Gen I Viper vs Corvette C6 in Road Racing and 1/4 Mile.

[Sniper]

BlueGTS-I'm not saying my car is the fastest around. Just stating that cars with exhaust upgrades is what I'm comparing.

What alot of people don't realize is how restrictive the stock Gen I exhaust is and that their power is not in the peak horsepower #'s but are in the midrange where the power's more useable.

As far as quarter mile #'s stated, a Gen I takes alot of getting used to to get the full potential out of it(Off of the line). With just exhaust I'm at 407 rwhp and 502 rwtorque.

If anyone lives close to me, I would gladly meet up with you to have a comparison of my Gen I and your Gen II or III as long as you just have exhaust upgrades. Then, I'll let you write up how the two cars compared in your own words.

I'm not on here to bash anyone's car, but to inform them on a Gen I's capabilities.

There's alot of cars that get write ups on their performance data that on paper outruns a Viper or whatever, until they hit the pavement with it to see it not quite hit the performance the magazine gave it.

 

[Ivory]

I have a 2000 C5 light weight coupe and a Gen I. I drive the C5 everyday as a commuter. Runs beautifully handles well and is comfortable! I drive the Viper on the weekends when I want a thrill.

C5 is a very nice sports car. The Gen I is a primitive race car built for the street. The only time the C5 gets glances is when my wife is driving and following me when I'm driving the Viper. Regarding brakes, the C5 wins the stopping contest hands down! Regarding accelleration and torque. No contest between the C5 and the Viper. One is like a piper and the other is a Lear jet.

My .02.

 

[Early93Viper]

I have a 2000 C5 light weight coupe and a Gen I. I drive the C5 everyday as a commuter. Runs beautifully handles well and is comfortable! I drive the Viper on the weekends when I want a thrill.

C5 is a very nice sports car. The Gen I is a primitive race car built for the street. The only time the C5 gets glances is when my wife is driving and following me when I'm driving the Viper. Regarding brakes, the C5 wins the stopping contest hands down! Regarding accelleration and torque. No contest between the C5 and the Viper. One is like a piper and the other is a Lear jet.

My .02.

Which one would you bet on at a Road Race Track and Why?

 

[GG]

The ONLY item I wish my Gen 1 had from the Vette would be the 'heads up" display on the windshield.

I can count on both hands the number of times I have come close to serously losing control of my RT in 8 years of ownership...many of the earlier instances attributed to taking my eyes off the road at high speed to glance at MPH or RPM. So I hardly even bother with the cluster anymore.

I'll take a hand built, street legal race care anyday over a sports car as common as a paper clip. It also does't hurt that the hand built car is a MOPAR!

 

[STUGOTS]

The ONLY item I wish my Gen 1 had from the Vette would be the 'heads up" display on the windshield.

I agree that is a cool feature.

Also im not bashing vettes at all I love vettes, I been around them all my life im looking into buying a used one pretty soon as a matter of fact, I just feel it is not in the same league as the any year/model of viper thats all.

 

[V 10 MAFIA]

Early 93's question is too vague to answer and has to be defined better to determine a result.
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Which one would you bet on at a Road Race Track and Why?
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If you ask road race drivers such as Tom and Red Sled I believe they would agree that how tight or loose a road course is would be the determining factor of who wins.
Stock c6 vs. Stock Gen1. IMO in a tight course where braking plays more of a factor the c6 will be ahead.
In a large loose course with low radius turns, braking plays less and the car can keep more momentum in the turns I would bet on the gen1 being ahead because of torque advantage. For people that have never been on a road course braking is a huge factor.

 

[Jeff Torrey]

It would be a lot of fun finding out. After all "A singing tire is a happy tire".

 

[Sniper]

Also, take into consideration when the Gen I Viper was tested back in 92,93,94,95, the Vipers sat on 17's and the tires were terrible-no traction at all. I remember with new tires drifting around corners and never heard a screach out of them.

 

[phiebert]

My two cents.

I don't know about road courses much but I've placed third with my Gen I in an autocross with mostly Gen II's and Genn III's so I would have to say that the Gen I isn't that much different from the later models or it is mostly about the driver...except I **** as a driver! I've seen Gen II cars lose it on the same corners I do at the same speeds so I don't know how much the suspension changed. I've seen absolutely no difference between RT's and GTS's racing but obviously it only makes sense that a bit of a tail will hold you down better at high speeds. But until you are in the 120mph+ range I'd doubt whether the aerodynamics make a huge difference on pushing the back end down.

When it comes to drag racing, as long as I was close in the first couple hundred feet I had no problems with C5/6's. Never raced a Z06 that I can recall. And that was before the Nitrous addition. Vipers are hard to launch compared to Corvettes from what I've seen but have so much more torque that they make up for it once they are moving. Drag racing high HP/torque cars is a traction issue. Rolling starts on the street is a better comparison in my eyes and there the Gen I will kill a C6 from my experience.

As far as handling goes, I got rid of my Porsche 911 a year after I got my Viper but for a long time I was able to drive the Porsche much better. It took a long time, at least for me, to get a decent handle on how to drive the Gen I Viper but once I had it I could out perform the 911. The Porsche would still hold on to a corner better but as long as the Viper stayed close in the corners it made up for it in the straights, much like drag racing a Corvette. Stay close in your weak spots and demolish them once you have a straight line with traction. Clearly braking and weight are issues but driving experience can make up for some of that.

My conclusion:

1. Porsche is best in staying glued down in corners and a Viper and Corvette seem to be close...with the Corvette probably just slightly stickier due to weight.
2. 4-wheel drive Porsches are devastating on a drag strip launch as you can imagine since they have all that rubber to grab with. A Vette with traction control definitely has an advantage here too. Viper driver's goal should be to stay close and leave them once you hook up.
3. A Gen I Viper will leave them both in it's wake once moving and out of first gear. So the track and ultimately the driver will make the difference. A good driver will know the strengths and weaknesses of the car and if the track has places of opportunity, he'll/she'll use them!

 

[Heysie]

I've done some track days on road courses and can say that it becomes to the driver and the sort of track.
The most times I drive on a little course with an average speed of 75 mph (2 chicanes in a 2.5 mile track and only 1 high speed curve). There are always a lot of Lotus Elises there and they can almost hook up with me, I think they are about 2 seconds slower.
Some weeks ago I was on the famous F1 Track Spa Francorchamp in Belgium, and the average speed there was about 100 mph, so the Lotus was about 15 seconds slower. Same cars different track.

On Spa was also a Porsche 996 twin turbo, he was a little faster in straight line, but he was on the brakes much earlier and not so fast at the corners, which were he should out performed me...so this time it was the driver.

 

[Yves]

Kut Belgen !