Plastic engine covers look terrible..

[GTSnake]

You are correct that you can never please everyone, been dealing with that my entire career in automotive design in many aspects, yet we should all feel free to share an opinion.

Here's a couple more engine pics without large plastic covers, first one definitely costs less than a Ferrari or Lamborghini, only reason that I showed those pics previously were because of the Italian influence in the previous Viper engine design appearance being aluminum / magnesium with crinkle paint / rough surfaces and bright machined highlights, etc..

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Cheers,
Mike

IMO if I had to choose between those covers and the Gen V covers I'd take the Gen V covers. I don't think those look any nicer at all.

 

[Boxer12]

Blame the bean counters! All the guys who wanted the car kept under $100k.

Note-there will probably be a few special edition GTS' built like SRT is famous for, with some 'carbon fiber' edition or some such think with glitzy engine covers for all the polishers in the room.

 

[Viper Specialty]

Blame the bean counters! All the guys who wanted the car kept under $100k.

Note-there will probably be a few special edition GTS' built like SRT is famous for, with some 'carbon fiber' edition or some such think with glitzy engine covers for all the polishers in the room.

You cant blame the bean counters when they went out of their way to design and produce an extra [ugly] piece that never needed to be made in the first place. It would have been CHEAPER to just leave it the hell alone. It was a very failed ploy at hiding the fact that its the same friggen engine again. [not that I have a problem with that]

 

[PatentLaw]

To uncover my opinion a bit, I've designed quite a bit of stuff in my career including covers and plastic (some refer to them loosely as composite because of the added glass fibre in the resin) intake manifolds, from 2 piece clamshell injected molded (and for Chrysler in the past) to lost core technology. Plastic manifolds are lighter and cheaper to manufacture depending on the volume, but aluminum can be feasible, in the end it comes down to consolidating features (injector bores, etc.), smooth runners, mold tooling, material costs and post machining. It's always been a goal of mine to design functional and good looking parts and always thought it was cool that Vipers didn't have large engine covers like the masses. Engine covers typically are used to isolate engine noises, and sometimes for Ped-Pro (pedestrian protection, when a person slams onto a hood it can shield sharp engine objects from piercing the hood or absorb some of the impact energy), as well as an attempt to clean up the look hiding electrical components, injectors, etc.. as what they typically refer to this as being perceived quality.

You are correct that you can never please everyone, been dealing with that my entire career in automotive design in many aspects, yet we should all feel free to share an opinion.

Here's a couple more engine pics without large plastic covers, first one definitely costs less than a Ferrari or Lamborghini, only reason that I showed those pics previously were because of the Italian influence in the previous Viper engine design appearance being aluminum / magnesium with crinkle paint / rough surfaces and bright machined highlights, etc..

You must be registered for see images

You must be registered for see images

Cheers,
Mike

Mike,

With all due respect, we completely disagree on this one. Guess there is a first time for everything. I get it and you get it that the plastic covers look strange.

You need to look at the target audience. These are guys who do not open up their engine bay or do anything to their car! Maybe years ago, but not now. They want things to look "pretty". See all the threads about the piping on the seats? I mean really? The stupid red vs yellow thing? The viper owner these days are generally people who pick up a magazine and want the highest hp car they can afford.

It takes money to make a clean engine bay. Jaguar does it. Surprised you did not show a picture there. Things have to be sorted out. They likely did not have money or time to do that. Easy to just cover it up. Everyone wants pretty. That is what they got. SRT did the right thing.

Plaw

 

[Boxer12]

You cant blame the bean counters when they went out of their way to design and produce an extra [ugly] piece that never needed to be made in the first place. It would have been CHEAPER to just leave it the hell alone. It was a very failed ploy at hiding the fact that its the same friggen engine again. [not that I have a problem with that]

Its gotta look different, right?

 

[2000_Black_RT10]

Mike,

With all due respect, we completely disagree on this one. Guess there is a first time for everything. I get it and you get it that the plastic covers look strange.

You need to look at the target audience. These are guys who do not open up their engine bay or do anything to their car! Maybe years ago, but not now. They want things to look "pretty". See all the threads about the piping on the seats? I mean really? The stupid red vs yellow thing? The viper owner these days are generally people who pick up a magazine and want the highest hp car they can afford.

It takes money to make a clean engine bay. Jaguar does it. Surprised you did not show a picture there. Things have to be sorted out. They likely did not have money or time to do that. Easy to just cover it up. Everyone wants pretty. That is what they got. SRT did the right thing.

Plaw

Appreciate the comment, this is not intended to be a debate, have to disagree on this one and without generalizing.

Enjoy the long weekend,
Mike

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Damn is there anything the FGT didn't nail?

Cubic inch displacement and wider wheels. But that's all.

 

[2000_Black_RT10]

For what it's worth... I posted a related question on the Ferrari Chat forum, and there were some good replies...


Would you be disappointed if a new Ferrari had plastic engine covers?
http://www.ferrarichat.com/forum/showthread.php?t=364809


This was the pic in the Ferrari Chat OP thread if you can't see the image not being registered on their site..

