I was at the West Virginia International Auto Show this past weekend.... I looked at the Viper & sat in it... you would have to be 5' nuthin and about 125 lbs to fit comfortably in that car... I'm only 5'9 165, I could only imagine a 6'5 250 lbs man... on a more positive note, the Magnum is the most comfortable car I've ever been in, I want one now....

 

maybe the seat wasnt pushed all the way back?
dont think a 70K car would have that little space

 

I'm 6'2", 200lbs. It was a bit tight for me but if I was just an inch or two shorter I think it would have been fine.

 

yeah the seat was back... leg room wasn't the only problem... there wasn't much elbow room either.... i'll stick with the magnum or mustang...

 

Dude i am totally with you, i hate vipers. But not because of interior dimensions. I think they are an absolute disgrace to everything American. 8.3 liters of V10 rip snorting power. Sounds impressive right?, 700 hp shouldnt be out of the question naturally aspirated right? The thing only puts out 500! I know 500hp is more htan enough for 99.9999% of drivers, and probalby more than enough for even 99% of automotive enthusiasts, but the fact that dodge needed 8.3 liters to do it is pathetic. The 6.0liter-ish V10s found in the GR-1 concept and porsche carrera GTs put out 100 more hp with 2 less liters!

The viper either needs to get a smaller more fuel efficient 6.0 V10 or something that puts out comparable power, or just need to make that 8.3 liter make the 700+ hp it should.

Considering a 6.0liter viper would go against everything the performance idiots at D/C beleive in, i think they should go ahead and up the power instead of downsize the motor.

 

 

Price, man, price. It's all about cost. What do you do to keep the cost of the vehicle down, but raise power? You increase displacement. Bigger engine costs a lot less to develop and produce than a more technologically advanced engine. It costs far more to increase power without increasing displacement (assuming we're staying NA), thus raising the price of the vehicle. Vipers are expensive enough as it is, if they went up another $15k they'd be priced out of their market ... better could be had for less.

 

hey tooner how old r u.........i'm 12 and i'm 5'8" 165

 

 

Matic,

You may be right but if Dodge doesnt do something about it, no matter how cheap their V10 is to manufacture, they'll lose even more money if everyones buying C6 Z06's. (not to mention look pretty stupid as their 505 CID beast gets absolutely slaughtered by a 40% cheaper car)

And halo cars such as the Viper (and Z06 while were talking about it) arent supposed to be cost efficient for the manufacturer anyway, Dodge makes Vipers to get ppl interested in Dodge so theyll buy Caravans, now if the Z06 is destroying the Viper for less $$, the average buyers might just go shopping for that HHR instead.

With the impending super-high performance Mustangs, C6 Z06, and other affordable almost-exotics, the Viper will be forced to undergo evolution or face death.

 

Well just imagine what a twin-screw would do on that 8.3L V10

Seriously though, I know you're right, but there's a line that won't be crossed even with halo cars. They'll have to rethink the engine and improve it, as well as tweak the rest of the car to handle a bit better, but honestly if they want more power I forsee a super/turbo-charged future.

Just for fun, think about a sequential twin-turbo solution like the Supra had ... the Viper has enough grunt that turbo lag isn't going to affect much, and when that second turbo came online ... woah baby.

 

The new Z06 is not 40% less than a Viper, the Viper sticker is $85k, 40% less would be around $50k. The stock Vette runs about $45k and I would imagine the Z06 will somewhere around $70k. And what's your definition of being slaughtered? To me a Viper would slaughter a Focus(not the SVT version). I don't think the Z06 will beat the Viper by the same amount. The Vette's 7.0 L isn't exactly small either.

 

Neither of us know how much the Z06 will cost, I added $5k to the base price of the C6 because thats approximately the difference between a C5 base and Z06. (Yes, knowing GM they will do something stupid and charge 65k for the Z06) I said slaughtered to prove a point, but we already knew that didnt we. The Z06 should win by a half car length on the quarter, and trap significantly higher thanks to a better power to weight ratio. In the world of near-supercars ide say thats a slaughter. I guess our definitions arent quite the same. Your right, 427 CID is still pretty big, but it still meets the Vipers output with 1.3 liters less.

In short, were both right, and the Viper still "sux!"

 

I don't like the Viper much, for that matter I am not a big fan of the Vette. However, I have seen nothing that would indicate that the Z06 will outrun a Viper and een if it does it will be a very close race.

When people talk about performance and do not bring up torque it is a one sided, and very incomplete, conversation at best......fatally flawed at worst. The Z06's 7.0L V-8 has a very peaky torque curve compared to the Viper with over a 200lb-ft disparity in places along the rpm band, not a small difference.

And before somebody says torque does not mean much note that a Mercedes S600 sedan weighs much more than an M5, has a traditional auto tranny verses the M5's SMG with fewer gear to boot, but is a tick faster than an M5 in acceleration in spite of being rated at 3hp less than the Bimmer.

Like I said, performance discussions without taking peak torque and torque curves into account are incomplete.

 

Around 75K starting price fully loaded. Only 5000 a year. They were testing it against Ford GT times as well as the Viper.

 

Viper gets beat by vette in 1/4 mile and vette and viper are both gay

 

yeah how old are you tooner? im 13 6' nd 155 lbs

 

:scratch:
Tell me about it, saw a Vette and Viper, both male, fooling around with each other on an used car lot.

 

In public?? Oh the horror! We must ban homoautomobile marriage! =P

 

you guys are nuts...no pun intended