MiamiJeff
Enthusiast
DRIVE BUYS
Viper's Best, Worst Qualities
Battle With Europe's Racers
By JONATHAN WELSH
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Drivers who want to flirt with 200 miles an hour, 500 horsepower and engine cylinders in the double digits have two choices: Spend $250,000 or more for an exotic car with an Italian pedigree, or $80,000 for this week's test car. The catch? It's a Dodge.
The folks responsible for the clunky K-Car are rolling out the 2003 Viper roadster to take on the raciest supercars from Europe. And after driving rarefied machinery from Ferrari, Lamborghini and others, we think the Detroit two-seater just might match its rivals -- in the best and worst ways.
Dodge is one of several auto makers known more for family cars that are now rolling out high-performance speedsters with big motors, carbon-fiber bodies and sky-high pricetags. Car makers say the **** new models help draw attention to their slower, lower-price models -- the ones that generate profit. Even unlikely players such as Ford, General Motors and Volkswagen are getting into the act, working on pricey models to cast a positive "halo" over their family cars, minivans and pickup trucks.
Dodge's story is slightly different because it has been building expensive Vipers for 10 years. In redesigning the Viper, the company tried to strike a tricky balance: making the new model raw enough to appeal to its previous buyers while adding enough refinement for it to compete seriously with the world's most expensive sports cars. It even impressed a few ladies. My usually pragmatic wife, Alexa, called the interior "plain and functional, but not cheap-looking" and gave its overall looks high marks.
The Viper's designers stuck to exotic-car tradition by putting most of their effort into the mechanical guts. Under an obscenely long hood resides a 10-cylinder, 500-horsepower engine that launches the car to 60 miles an hour in less than four seconds.
Fast company: With a 500 horsepower engine, the Dodge Viper can keep up with high end Porsches and Ferraris. Its noise and vibration could make you wish for a short trip.
The DaimlerChrysler unit also seems to have paid more attention to sculpting the Viper's body than it did the first time around. The first Viper was a show car with a vented door that looked as if it were two cars fused together just behind the front fender. The new car keeps the scooped sides, but the lines from front to rear are smoother, and remind us of race cars from the late 1950s.
After making the car fast and flamboyant, the company apparently had little budget left for the interior. We recognized the dashboard control knobs from a Dodge Ram pickup truck we drove just weeks ago. The leather-grain plastic trim was similarly familiar.
The Italians certainly would have swathed the dash and every other interior part in hand-stitched leather -- and charged three times as much -- but the Viper was still presentable. At least the seats were covered in real hide and shaped with big side cushions to hold the driver and passenger snugly in place during fast laps. Its convenient, hidden power outlet -- ideally positioned for cellphone charging -- is something we haven't seen in any European exotic car.
Compared with older Vipers, ergonomic nightmares whose poorly insulated engines roasted drivers' feet and overwhelmed the air conditioner, the new one's a peach. There's room for our size-13 feet to work the electrically adjustable pedals. Fuel mileage is up 17% -- to 13.5 miles a gallon -- over a Viper we drove four years ago. A $3,000 federally mandated gas-guzzler penalty still applies.
On the road, the Viper's seemingly endless power and firm (as in harsh) suspension still make it more fun for drivers than for passengers, but both are likely to feel taxed after an hourlong trip. Shifting the six-speed transmission takes more effort than in other cars, and the stiff clutch provides a one-legged workout in stop-and-go traffic. Maneuvering in tight parking spots is difficult, and it takes practice to get in and out without bumping extremities.
But mashing the accelerator on a tight entrance ramp, with the engine screaming through side-mounted exhaust pipes, makes the pain go away for awhile. Or maybe the noise and vibration just numb it a little.
The bottom line: For the toe-tingling feel of a bona fide racing car, our $80,000 Viper matched the $273,000 Lamborghini we drove earlier this year. But if you buy American, you'll forgo the fabulous leather. And no one will yell "Forza!" as you pass.
