06-06-2010, 05:10 PM
|
|
|
Permanently Gone
Industry Role:
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 10,019
|
It's interesting to compare the Z06 and the Viper. I love eating Z06's up on the road, but Edmunds is an independent source to confirm it.
From Edmunds, comparing the Z06 to the Viper:
Quote:
First, the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT-10 Coupe: 8.4-liter V10, 600 horsepower, 560 pound-feet of torque and an as-tested weight of 3,437 pounds. Those numbers, friend, are ridiculous. And they make the Viper the highest-displacement, most powerful naturally aspirated car we?ve ever tested. Combined with its crushing road presence, they define it as America?s most soulful supercar.
Driving either is like combining that first date with a randy prom queen with the physics-defying performance of a 1,000cc sport bike. You can hardly wait to get to the action and then, when it starts, you?re so scared you want it to stop.
|
Here are the key points for the TL;DR crowd:
Quote:
There are problems, however. Like the Vette?s complete lack of exclusivity. The Z06 is stonk fast but, to most, it looks like any other Vette. And, to be completely honest, when driven back to back against a new Viper, it feels utterly emasculated.
Meanwhile, nobody is going to mistake a Viper for anything other than, well, a Viper. Unlike the Z06, there?s no watered-down sissy version in the hands of every Newport Ned who likes its image. The Viper only comes in one flavor: Hardcore.
In the limitless world of instrumented testing, the Viper bettered the Corvette at every opportunity. Its 11.8-second quarter-mile time and 3.7-second 0-60-mph sprint are just plain ridiculous. And its 125 mph trap speed is the fastest we?ve ever recorded for any car in the quarter-mile.
The Corvette is also very quick, but the experience doesn?t pack the same buzz as it does in the Viper. There?s less noise, less intensity and less risk of death. Although it crushed the 60 mph barrier in just 4.1 seconds and blasted through the quarter-mile in 12.0 seconds at 122 mph, the Vette finishes several car lengths behind the Dodge.
At 70.8 mph through the slalom and 0.93g on the skid pad, the Z06 isn?t really in the same league as the Viper
It?s not that the Corvette isn?t sharp. It?s just overshadowed heavily by the Viper any time raw performance is a factor.
|
Article here: http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do...ticleId=122700 |
|
|