Things we DO NOT want in a new Viper...

[Jay Herbert]

IMHO, Tire pressure sensors are an absolute MUST. come on, how much weight and money do they add? maybe 1/2 pound and 100 bucks? Is that not a trade off worth not having to worry about ruining a wheel or killing yourself or your car from a nail in the road? Vipers pull ruts like crazy...it it quite easy to mistake a rut for a flat tire. Just the other night a new customer of mine was literally a mile or two away fron ruining his rim. Killed the tire...thats for sure. New car, little nail was all it took. Happened all in one ride. No idea until he pulled in his garage. a Tire Light would have alerted him to that.

Now, a tire pressure system that screws with anything other than a LIGHT and CHIME, is a no-no.

Quite frankly, our government will likely legislate these into all cars anyway.... for both safety and milage....

"Hi, I'm with the government, and here to help"

Some tire companies are testing RF (radio frequency) tags in their tires... so they can put all the mfg. info, date code, plant, machine, shift, operator, etc... into every tire. Why? To avoid hugh recalls like Firestone went through with Ford. With the RF tags, they only would have to find the "22 tires" that were actually defective!

 

[Racer Robbie]

seeing that the viper has tire pressure sensors in it that show when a tire has been cut down why does DC not put a digitial readout of the pressures of each tire on the dash display? Hell my new 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland has this feature.

 

[CAS]

Chuck is right on. We have this great thing called the aftermarket for these kind of features. If you want TPWS, buy it yourself! The Viper needs to stay close to it's roots to maintain it's appeal. That means less weight, big power, lots of tire, tons of grip.

Anyone that honestly wants a Viper to come stock with TC needs mental help. Seriously. The Viper is a purists car; if you don't like that, go source some frilly crap from JonB or buy a Corvette. No one wants traction control, tire-pressure control, cruise control, shift control, beverage control, or dual-zone climate control. The only control I want is the three pedals in the footwell, the shifter, and the wheel.

The $$ that the PVO could spend on developing electronic nannies could be put into Quaife diffs and adjustable suspensions. Or higher-revving motors. Or better exhaust systems. Or tooling for the SRT Carbon front fascia. Or weight-savings. Anything but superfluous crap.

 

[rbarta]

Chuck is right on. We have this great thing called the aftermarket for these kind of features. If you want TPWS, buy it yourself! The Viper needs to stay close to it's roots to maintain it's appeal. That means less weight, big power, lots of tire, tons of grip.

Anyone that honestly wants a Viper to come stock with TC needs mental help. Seriously. The Viper is a purists car; if you don't like that, go source some frilly crap from JonB or buy a Corvette. No one wants traction control, tire-pressure control, cruise control, shift control, beverage control, or dual-zone climate control. The only control I want is the three pedals in the footwell, the shifter, and the wheel.

The $$ that the PVO could spend on developing electronic nannies could be put into Quaife diffs and adjustable suspensions. Or higher-revving motors. Or better exhaust systems. Or tooling for the SRT Carbon front fascia. Or weight-savings. Anything but superfluous crap.

Well, if these things added so much weight why is it that the Viper is losing the weight battle without them. This argument just doesn't hold water. I agree that the car should not have the controls, but only IF that made it lighter than the competition. Minimalist is good, but it has to reflect on the scales.

I agree that they should be putting their $ into higher revving motors, weight savings, more power and just put in Motons standard. They already got rid of the crossover on their exhaust and have eliminated some of the heat problem by doing that.

BTW, is there some rumour that DC is going to start adding electronic nannies to Viper that has caused a discussion of them?

 

[CAS]

Well, if these things added so much weight why is it that the Viper is losing the weight battle without them. This argument just doesn't hold water. I agree that the car should not have the controls, but only IF that made it lighter than the competition. Minimalist is good, but it has to reflect on the scales.

I agree that they should be putting their $ into higher revving motors, weight savings, more power and just put in Motons standard. They already got rid of the crossover on their exhaust and have eliminated some of the heat problem by doing that.

BTW, is there some rumour that DC is going to start adding electronic nannies to Viper that has caused a discussion of them?

I wasn't arguing whether or not electronic gadgetry was weighing down the car. I'm fairly certain most of that weight from those systems would be negligable, anyway. My point was that first and foremost, the Viper was never designed for systems like traction control. It was and is a raw, edgy car which is challenging to drive at 10/10ths. Stability control goes against the entire philosophy of the vehicle. If the end user wants that system, they're free to put it in. I think the guys who are running 1000+ RWHP TT cars and use the AEM progressive boost control as a sort of traction control have the right idea. But, the car doesn't need that kind of electronic crap in stock trim.

Further, DC would be better off putting dollars into performance enhancing features to improve the vehicle than it would be sticking that money into systems which make ham-handed drivers feel more safe.

I don't think that DC was planning on introducing these systems on the Viper, but I think that a lot of the more long-standing, enthusiast members of the community are concerned that DC will 'mainstream' the car to boost sales and compete with the Corvette and its mix of performance and luxury. The Viper is the ******** badass for real racers and track-rats. It needs to be the boldest, fastest, loudest, hairiest ride in North America and it's losing ground to it's competitors - I hope PVO steps up and demolishes the playing field in the coming couple of years.

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

BTW, is there some rumour that DC is going to start adding electronic nannies to Viper that has caused a discussion of them?

Just subtle hints. Aside from tire sensors there's that cup-sized hole in the center console.

 

[Gerald]

Oh COme on Chuck, you kno you love it..

Check this out guys / gals.. When I got my 2nd viper, the SRT/10.. Chuck sat in it in my driveway for about 45 minutes and would not get out. I'm not kidding.. He just sat there and soaked it all in....

G

 

[kwiksilver]

Just what I suspected, a closet SRT 10 fan. Talk about that river in Africa.

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Oh COme on Chuck, you kno you love it..

Check this out guys / gals.. When I got my 2nd viper, the SRT/10.. Chuck sat in it in my driveway for about 45 minutes and would not get out. I'm not kidding.. He just sat there and soaked it all in....

G

BS, I've been a proponent of the SRT since I spent a weekend in one a couple years ago. I was encouraging YOU to buy one!

But enjoy it while you can my fellow Viper purists, 'cause the girls are complaining that it's toooooo much of a beast and needs all these driver aids to be able to handle it.

And I fear DC is listening.

 

[kwiksilver]

I'll tell you this much, I've owned a trans am w/400+ HP, no traction cont. at all, a C-5 w/400+ HP, with active handling, a caddy cts-v w/400+ HP with stabilitrac, and now a SRT 10 with 500+ HP with tire monitors and a cup holder, and the first and last ones on the list were far more fun to drive. Try not to dwell on the cup holder and tire monitors.

 

[BobK898]

1. To not get our asses handed to us by a Vette

 

[VENOMAHOLIC]

I also hope they never add throttle by wire. Keep the gas pedal and throttle cable just as they always were. It just seems so fake to have a computer translate a foot pedal motion into acceleration.

 

[Janni]

I also hope they never add throttle by wire. Keep the gas pedal and throttle cable just as they always were. It just seems so fake to have a computer translate a foot pedal motion into acceleration.

And it comes with all sorts of other potential weirdness- like cutting out the engine if you do a little left foot braking, not letting you "blip" the throttle like you want when downshifting, etc.

Good one!