What I would you have done to the Gen V Viper that dodge didn't.

[Donuts4me9]

700 HORSEPOWER... really how could SRT have messed up so much.

 

[bbirch]

I do not look at this as SRT messed up in any fashion. They redesinged the entire SRT product line after re-structuing the company in record time. The new 8.4L has stronger internals with increased HP and Torque. To certify the car for 50 state emissions there has to be a drop dead date ahead of production. Rest assured the Chief Powertrain Engineer for Viper knows what to do to create more HP and Torque. Meeting all emission and durability requirements might take a little longer and new technologies. We are very fortunate to have the Viper back and in a design the VCA members had input in. Lot's of overtime hours went into getting the new Snake back into production so quickly. Thanks to the SRT team for their huge effort.
Besides, I doubt 640 HP is forever..............

 

[Stealth]

With the 2 years they had to think about what to do, they come up with mice interior,paintjob and racing refinements? !!..comon...alittle bit of common sense would tell the SRTY guys that what made the Viper the Talk of the town was not its interior,its paintjob or adjustable this and touch button that.
What made the Viper a Viper was its animated body and pure unforgiving power. Everyone critisized it at that time saying that it had all that but no handling. well, Dodge proved them wrong with winning almost all the major runs during the later years and kept them competition in check ..like I said, year after year.
Again I say, its the brute power and bulging muscle that made the Viper the all american super car/muscle car of the new era.
SRT came up with a very notable car. BUt in no way is it what it used to be. Known for what it was known (pure power and HP/TQ numbers). Not this model anyway. well I should say for a NA motor it is the most TQ but not in numbers its not. Mustang has more TQ numbers as will the Corvette ZR1

To answer your reply 1BADGTS, they should have put every dollar into the persona of the Viper legend. Into the POWER first and then the rest of the mumbo jumbo. If the money was tight then cut off some of the fancy prancy stuff that never made this car what it is. People asked for things to be added to the new Viper ,but, not to the expense of its true identity. SRT did not think this through as much as they think they did IMO.

When I ask for someone to make my perfectly tasting burger, better , i am in no way asking them to put a million toppings on it so as to cmouflauge the taste of the what was the reason for my love of the burger, the burger itself.
This is going to end up being just another supercar lost in the maze.
The past Vipers were Supercars that stood alone and had an identity. The identity of "move over,the king is coming through". And there were no quam's about it. Everone moved over because they new what it could do. even if they didnt, they knew HP rules and that was enough for them to respect and move. Even cars that could have kept up with the Viper in the early years didnt compete for space on the road because of the HP respect.
Now its going to be" I am not moving over, Ill take you on and we'll see"attitude.

Anyway to make a long story short, they should have put all the "first money" into , if it should have been, a supercharged engine with the technology to keep it running right in a production car. Ford does it, chevrolet(GM) through all thier troubles, does it and SRT should be able to do it. Just route the money where it should have been from the start

Again , this is just my opinion and I am hopeing as we all are including SRT, that the future cars will give us the WOW factor were waiting for and have waited for for 2 years.

Just my opinion or .02 cents Canadian

+1 Zillion!

Great that the Viper continues.....BUT.....

Viper needs to be the OEM competition crusher at a value! That is its niche. Let's hope the ACR gets back to the roots.

 

[madninjaskillz]

I love every aspect of the car. They listened to their audinece and delivered a car for the purists and a new generation of owners.

Bruce

I'm with Bruce and Woodhouse on this. The car is a knockout. Plus, all of you who have driven the car can make threads criticizing what wasn't up to par. The car hasn't been released yet. Until someone gets it on a track, there really should be no further discussion about performance; because it's all thin theorizing at best and a waste of time.

 

[HOLLYWOOD1]

If you think it will be stunningly fast 0-60 times similar to the GTR or Turbo Porsche you are dreaming. Track times will be good but don't forget the competition is always nipping at the Vipers tail. It wont be a decisive as you think. It will be a battle with a lot of competition trying to close the gap. This car can only go so fast with rear wheel drive and a manual gearbox. I think that the limits of this fabulous car with this power train configuration have just been reached.

 

[I Bin Therbefor]

I know there are alot of threads and posts in different variations on this topic,but, none that state each persons ideas of what they would have designed engine,body,performance,etc, on the new Viper.

