Ralph Gilles Looking For Feed back !!

[britospeed]

Stormcat is a certified car nut and a good guy. He just needs a ride in a TT viper to make him forget about the semi cramped interior.
Hope to see you in a viper soon Stormy.

 

[STORMCAT]

Stormcat is a certified car nut and a good guy. He just needs a ride in a TT viper to make him forget about the semi cramped interior.
Hope to see you in a viper soon Stormy.

Well maybe I can get a ride in a TT Viper and a TT GT in the same day !!

 

[britospeed]

You bet! I should have the Pectel wiring harness done this week for the GT. Then fun on the dyno. I'll give you a call on when to swing over.

 

[Bill Pemberton Woodhouse]

Viper067 has some good points, and since Marketing/Sales does want to expand the market , yet keep the special nature of the Viper, asking buyers of competing brands, may elicit similar ideas to build on. It may also clarify complaints we have as owners, and help them pinpoint whether concerns among the faithful are somewhat diluted and a much bigger problem to the masses.

Example;

Though I love the cockpit feel of the Viper , I find it a common complaint among those who have not had a Viper when they get into it. Enough so that I address the issue immediately and try to work on the positives. We do know that this was a discussion issue at VOI , as plenty of taller folks are buying seat lowering kits , etc. just to get into a Snake. Asking competitive make owners may show this as a 60% complaint , where Viper owners see it as a 25% issue, but by questioning those that do not own a Viper, it opens up possible areas of greater concern than may just be known among the faithful.

 

[ACRBruce]

Once the 2" lowering kit is installed, there're plenty of room. I, myself had a Cobra racing seat installed directly on the floor board and that gave even more room. I now find the driving position of the Viper PERFECT, in fact even though it is tighter in the way that it is narrower than the Ford GT, it give more headroom, and I already had the seat cushion of the Ford GT thinned out to gain another 1 1/4" of headroom. And yes while the FGT has better top end speed but I think a properly tuned and setup Gen 4 would be faster than a Ford GT on shorter tracks, and maybe even on tracks with fast sweepers too as the Gen 4, ACR in particular has much more down force.
Back in 2009 during the VCA vs. SRT Engineers autocross event, Ralph and I chatted for at least 15 minutes as he approached me when I was working the course in freezing (to a California guy) temperature. After giving me his fleece jacket he proceeded to asked why I owned a Viper and what other cars I owned and why I chose them. He was genuinely interested in my feedback and wanted to know how the Viper stacked up against my other cars, of which he was mostly interested in the Ford GT and even asked me to email him pictures of it. Just from my limited experience with Ralph and other SRT engineers on how they care about customer feedback and pride in their products, I have full confidence that the next Viper will be one that I will lust after and want in my garage, the only problem is that since I don't ever want to get rid of my Ford GT, and feel so connected to the ACR for the track, if I have room in the garage for a another Viper. Time to remodel the house…..

Note to OP: buy a Viper Brian, you won't regret it.

 

[STORMCAT]

You bet! I should have the Pectel wiring harness done this week for the GT. Then fun on the dyno. I'll give you a call on when to swing over.

Mr. Brito I will be waiting for the call !!

Once the 2" lowering kit is installed, there're plenty of room. I, myself had a Cobra racing seat installed directly on the floor board and that gave even more room. I now find the driving position of the Viper PERFECT, in fact even though it is tighter in the way that it is narrower than the Ford GT, it give more headroom, and I already had the seat cushion of the Ford GT thinned out to gain another 1 1/4" of headroom. And yes while the FGT has better top end speed but I think a properly tuned and setup Gen 4 would be faster than a Ford GT on shorter tracks, and maybe even on tracks with fast sweepers too as the Gen 4, ACR in particular has much more down force.
Back in 2009 during the VCA vs. SRT Engineers autocross event, Ralph and I chatted for at least 15 minutes as he approached me when I was working the course in freezing (to a California guy) temperature. After giving me his fleece jacket he proceeded to asked why I owned a Viper and what other cars I owned and why I chose them. He was genuinely interested in my feedback and wanted to know how the Viper stacked up against my other cars, of which he was mostly interested in the Ford GT and even asked me to email him pictures of it. Just from my limited experience with Ralph and other SRT engineers on how they care about customer feedback and pride in their products, I have full confidence that the next Viper will be one that I will lust after and want in my garage, the only problem is that since I don't ever want to get rid of my Ford GT, and feel so connected to the ACR for the track, if I have room in the garage for a another Viper. Time to remodel the house…..

Note to OP: buy a Viper Brian, you won't regret it.

Thanks Bill and Bruce.. I am looking forward to seeing what the Gen 5 has to offer.

 

[VENOMAHOLIC]

You people are funny .... do any of you actually make a product for a living?

We constantly as for feedback from both our customers and prospective customers on why we both win and lose on deals. If you only talk to the people you have won, then you learn little ... perhaps just minor refinements. If you can win over the crowd you have been losing to, then you have something. This does not usually come at the expense of making your product less (insert favorite words). Sometimes, you may be able to win more simply by changing your marketing ... your product already does what the prospects are looking for, it just isn't marketed to them properly. Other times it may take some simple tweaks, different custom packages. Personally, I would prefer a track package that has most of the comforts stripped out, race seats installed, etc ... and a traditional package that you can take to the track but has a stereo, gps, etc. I would love it if the stock Viper could sound like mine, perhaps a little more refined, but much better than what is there today....

You have to look at all the target markets, not just the ones where you continually win .... and you do it all the time, so perhaps the feedback they are looking for is for tweaks down the road, not on what will be in 2012.

Marketing also involves advertizing. If there was ever any reason that stands out other than a bad economy that the Viper hasn't been selling is that it has not been shown in any Dodge commercial since the Gen II was sold if I recall correctly. No car company should consider making changes to a vehicle because it hasn't been selling well if they haven't even put it in a commercial first. Dodge has been putting out some exciting commercials for the Challenger, Charger, and even on the Caravan. Now it needs to add a multi car commercial that includes the Viper. Car magazine page ads do count as advertizing but will never get the results that TV does.

 

[DMan]

I don't care if they are gathering market info from all over, makes sense to me, all depends how they use that info, this could be marketing for that matter, how they want the write-ups to be, who knows.

One thing that did catch my attention big time, is the reference to those who've seen the prototype saying it looks like an Alfa Romeo RC8. Yikes.

 

[Bill Pemberton Woodhouse]

Well, to make you feel better, I have seen the car and it does not look like a Alfa RC8.

Hope you feel better now, and glad to be of assistance, ha.

 

[DMan]

Well, to make you feel better, I have seen the car and it does not look like a Alfa RC8.

Hope you feel better now, and glad to be of assistance, ha.

Thanks !! Whew.

I swear auto industry reporting is almost as accurate as weather forecasts.