hi I'm Joe wiesenfelder with cars com do you remember the Dodge Viper I never
thought I'd see a third generation of that car but here it is now it's called
the srt viper just about everything you might have liked about it before is back
0 to 60 is in the low three-second range top speed 206 miles per hour and quarter
mile in the mid $YEAR 11 second range but it's a better car overall let's take
a look
you're right to the heart of the matter the third generation is returned to the
forward opening hood you'll notice there's carbon fiber we've here and
that's because it's a carbon fiber hood also use carbon fiber on the roof and
liftgate and aluminum on the doors
lots of lightweight materials especially high up has helped bring the weight of
the car down about a hundred pounds that's significant
you made some changes to the engine 8.4 litre v10 they've got a composite intake
manifold again lighter weight up high
engine itself is down about 25 pounds the output has increased and the 8.4
litre v10 to 640 horsepower in 600 pound feet of torque you'll notice this
x-brace here this is an addition that improves structural rigidity srt says
that the vehicle itself has increased structural rigidity by fifty percent
that's a real lot
car's gone from being kind of noodle to being well maybe an al dente noodle
the wheels are 18 inches in the front and 19 in the rear
they come with Pirelli PZero summer performance tires now if you get the
optional track package with which this car has you also get p zero corsa tires
which are more racing oriented they're lighter so are the brake rotors they
come from a company called stoptech there to piece the calipers himself stay
the same
they are brembo four pistons and all four corners another change for 2013 and
the third generation is the tremec six-speed manual transmission is geared
differently closer gear ratios and eight shorter final drive ratio so you now can
hit the top speed
6th gear instead of fit what does that do for your mileage well it's 12 miles
per gallon city and 19 highly and the gas guzzler taxes 2,600 bucks but if
you're thinking about that kind of thing and you're buying this car
you probably ought to be considering something else other improvements
include the field of the shifter nice short throw it's extremely heavy duty
feeling but not in a clunky way and the clutch pedal is it like a Stairmaster
anymore it's much more livable it has good feedback but you won't be able to
recognize Viper drivers by their gigantic left legs and compared with the
second-generation the seat now has a height adjustment manual in the regular
and power in the GTS which we have here it's a little lower and you get more sea
travel definitely helps accommodate people better this being a GTS has a
higher grade interior if you get the base model you get cloth seats little
bit less of the nice surfaces this actually has the GTS laguna interior
package which adds a lot of Laguna leather not just on the seats but the
shift knob steering wheel and lots of other areas there was a lot of criticism
and previous generations that the interior was a nice enough it's
definitely improved I'm not wild about this gray plastic on the center and the
steering wheel but I don't doubt that anyone would think that this is a
premium interior maybe even a luxury interior there's some new technology
included in the GTS is an adaptive suspension which is really nice to have
gives you a little bit better performance on the track but still makes
the car little bit more livable on the street one of the things I love about
the way they applied it is the race and three settings are separate buttons here
underneath the ventilation controls so instead of toggling from one to the
other with one button and wondering what you hit you just reach down smack the
button you want and you know that's the motor in overall the ride quality is
decent on the street but this is no one's idea of a comfortable car it's
also still loud lotta engine Rumble from mechanical sounds but in aggressive
driving especially on the track it's an inn
entirely different vehicle the steering feedback in better the car goes where
you pointed it still has the fury of acceleration up to 60 miles per hour in
first gear and it's simply much more manageable than the previous generation
was i'm going to go so far as to say the previous generation was unmanageable and
inconsistent this one feels more like a sports car than a muscle car one other
addition that was required is a stability system required all new cars
as a 2012 model year it's not a bad thing to have here especially again the
way they've implemented it there's an esc electronic stability control button
on the steering wheel you have a pretty conservative setting for normal driving
push it once and you get esc sport which lets you slide around a little more
there's more than that it again you get vsc trac which actually will allow the
car to get pretty far out of control but won't let it spin and then you can turn
it off entirely
if you're exceptionally brave srt has done a great job and updating the Viper
they've made it more livable more refined better on the track better on
the road but they didn't lose its Viper pneus it is still extremely outrageous
outrageous looking sounding accelerating braking everything that they needed to
keep speaking about our rageous the price for regular one starts at over
ninety-nine thousand dollars the GTS starts it 122,000 dollars and this one
has equipped hundred and forty-five thousand dollars but as usual what makes
a car work that much someone willing to buy it will people be willing I think
they will