Roe S/C....1st Impressions

[CitySnake]

YESSSSSSSSSS!
The only problem is that..I'm too busy to drive

! So I've only been able to drive the 55 miles back home from Chuck's, and the last 20 miles of that ride was mostly bumper to bumper traffic. So, the following is based solely on a 2 hour traffic riddled test drive.

For anyone who is interested....(and does already have a SC'd Viper)
When I picked up the car it was washed and vacuumed

( I hate cleaning the floor mats) and Chuck had this sublime grin on his face the whole time we were going over the car. It had been "away" for 10 days (not really a big deal..but it SEEMED like a year). The timing was ******** by 3 degrees (only 1 was apparently needed but Chuck and I wanted to "leave room" for bad gas, etc.). So I drive off with Chuck's suggestion that I will have to re-learn the car. The first 5 miles is a typical 2 lane country road (45 mph). Now, mind you, I am generally a "girly-man" (no flames intended to any of the Board's women) street driver...well most of the time. So my typical casual driving rpm is probably 1,500 to 2,500. Anyway, I'm cruising along taking it easy since both the tires and the weather are cold. First traffic light stops me and a Jag XK pull up behind me. So when the light changes I hit the gas A LITTLE .... well, 20 feet of rubber later I'm looking in the rear view with an apologetic look on my face and I can barely see the Jag 200 feet back. OK, so now I'm a little scared and thrilled. I start repeating to myself "damm you Chuck you crafty sob"

. Down the road I turn left at a light onto rte 684 which is a 6 lane highway (55 mph) and I'm thinking...the car is straight, the tires are warm the entry lane here is a good 1/3 mile long....let's see...

Patch in first, shift at 3,000 and patch in second (pedal is 2/3's of the way down) shift at 3,000 and patch in third and I notice that the cars that turned with me at the last light are gone....and the sides of my mouth are drooling into my ears. WOW...this car is scary fast. Scary that I have to remember to breathe..."damm you Chuck you crafty sob".

 

[CitySnake]

Continued...

So here's my overall impression:
First of all, I now own a new car. It looks like my previous Viper, but it's not. And I'm NOT kidding!
Secondly, My new Viper has a split personality. Under 2,000 rpm I have a first cousin of my previous Viper. I can still see a strong resemblance. Once you hit 2,000 something evil emerges. Yes it is truly evil. For those of you who have driven 550+ rwhp cars before, this may not apply. But for me...EVIL.

All the prior experienced forces of your Viper become amplified...significantly and materially amplified! It's an eerie feeling for me, half of me is just crazed with thrill and joy, while the other half is seriously trying to make fear look like respect. It ain't respect...it's fear! No, seriously...this is no longer even remotely a toy. This is big time POWER.

Anyway, the next 25 miles was me playing with everything on the road from 60 to 90 in 3rd and 4th gears. Fourth gear now lights up like third used to. Third gear is just plain a virtual feeling..."this can't be real". Third gear is..."why are all those cars braking so ******* the highway???!!!".
From then on I was stuck in traffic. Which is still quite manageable, but not as easy (did I mention that this is now, NOT the same car). First gear is now a bit of a problem, so 2nd gear is becomes the "idle speed" in traffic gear. Remember I have the stock 60 TB's. For me, I would NOT want the 70's (again speaking only for me). I spend too much time in traffic and avoiding road conditions. Any more of an "on/off" switch and my car would be just too touchy to enjoy for most of my driving (casual/spirited).

I need to drive my NEW VIPER more.

I hope that my rantings are interesting to those waiting or considering a purchase.

PS- Both Sean and Chuck were ridiculously apologetic about the (short) delay; much of it was due to rain as Chuck could not/would not test drive the car. These are both "stand up" professionals. They must have had 50 phone conversations to make this work (it DOES) and BOTH called me to make sure everything was to my liking...actually I think they both feared for my life

. Those on the list...remember...EVIL

PPS- After conversation with Sean, he informed me that the now resolved detonation problem is cured with 1 3/4" headers and a 3" catback system = too much exhaust volume for the stock system even with HF cats.

 

[8AVETTE]

Thanks for the post, I am glad to read this about a 2001 car because I have an 02.

 

[GASDOC]

Enjoy the power,is your car stock?Do you need to retard the timing under boost even with 93 octane?

 

[Black Snake]

Reading this only makes me more anxious and excited. I am number 2 on the list for the second batch and can hardly wait for December to come. Have fun!

 

[Sean Roe]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by GASDOC:
Enjoy the power,is your car stock?Do you need to retard the timing under boost even with 93 octane?
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

City's car "was" stock with only tubes, filters and high flow cats. Add the supercharger and it needed the timing retard box. I speculate that the small stock exhaust manifold and pipe size is the reason, considering he is using the same octane as SW and I are (both our cars have headers and 3" exhaust).

If you look at the info out there about supercharging an engine with about 50 cubic inches per cylinder (400 ci V8), the norm is 1&3/4" to 1&7/8" primary tubes. The stock Viper manifolds are 1&1/2" and have a hard turn at the collector. I doubt his exhaust was getting out well enough.

We will be including the MSD box in the SC kits. From what I gather, all the Viper forced induction kits are either using this same box or another that retards timing. City's kit was the fourth kit shipped and I'm glad we were able to see, diagnose and adjust this early on. At this low boost level, it looks like we were just on the edge of needing it.

Sorry to interrupt your thread City Snake. Good talking to you earlier. Have fun with your new car

Sean

 

[Diablo Joe]

Can you use the box to advance timing as well.I have a number of gas stations local here that serve up 100 octane unleaded for the low price of 3.79/gal.

