle imaginable, even climbed up on the roof of the house to see what it looks like from up top. If you look at the car from certain angles it looks just plain, but walk a few feet and it starts screaming Viper.
Interior is not much to brag about its what I expected from Dodge, all the claims of much improved over gen 2 do not seem to be justified. One thing that I hated was that it is even more cramped inside than my RT. I hate the gauges which force you to look down at almost your knee height while driving the car. Fit and finish on the interior does seem to be more tight but then again all new cars seem more tight. The seats are great, they grip you and do not want to let go. For some reason though I am the only one out of the dozen people that sat in it at my house like the seats though.
Acceleration on a closed track off course is good; it feels like my RT with 440rwhp. But it seems to have a lot more traction from a stop and while shifting, but that is probably just my tires. And shifting seems to be very smooth and easy.
Cornering is what you expect from a viper with new tires; in this area there is no doubt that this car is a Viper. It feels every bit as good through the turns as my RT with some suspension work. What it does do much better is allow to be much more aggressive on the throttle coming out of the turn. This again may be due to my chewed up pilots on the RT.
Brakes seem to be solid, I wish that my brake review would be more positive but in all honest I did not feel the night and day difference that all brag about. In fact I never had complaints about Gen 2 brakes perhaps that is the problem I may have not tried to take the car beyond the limits of what a Gen 2 braking system will do.
Would I buy an SRT? Hell yes, and would not even think twice. It is still the badest sports car out there south of $200,000.
