I was pretty disappointed when I read the article this morning, but not so much because of the Viper. I was disappointed because I wasted precious minutes of a busy day to read and the article. I subscribe to Road & Track, Car and Driver, and Automobile. MotorTrend never seems to deliver any real information or insight into, well...anything.
This article is a perfect example. It was written with the tone of "these are both terrible road cars and your an idiot for wanting them, but if you must choose...I don't know...um - take the Corvette." I didn't learn anything about what it is like to drive either of these cars (except that they are fast...huh).
Most of the current MotorTrend writers have the same failing, they can't seem to grasp another perspective and figure that everyone must share their automotive priorities.
Worse, they seem to think that their opinion is important - interesting since they are never in a position to purchase cars like these (I hear they're paid about $1-2 dollars per word, which explains why this article was packed with so much drivel). His reference to having more fun in a Boxster speaks to this one dimensional nature.
In any case, I wanted the Viper to be faster, but I have a feeling that will be sorted out (even these guys admitted that it felt faster and made up a bit of time on the straights).
The most important thing is that Randy Pobst confirmed that the Viper is still hard to drive, it is not a jump in, run five laps, and post a record time kind of car.
I don't think any real Viper enthusiast wants an "easy" Viper.
Just my thoughts.
-Nick