Joe

 

[CitySnake]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by orenc:
Congratulations! Hope to see your car first hand soon, it sounds like a handful. Try to hook up with us this Saturday on the cruise to the Catskills. We'll try to keep up!
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Thanks Orenc! Is this last week's Catskill cruise (rained out) rescheduled? Same meet time and place?

 

[SUN RA KAT]

<FONT size="5">Oh Boy! Oh Boy! Oh Boy!</FONT s>

That's what I wanted to hear! I hardly can wait until Sean ships mine! I have the Sean Roe 70 mm throttle body kit already - I rarely get in heavy traffic. I have Belanger 1 3/4" headers, Random Tech Ultra high flow cats, and the Corsa 3" Cat Back to 4" tips.

<FONT size="5">Oh Boy! Oh Boy! Oh Boy!</FONT s>

 

[1TONY1]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by TTBADBOY:
Can you use the box to advance timing as well.I have a number of gas stations local here that serve up 100 octane unleaded for the low price of 3.79/gal.

Joe

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

I think your answer is "no"

 

[jimandela]

City,
Congrats, what gas are you running?
Sunoco 94 is avail to you right?

Are you going to swap out your exhaust? Maybe a Corsa ? or atleast what i have , a subexhaust (snakeoly) rear muffler delete.

congrats again
this is going to be the longest winter in forever for you my friend.
best wishes
JIM

 

[Snake Bitten]

You must be registered for see images

<FONT COLOR="red"><FONT size="7">YES!</FONT s></FONT c>

You must be registered for see images

 

[GTS-R 001]

CitySnake,

Remember snakes should only eat one lambo or porsche a day. You don't want to get indigestion!

Steve

 

[Viper Wizard]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by CitySnake:
When I picked up the car it was washed and vacuumed

( I hate cleaning the floor mats) and Chuck had this sublime grin on his face the whole time we were going over the car.

..."damm you Chuck you crafty sob".

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Scott: Your Welcome and Thank You!!

Let me tell you all: This Snake is KICK A$$!

 

[King RT10]

Great post City snake,
Keep us posted. Did the car run any hotter than usual? I am in the 30's for delivery. I am ready to pop with anticipation.
I was looking at 911 twin turbos this weekend but after your post?
Not a chance!

 

[Nadine UK GTS]

Great post. Wonderful.

Congratulations City, Chuck and Sean.

 

[Joseph Houss]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by CitySnake:
I start repeating to myself "damm you Chuck you crafty sob"

.
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Way to go, Chuck! I can't wait to see MORE S/C's at the zone rendezvous next year!

I guess we'll have quite a few in the MOD 2 class!

 

[GTSTF]

two words: I WANT!!!!

 

[CitySnake]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by jimandela:
City,
Congrats, what gas are you running?
Sunoco 94 is avail to you right?<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Hi Jim. Yeah...we've got the same gas as you have up there

. I usually run 93 which is more readily available (and often $.20 cheaper

).

Are you going to swap out your exhaust? Maybe a Corsa ? or atleast what i have , a subexhaust (snakeoly) rear muffler delete.

I spoke with Sean about this. He's got 1 3/4" headers, HF cats and a modified Borla cat back. If I heard it right he's using an extra set of mufflers and a crossover. If I do anything I might do what he's done. He says it's got the sound of the Borla system without the volume. I (seems like I'm the only one) actually like the sound (or general lack thereof) of the stock system with HF cats. The S/C actually increased the volume a bit, I guess since the overall mass of air travelling through the system has increased. Funny, but as of this moment, I'm really not interested in more mods and $ for another ~50 hp. I need to learn how to drive what I've already got.

congrats again
this is going to be the longest winter in forever for you my friend.
best wishes
JIM

Thanks Jim! Remember...global warming may help down "south" here

 

[CitySnake]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by King RT10:
Great post City snake,
Keep us posted. Did the car run any hotter than usual? I am in the 30's for delivery. I am ready to pop with anticipation.
I was looking at 911 twin turbos this weekend but after your post?
Not a chance!
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Thanks King! We installed the 180 degree thermo with the S/C (simple when you're already right there) and the car seemed to run the same temp in traffic but much cooler (-20 deg) when moving. The day was cool (60 deg) so I'll have to wait for summer to really know if b to b traffic becomes any problem.

As for a 911, I'm sure you know the differences. The best way to describe the feeling is when you first drove a Viper and the thrill you feel...the raw power of the car and how much different it was from ANYTHING you may have previously owned. Well, my friend, you will have that same feeling again...only this time it will be the change from your "previous" Viper to your new S/C'd one

<FONT size="1">(I'd actually like to be a passenger when everyone first drives their Viper with the S/C. With mine I had to keep looking around to see if anyone was watching me laugh by myself in the car)</FONT s>

 

[Mr U-2]

WOW! Great writing...I felt like I was there. Congratulations. It's on my short list.

Paul

 

[Jeff Torrey]

Great Guy, Great Tuner, Great Tech = One kick a$$ Vipah. Congrats all around.

 

[VPRVENM97]

City,
Nice write up. Thanks for sharing.

Now lets see some pics!!!

 

[Viper Specialty]

OK, then it is settled...I need to be "Blown" by next spring...

Looks like I am going to get off my A$$ and do something this winter!

 

[CitySnake]

Not to hi-jack my own thread but it seems that you CAN speak of being

"blown"

as long as the word "supercharger" is in the topic line