Vipers getting slower?

[black mamba1]

I read some road test for the 2003 Viper when it first came out. The reviews were practically all praising the new SRT 10 in every cateragory. And the road test showed
0-60 in 3.84 seconds and
1/4 mile time of 11.77 seconds
Again, this was back in 2003. Now, every article I have read in the last 2 years show all Viper 0-60 times at 4 seconds plus and all 1/4 mile times from 12.1 to 12.5! Either the 03 Viper had close to 580 hp, was much lighter, and had all-wheel drive, or these car mags are F.O.S.!!

 

[Bill Pemberton Woodhouse]

You have just seen the reason why many of us request that Dodge pull a GM and get pro drivers to test the Snake , instead of just letting any automag scribe try and handle the beast. The times you reported were done by Justin Bell, and all the cars in the test were driven by him, getting a consistent run from each car by a driver that had run many of them previously.

Think about Jan Magnusson ( if memory serves me right ) romping around Nurburgring in the Z06. Great numbers , but done by a driver with intimate knowledge of one of the World's most storied tracks.Good PR to hang their hat on , but very calculated and frankly , marketing wise, brilliant.

Get Tommy Archer, Cindy Lux, Scotty B. White, Mike McCann, etc. to jump in and run the new car, and you will see great numbers in the 2008.

And to answer your initial question, no the car is not getting slower, it is just based primarily on who is testing the car, along with weather conditions ( temp. & humidity), track prep, etc.

Nuff said, but very viable question.

 

[Hamrhead]

FWIW, my bud has an '04 Black Mamba and he managed an identical 11.77 @ 120 stock.

About a month ago I ran an 11.90 @ 122 in my stock '06 Coupe. Had I had some more track time and/or some cooler weather I would have further improved on that number.

 

[PatentLaw]

Agree with Bill P. (again). It is totally track and driver dependent. I could never equal those numbers just jumping in. Would have to make many runs to "luck out" and get a good one.

 

[PhoenixGTS]

Back in the 80s I was a car enthusiast in the business who used to go to the SEMA show. It was then that I first understood the tainted nature of magazine testing. I liked motorcycles back then and used to check out the latest sportbike tests in all the magazines. Back then breaking into the 10s was a major deal. I remember noticing that one constant on all the testing was that the rider was one P. W. "Peewee" Gleason. I was waundering around the SEMA show and lo and behold ran into Peewee Gleason at one of the booths. Without exageration, he was the size of a jockey. No possible way this guy weighed over 115 pounds. I later learned that often times he was not tall enough to hold a bike up while standing on it and had to have someone help him out. All of a sudden a little switch went off on my mind that the magazine numbers were tainted. Super-real if you will. I'll never forget that.

P.S. Sorry I've had a little too much wine tonight, but the above is still true. Take it as you will.

 

[PatentLaw]

PhoenixGTS.....now THAT is funny. More wine for this gentleman.

Was the rider as small as your avitar? Just joking......

Funny story.

 

[PhoenixGTS]

PhoenixGTS.....now THAT is funny. More wine for this gentleman.

Was the rider as small as your avitar? Just joking......
.

Sad part is it looks like now they have even taken away my mini-avatar. That's what you get for being outlaw I guess. "The man" is not happy with you.

 

[black mamba1]

It almost seems as if when a new car hits the streets, the mags really accent all the positive qualities of the car...but after it has been around a while it seems as if all they can do is pick it apart. I read every R&T, Motor Trend, and Automobile mag every month..I cannot remember the last time I read an article that gave overall good praise about the Gen 3 Vipers. Its always, "This is not a car for you, or look elsewhere, or the dated design, yadda yadda yadda...". While the Mags praise the crap out of the Z06 which looks almost identical to the regular white-haired retired guys Vette (no disrespect to retired guys intended) or the Ferrari SuperAmerica type cars, which cost 3x as much and performs on par w/ the Viper at best. I dont think we should take this bias crap laying down!

 

[Racer Robbie]

I could not have said it any better than Bill P. just did.

Robbie