Well I'll admit to being beat twice because I was in the wrong gear, and incedentally they were by WS6s both times.
The first time I was on the freeway an a white WS6 was on my butt, but it was medium-heavy traffic. And the fast lane was clogged with slower traffic, but a right lane opened up.
I was just cruising along in 5th gear, and figured that I could make a good enough pace around the clog without having to drop a gear. But the Firebird was MUCH more eager than me and blew by in the slow lane and I couldn't catch him.
I know that I should have been in 3rd, but I was on an unfamiliar freeway, in less than optimal traffic. When the traffic got better, I blew past him just to stretch the car's legs, but he took the next exit and we exchanced waves.
The other one was a black WS6 and I had just put in my roller rockers and didn't want to run past 4K RPM. I took off from the intersection normally and eco-shifted to second, and then I noticed that he had punched it and he pulled a quick car length, then a stupid driver slowly crossed our lanes to pull into a commercial driveway, so I let off of the throttle a moment, and then I couldn't reel him in before the next light where he turned off.
Were the WS6s faster than my car? Could be, they were decidedly quick, and could have easily had N20 or other mods, or it could have just been my driving. But I have little to prove, and don't mind giving up a race or two when the conditions are non-optimal.
I sometimes get a feeling of invulnerability in the Viper because it can so easily shake off slower cars, but you never know what mods someone in an F-Body or Vette has, so I've learned not to take them lightly.
As far as being in the right gear goes, I drive my Viper daily and most of the time it's just puttering around at normal/legal speeds. And I'm not really seeking out any races, so I can easily see how the Viper guy was in the wrong gear because he underestimated the F-Body car the first time (being in the wrong gear twice is pretty lame though). At least he got with the program for the third go around.
I do think that Corvettes are generally faster with the same horsepower because they are around 100lbs lighter than the Viper(300lbs less for the Z06). They have 3.45 gears, as opposed to our 3.07 gears, and with the extra torque that the Viper has, it's tougher to keep from spinning the stock tires. Plus a lot of the F-body and Vette drivers have ET Streets. I wouldn't say the differential is 70HP. 40HP is more like it.
F-Bodys are about the same weight as a Viper, and the WS6s often dyno with more power than the Corvette, and bolt-on mods are relatively cheap. Stock-for-stock it's still about 100HP shy of the Viper, but if you are caught off-guard then the momentum is tough to catch. The new Cobras will probably be able to surprise a few Vipers as well, with some bolt-on modded ones putting out over 400RWHP.
I like being faster than 99% of the cars out there with mild mods on my car, but there is always someone faster out there, and I'm not going to dismiss the performance potential of Vettes or pony cars because of stock HP ratings, or their purchase price.
