Re: Dodge takes back the record!
http://www.torquenews.com/106/dodge-viper-acr-destroys-production-nürburgring-record-712
The Dodge Viper ACR first set its impressive record in August of 2008 and that record of 7:22.1 stood until the Porsche 911 GT2 beat it in April 2010, while it took the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 and the Lexus LFA until this year to break the Viper’s 3 year old numbers.
It took Lexus, Porsche and Chevrolet years of testing and development to best the Viper but even with Chrysler using a 2010 model that had been sitting around since production ended last year – the Viper ACR made short work of all of these numbers in running an incredible 7:12.13. This number puts the 2010 Dodge Viper ACR ahead of all major mainstream production
vehicles with only the Gumpert Apollo Sport and a pair of Radical SR8 ranking better than the Viper, although it should be pointed out that both the Apollo Sport and the two Radical SR8 models are both street legal race cars that you will be hard pressed to ever see on the open road. They also both cost significantly more than the 2010 Viper ACR.
Chrysler sat by quietly as the Porsche 911 GT2 and Chevrolet Corvette ZR1 beat the
Dodge Viper ACR Nürburgring time but with the Lexus LFA Nürburgring Edition raising the bar a great deal last week with their 7:14.6, it seems that the folks from SRT had enough of watching their numbers slide down the leader board. SRT took two showroom stock 2010 Dodge Viper ACR coupes, which were provided by
Tomball Dodge of Tomball Texas to the Nürburgring with the intention of reclaiming their record and they did so in fantastic fashion – comfortably crushing all other production cars around the monstrous German race track
even though the current Viper does not offer any of the advanced stability or traction control systems found in the LFA or Corvette ZR1.
In addition to that new record for street legal production
cars set by the Viper SRT10 ACR, the Dodge Viper ACR-X reportedly hit the track as well, ripping off an awesome lap time of 7:03 according to the folks at the Viper Club of America. That time puts the Viper ACR-X third overall among non-street legal models, trailing only the Pagani Zonda R (6:47.5) and the Ferrari 599XX (6:58.16).
Unfortunately, there has been no official statement from
Chrysler thus far but with Chevrolet and Lexus both offering video of their record times, we can (hopefully) expect a video soon from the SRT group showing their Viper ACR tearing around the Nürburgring in just over 7 minutes and 12 seconds. One thing is for sure – even though the Dodge Viper hasn’t seen any significant changes over the past few years, Chrysler showed yesterday that it is still one of the premier supercars in the world as it once again holds the record for the fastest street legal production car to lap the famed Nürburgring.