Here is my opinion...please don't bash me for writing this...this is just my thoughts and opinion i thought I would share as conversation not debate

Firstly, as dodge did when they introduced and unveiled the 1992 dodge viper, I would have brought it in with a huge BANG as they did then.I would have made the new car much like the ACR and or the new Gen V race version car as far as body was concerned. More radical bulges like the GTS GEN 2 cars giving it that American muscle look and not the refined exotic car look. The reason the Viper caused such a huge splash in 1992 was because of the limits it set far behond what any other car manufacturer did at that time. Including Lambo,Ferrari,Porsche and the like. Nevermind Corvettes and mustangs. They were not even in the equation then with the 1992 ZR1 doing 5.5 ( 0-60) and 13.7 quarter mile times and the mustang GT with numbers my buick does today. The 1992 dodge viper was doing 4.6 and 12.9 quarter mile times !! That is what set the ball rolling and heads bopping for the dodge Viper!! This is why the dodge Viper is knwo for its brute unforgiving power !!..The muscle popping body and massive engine and wheels was something the other companies only thought about.
It did notstop there, every year when the others did more to catch up..we did that much more to push them back down. 1996 was another year with numbers and body style that took Viper to another level and left the competition even further back. The Viper continued to be seen and known as the one to catch. Never the one to beat. Not even close! With so many enthusiasts calling the car a brute an unforgiving. Trying to put the viper down. What does dodge do?...well we win numerous races and 24 hour lemans races at that, set new world records and times and shut them up to. Something no one was expecting.
Now, SRT had 2 years to think about how they can make a splash again and bring this Viper to the same glorified version as did its predecessors and what happens? Nothing. No one expected all that that the first cars brought to the table. It was a surprise to everyone. This time though, they did expect something. They did want to see what SRT would accomplish to further shut the competition up with and bring Viper up to where it belongs. The top of the food chain. Again !! ..............Not!!
I am not saying this car is not any better than what it was. Ofcourse it is. Better handling, suspension , more hp, more everything than its predecessors. What it didnt bring to the table is the big splash that it originaly and always did since. That is why I believe everyone was dissapointed.
If we followed the big splash the 92 Viper had over the others, then SRT should have given this viper 700 Hp and quarter mile times in the low 11's to high 10's. Made the car look like no other, and kept it as brutal and anxious as it always was.

I am hoping that SRT has something up thier sleeve in the next Car and beyond to fill the void this car has done to many. I am hoping this is just a temporary set back for something big to come. This was just not big enough for me. IMO !!

As I recall, the only performance requirement for the original Viper was to beat the Cobra 427 0-100-0 times and to be a sort of "basic" auto in the spirit of the Cobra 427. It achieved this performance in a "brutal manner" and that is what was desired. IMHO, the styling, performance and the manner in which the Viper achieved that performance was what gave the original Viper its "attitude". By the way, Shelby was left with a bunch of Cobra 427s when he "closed down" that part of his operation and tried to go on to the next generation Cobra. The market for that kind of street car is very small.

The closest you'll get to that "feeling" in a Viper now is with a new SRT Viper with track pack and all driving aid electronics shut down (which can be done). When the new "street" GTS-R, whatever it is called comes out, that may change.

However, I'm talking about a "feeling". When it comes to performance, electronics and four wheel drive have changed the game for street performance and street straight line acceleration as well as track performance.

IMHO, the new Viper has an excellent chance of being a success in satisfying the current Viper owner and attracting the desired new owners as well as contributing to the SRT mission of generating floor traffic for the dealers. Look at all the interest already generatred without a single car having been sold.

I don't know if the current general public will look on the new Viper as the past general public did on the Gen I & II cars. I suspect, IMHO, that for cars within the financial means (even if it's a stretch) of a lot of people, the new Viper will gain a great deal of respect. However it's hard to go against cars costing a million dollars, with 1,000 hp, four wheel drive and a lot of electronics and claim "move over" privilages. Even against cars with four wheel drive (or not), a lot of electronics and enough HP costing a lot less than a million dollars, "move over" privilages come hard.

IMHO, the Viper is a package of cost (yet to be determined), performance and style that will be attractive to many. But IMHO, what I think you want isn't in the cards.

 

[Alabaster Mamba]

For a post that wasn't slamming the Gen V, there seems to be quite a bit of it going on. If you are going to slam then do it and then don't try to crawfish out. What would/should SRT have done that they didn't? Well maybe show it in a couple more colors to include stripes. Maybe show it with some ******** clad models!! But in all reality, what they did was bring us a car that will knock the socks off of anyone that sees it. They gave us what we asked for when we asked. They kept a program alive that was headed for the pastures. They gave us supercar performance for a price that make it still affordable. Now if they had did the unthinkable and added some sort of forced induction? Don't you think that that would have raised the price up a considerable amount as well? So basically those complaining about not having 700hp would then be complaining about the price and that it was too expensive.

What SRT did, was give us, the Viper Nation, a car that would make any car enthusiast drool and start saving his money. What they did was make believers out of the non-believers. What they did was make Viper converts out of other makes of car drivers (Audi, ZR1's, Ferrari, Lambo, ect.).

In closing "SRT, Build it and they will come!!".

 

[texas_venom]

I agree 100%. Unfortunately there are always people who are going to ***** wabout what they could have done or should have done in their opinion. If they would have come out with a 700hp Viper someone would have said it should be 750hp. In all reality most of the people out there cant handle the GenIII or Gen IV Vipers... so they want even more hp wich they cant use. I dont think anyone should complain until they see the car, touch it, and see the numbers put down on the track. Until then its all pointless.