Hisserman
Enthusiast
Sorry Chris, must have been a brain fart. Maybe I'll just call you KC Photo Guy, because your shots are always the best!
The coupe began its public display at the Detroit show today (much better set up than Los Angeles). Note the five spoke polished wheels.
Unfortunately it is still very rough. Check out the fit of the rear hatch (the other side was just as bad). Hopefully things like this will be ironed out before full production begins.
A lot of the other seams and details are awkward and strained (I apologize for the dark shots -- I guess I need Chris' camera).
The rear bolster is very high, cutting down visibility to the rear. It's hard to tell why it is that way (brace?), but it's used to prominently display "Fangs".
The other thing that blocks visibility (a lot) is the black shading around all sides of the rear window. This car has the rear window defrost wires in it, but the black surround is massive (much more so than the GTS). You can see the surround in the picture above too.
It seemed strange that the coupe was the only Viper on display. With the roadsters sitting piled up at Conner Avenue, you would think that they would have a roadster on the floor. Chevy had no less than 6 Corvettes of all styles, with at least 2 open to the public. However, there were some videos of SRT-10 roadsters shown prominently and a neat cut-away Viper V-10 engine displayed.
Chris is right that things are happening behind the scenes with the Viper team. There are many who would like to talk, but it is best that everyone keep their cool and let things play out. Hopefully everything will turn out for the best. We know that DC can do it.
It is unfortunate that maybe it took such a strong outpouring from the Viper community to shake up whoever was pulling the strings. There had been much constructive advice sent to the SRT/Viper Team even before VOI8, and much of it fell on deaf ears. Certainly the comments that came from this web site after VOI8 were born from people with a strong passion for the Viper. Those people expressed themselves because they were concerned, not because they were just taking *** shots. Some went into great detail and constructively pointed out specific issues and offered alternatives, others echoed the overall sentiments with shorter and more direct comments.
We all know that we can't design a car by committee. We also all know that there is a lot that goes into the decision making process on a car like the Viper. The average car buyer doesn't understand, or even know about, many of the constraints the Viper team has had to deal with. Certainly the design budget for the coupe was way too low (although they were finally able to strech it a little). The 2007 Federal regulations play a big part in it, etc. It's understandable that people working under tight constraints can get a little thin skinned.
However, the responses to the new coupe came from the gut for the most part. People knew in their gut that the original Vipers were landmark cars. They had a different gut feel (not necessarily all bad) about the latest design -- while it had virtues, it clearly wasn't the "Oh, my God!" kind of a design that Viper owners are used to. Then, when the proformance numbers weren't increased to meet the competition, everyone got nervous.
Hopefully this is the lull before the storm. We'd all like to see Viper come storming back. On every good team there are players that rally the team members before a big game, and they don't all do it the same way. They Viper community has been trying to rally in various ways. Let's focus on the challenge before us, not on personalized criticism or name calling. We're all on the same team and we all want the best coupe that we can get!
The coupe began its public display at the Detroit show today (much better set up than Los Angeles). Note the five spoke polished wheels.
Unfortunately it is still very rough. Check out the fit of the rear hatch (the other side was just as bad). Hopefully things like this will be ironed out before full production begins.
A lot of the other seams and details are awkward and strained (I apologize for the dark shots -- I guess I need Chris' camera).
The rear bolster is very high, cutting down visibility to the rear. It's hard to tell why it is that way (brace?), but it's used to prominently display "Fangs".
The other thing that blocks visibility (a lot) is the black shading around all sides of the rear window. This car has the rear window defrost wires in it, but the black surround is massive (much more so than the GTS). You can see the surround in the picture above too.
It seemed strange that the coupe was the only Viper on display. With the roadsters sitting piled up at Conner Avenue, you would think that they would have a roadster on the floor. Chevy had no less than 6 Corvettes of all styles, with at least 2 open to the public. However, there were some videos of SRT-10 roadsters shown prominently and a neat cut-away Viper V-10 engine displayed.
Chris is right that things are happening behind the scenes with the Viper team. There are many who would like to talk, but it is best that everyone keep their cool and let things play out. Hopefully everything will turn out for the best. We know that DC can do it.
It is unfortunate that maybe it took such a strong outpouring from the Viper community to shake up whoever was pulling the strings. There had been much constructive advice sent to the SRT/Viper Team even before VOI8, and much of it fell on deaf ears. Certainly the comments that came from this web site after VOI8 were born from people with a strong passion for the Viper. Those people expressed themselves because they were concerned, not because they were just taking *** shots. Some went into great detail and constructively pointed out specific issues and offered alternatives, others echoed the overall sentiments with shorter and more direct comments.
We all know that we can't design a car by committee. We also all know that there is a lot that goes into the decision making process on a car like the Viper. The average car buyer doesn't understand, or even know about, many of the constraints the Viper team has had to deal with. Certainly the design budget for the coupe was way too low (although they were finally able to strech it a little). The 2007 Federal regulations play a big part in it, etc. It's understandable that people working under tight constraints can get a little thin skinned.
However, the responses to the new coupe came from the gut for the most part. People knew in their gut that the original Vipers were landmark cars. They had a different gut feel (not necessarily all bad) about the latest design -- while it had virtues, it clearly wasn't the "Oh, my God!" kind of a design that Viper owners are used to. Then, when the proformance numbers weren't increased to meet the competition, everyone got nervous.
Hopefully this is the lull before the storm. We'd all like to see Viper come storming back. On every good team there are players that rally the team members before a big game, and they don't all do it the same way. They Viper community has been trying to rally in various ways. Let's focus on the challenge before us, not on personalized criticism or name calling. We're all on the same team and we all want the best coupe that we can get!
Competition improves the bread. Cant wait