Write to Jonathan Welsh at [email protected]1
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Viper's Best, Worst Qualities
Battle With Europe's Racers
By JONATHAN WELSH
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Drivers who want to flirt with 200 miles an hour, 500 horsepower and engine cylinders in the double digits have two choices: Spend $250,000 or more for an exotic car with an Italian pedigree, or $80,000 for this week's test car. The catch? It's a Dodge.
The folks responsible for the clunky K-Car are rolling out the 2003 Viper roadster to take on the raciest supercars from Europe. And after driving rarefied machinery from Ferrari, Lamborghini and others, we think the Detroit two-seater just might match its rivals -- in the best and worst ways.
Dodge is one of several auto makers known more for family cars that are now rolling out high-performance speedsters with big motors, carbon-fiber bodies and sky-high pricetags. Car makers say the **** new models help draw attention to their slower, lower-price models -- the ones that generate profit. Even unlikely players such as Ford, General Motors and Volkswagen are getting into the act, working on pricey models to cast a positive "halo" over their family cars, minivans and pickup trucks.
Dodge's story is slightly different because it has been building expensive Vipers for 10 years. In redesigning the Viper, the company tried to strike a tricky balance: making the new model raw enough to appeal to its previous buyers while adding enough refinement for it to compete seriously with the world's most expensive sports cars. It even impressed a few ladies. My usually pragmatic wife, Alexa, called the interior "plain and functional, but not cheap-looking" and gave its overall looks high marks.
The Viper's designers stuck to exotic-car tradition by putting most of their effort into the mechanical guts. Under an obscenely long hood resides a 10-cylinder, 500-horsepower engine that launches the car to 60 miles an hour in less than four seconds.
Fast company: With a 500 horsepower engine, the Dodge Viper can keep up with high end Porsches and Ferraris. Its noise and vibration could make you wish for a short trip.
The DaimlerChrysler unit also seems to have paid more attention to sculpting the Viper's body than it did the first time around. The first Viper was a show car with a vented door that looked as if it were two cars fused together just behind the front fender. The new car keeps the scooped sides, but the lines from front to rear are smoother, and remind us of race cars from the late 1950s.
After making the car fast and flamboyant, the company apparently had little budget left for the interior. We recognized the dashboard control knobs from a Dodge Ram pickup truck we drove just weeks ago. The leather-grain plastic trim was similarly familiar.
The Italians certainly would have swathed the dash and every other interior part in hand-stitched leather -- and charged three times as much -- but the Viper was still presentable. At least the seats were covered in real hide and shaped with big side cushions to hold the driver and passenger snugly in place during fast laps. Its convenient, hidden power outlet -- ideally positioned for cellphone charging -- is something we haven't seen in any European exotic car.
Compared with older Vipers, ergonomic nightmares whose poorly insulated engines roasted drivers' feet and overwhelmed the air conditioner, the new one's a peach. There's room for our size-13 feet to work the electrically adjustable pedals. Fuel mileage is up 17% -- to 13.5 miles a gallon -- over a Viper we drove four years ago. A $3,000 federally mandated gas-guzzler penalty still applies.
On the road, the Viper's seemingly endless power and firm (as in harsh) suspension still make it more fun for drivers than for passengers, but both are likely to feel taxed after an hourlong trip. Shifting the six-speed transmission takes more effort than in other cars, and the stiff clutch provides a one-legged workout in stop-and-go traffic. Maneuvering in tight parking spots is difficult, and it takes practice to get in and out without bumping extremities.
But mashing the accelerator on a tight entrance ramp, with the engine screaming through side-mounted exhaust pipes, makes the pain go away for awhile. Or maybe the noise and vibration just numb it a little.
The bottom line: For the toe-tingling feel of a bona fide racing car, our $80,000 Viper matched the $273,000 Lamborghini we drove earlier this year. But if you buy American, you'll forgo the fabulous leather. And no one will yell "Forza!" as you pass.
Write to Jonathan Welsh at [email protected]1
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