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[I Bin Therbefor]

Somewhere in the Chrysler literature or one of the interviews or the news media, I came to understand that the engine covers are for sound deadening. By the way, I don't know if removing them would impact the uderhood air flow, either positive or negative.

 

[Paul Hawker]

Hard to see why this is such a cause for concern.

These are simple plastic vanity covers that also reduce the engine noises that people have been complaining about in previous Gen Vipers.

Perhaps the simplest, cheapest, and easiest thing to fix if you do not like the stock covers.

I am sure the aftermarket will be cranking out carbon fiber and carbon fiber look covers, as well as lots of other colors. Heck, even a rattle can dose can transform these to the color you want for just a couple bucks.

Easy Peasy fix.

 

[commandomatt]

Well, this may initially seem like a minor issue but there is no question that the SRT's design in the new engine compartment is a huge step away from what the Viper represents for many current owners.

I, for one, always open the hood on my Viper when somebody wants to take a look at the car. Its a natural. People want to know what's under there. That is a big part of the Viper mystique. They see that massive engine sitting in there and it gets everyone's attention.

To suggest that it will look better with some aftermarket 'carbon fiber' or even worse, 'carbon fiber Look' cover is ridiculous. You cant 'polish a ****' and that is truly what I am looking at.

I never......really never, open up the hood to show anyone the Hemi in our Challenger. This because of the ugly engine cover that is not allowing the engine to be seen. May as well be a Turbo charged 4 cylinder under there.

The new Viper is nice looking for the most part but I think they wasted a lot of money and effort in bringing the clam shell hood back so you can open it and show off what ???? A plastic cover. Really ?

Major shortcut and mainstream approach in an otherwise unique car design.

Matt

 

[BigDawg]

The new engine looks like it belongs in a Cadillac Deville.

 

[georgethedog]

Blame the bean counters! All the guys who wanted the car kept under $100k.

Note-there will probably be a few special edition GTS' built like SRT is famous for, with some 'carbon fiber' edition or some such think with glitzy engine covers for all the polishers in the room.

I'm a bean counter and I would never do that to a car. Professional bean counters such as myself look at the whole picture (cost, market wants/needs, marketability, etc) when decsions are made. You comment is without merit and is made in ignorance (like a lot of stuff that I say... LOL )

 

[Paul Hawker]

I suspect that anyone opening the hood to show off the engine compartment would get more comments on the cool cross brace than the covers.

Still think the covers are an easy fix. You can remover them, paint them, or buy an aftermarket replacement.

Since most of the posters have not seen the actual car, but just pictures, it seems to me that this is a bit overblown.

Everybody can have their own opinion, but I kind of like the way the covers bring a bit of color into the engine compartment, and provide a nice accent to to the area.

I bet lots of owners will also paint the cross over to accent the area, or match the body color.

Looking forward to meeting with the SRT Engineers at VOI to discuss their reasoning for these accent pieces.

 

[VIPER GTSR 91]

It is a little cheap looking but Im sure PartsRack and others will have a carbon fiber cover to replace it down the road as usual. Plus we will see posts where owners painted them to their specs (again).

 

[georgethedog]

I just hope it can be taken off and what you get is similar to the Gen 4... Probably not...

 

[RevHeat]

With that plastic cover, you can now hang out with the Camaro guys at the local car show.

 

[madninjaskillz]

With that plastic cover, you can now hang out with the Camaro guys at the local car show.

Dude... Camaros are sweet. There's more plastic on the new Camaro than a **** star playing with toy soldiers inside a house built out of Legos.
Please SRT, get rid of those covers ASAP.

 

[VYPR BYT 94]

SRT Engineers gave insight to this in case you missed it on April 24th...

http://forums.viperclub.org/threads...-gt-gt-gt-gt?p=3067542&viewfull=1#post3067542

Question: Plastic engine covers... a little cheap ... let’s see some nice valve covers like the previous gens.

Answer: The large, plastic coil covers on the Gen V are actually lighter than the smaller, aluminum coil covers on the Gen IV. In addition, they isolate undesirable noises from the engine such as injector tick. Our goal was to eliminate the bad noises and keep the good noises!

 

[DMan]

Is this really the viper forum ... 3 pages on discussing the "beauty" of plastic covers in the engine bay?

What have we become



(written while laughing)

 

[Paul Hawker]

Bet we will all be looking like complaining fools if it turns out that the covers were not designed by the cosmetic guys, but by the engine acoustic guys.

It may end up that the covers were designed to reduce the ticking sounds from the injectors that some have complained about, or other engine noises.

 

[ViperTony]

Not a fan of the engine covers but it does compliment the elegant look of the GenV. I particularly enjoy the various engine noises. Some complained about the ticking injectors but to me it's sweet music.

 

[mnc2886]

That's fine that they seem to have a specific intent, however, they look cartoonish. I don't know if I am bothered by there being engine covers present or not, but the look of these aren't helping. Maybe it is the paint scheme, maybe the overly curved edges. Either way, they don't look right. One last point though, if you can hear 'injector tick' coming from under the hood, then that just means your exhaust system is too quite.