Car & Driver test of the 08

[Y2K10 SRT#39]

Of course they picked the bow tie as #1-
0-60 viper 3.5 vette 3.7
0-100 Viper 7.6 Vette 7.7
0-150 Viper 17 Vette 17.5
Top Speed Viper 202 Vette 198

Yup They ****

PBR

 

[One Day I'll Have One]

Just read the article myself. Their main complaints are the usual "lack of refinement" jazz. One of the lows was "burning your leg on the exhaust!" No matter what they say, I think most find the Viper much more fun and cool to drive than a vette. I love vettes, but Vipers are in a class of their own...imo.

 

[Mopar488]

Of course they picked the bow tie as #1-
0-60 viper 3.5 vette 3.7
0-100 Viper 7.6 Vette 7.7
0-150 Viper 17 Vette 17.5
Top Speed Viper 202 Vette 198

Yup They ****

PBR

I really don't give a **** what Car and Driver or any other rag says. Obviously they are using anything but numbers to make their wussified decision. The cars are not in the same league and never will be. The rags are ****** and will give the best reports to whoever lines their pockets the most.

 

[Finally got it !]

Greater marketing budget. The end.......

 

[wigginz]

Which month Car and Driver? I just got mine a couple days ago and didn't see a Viper article... just the new M3 and '08 base Vette (tested 0-60 in 4.0 btw) all over it.

 

[SRT10]

To subscribe to Car & Driver it cost 6.97 for 12 issues..

http://www.subscription-offers.com/magazines/car-driver/

Where do you think they make the money to stay in business?

GM is the biggest advertiser for Car & Driver!
"Don't bite the hand that feeds you"

 

[Y2K10 SRT#39]

October issue just came in todays mail.
It beats the vette by a whole second at VIR too.

I'm glad they choose the vette- less competition for the Viper I want!
PBR

 

[Andrew/USPWR]

Still, amazed the Z06 is even staying up the the 08. What gives?

 

[V10SpeedLuvr]

Still, amazed the Z06 is even staying up the the 08. What gives?

+1 I was hoping for more ********** from the 08'!

 

[ViperTony]

+1 I was hoping for more ********** from the 08'!

Same here and is it true that they tested the '08 against the '07 Z06? .2 seconds is OK I guess. Was hoping for at least a 3.2 or 3.1. Regardless, If I bought cars solely on the opinion of C&D I'd probably be driving a Z06 or worse yet a Kia Sonata for my daily driver today...thank goodness I came to this forum first when deciding between a Z06 and Viper. I avoided a HUGE mistake!!! Y'all talked a lot of sense into me.

 

[MikeR]

You got to remeber its CAR & Driver, so they were probably smoking the crap out of the tires during there 0-60 run. Where the traction control was helping them in the Vette. I dont think their testers are very good drivers.

I'll believe real world results from our members or the likes of Wanted or a guy like Ranger, who know how to drive. No mag tests ever came close to his times. Mag testers are just good for a laugh.

 

[Viper ACR]

I didn't think that the Viper would kill the Z06 . I was hoping it would beat it in most performance categories and it does . I'm just happy that they are the Viper is once again king of the hill . I don't care by how much it beats the Zo6 bottom line to me is that it does .
I knew C & D would give the nod to the Zo6 no matter how much faster the Viper was . They always say how the Vette is a better price, more interior room , user friendly , creature comforts what ever . Which is good I don't want the Viper to be a Vette . I love it for what it is . KING OF THE HILL AGAIN !!!!

 

[Flyntgr]

The jury is still out on the comparisons. C & D is known to favor the Bowtie, even when the Viper was significantly faster in every category. Road and Track and other magazines might be able to drive the cars better, but the real testing will be at the dragstrip and the road courses/autocrosses. My humble opinion is that the '08 Viper is in fact a very fast, nible, world-class car, regardless of what the Bowtie is doing or how it is equiped with gadgets.

 

[Vipermann]

This story was out way ahead of the magazine

... I'm looking forward to better test results when the other magazines do it (hopefully with a dry track so the Viper can get all of that TQ to the road)

 

[VENOMAHOLIC]

This story was out way ahead of the magazine

... I'm looking forward to better test results when the other magazines do it (hopefully with a dry track so the Viper can get all of that TQ to the road)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I always question individual magazine testing. They could have run with the cars with uneven levels of fuel favoring one or the other. The tread level on one may have been lower than the other. The 07 Z06 may have been well broken in and 08 Viper may have had 2 miles on it. Many more magazine tests are needed in addition to the new owners this September taking them to the track.

In summation, we expected this result from C&D months ago.

 

[wartornwarhorse]

I agree with the bigger marketing bucks, just look what happens when you don't come up with the marketing bucks.... Transformer movie comes out, highlighting, guess who, GM products.... They are the good guys, HooRaH! Now, if you won't pay the price, you get billed as the bad guy, the decepticon mustang! Ouch!!

Now you do not see any chrysler plymouth dodge products in the movie at all! So its simply, a not so subtle, brain washing of the plyable minds of the masses, continuing into the print media.

Dodge is going to do its marketing the best way, by puting out superb products and letting their value and performance do all the talking.

 

[Viper ACR]

I agree with the bigger marketing bucks, just look what happens when you don't come up with the marketing bucks.... Transformer movie comes out, highlighting, guess who, GM products.... They are the good guys, HooRaH! Now, if you won't pay the price, you get billed as the bad guy, the decepticon mustang! Ouch!!

Now you do not see any chrysler plymouth dodge products in the movie at all! So its simply, a not so subtle, brain washing of the plyable minds of the masses, continuing into the print media.

Dodge is going to do its marketing the best way, by puting out superb products and letting their value and performance do all the talking.

I agree for sure , I've always been a Dodge guy . Dodge appeal to me more than any other line of vehicles . The SRT line up is awesome . I don't feel that there is another company that has a more complete line up of cars . The look and power of the SRT line up is uncomparable IMHO. They even make a station wagon attractive with their magnum . I know there are a lot of Viper owners , where there only Dodge product is the Viper . But I have had great experiences with all my Dodge vehicles .

 

[JBsZ06]

Ignoring the nonsensical complaints of the viper vs vette its clear the new VIper SRT/10 is king of the hill this year.

The performance is superior to the vette. Not that either is too shabby.

I would mention that the test took place with damp roads...

I don't know what thats about either way the Viper won...

Fair and square.

Gotta call it what it is..

This is not in anyway a flame to the already impressive 2003 to 2006 Vipers..

But 100 horsepower more is dam impressive.

 

[utahviper]

I remember when the mags did comparisons with the c5z06 and the viper and the numbers were very close. The z06 also won top honors even though the numbers showed a different story. However, when owners went to the track it was a whole different story. I'm thinking it will be the same with the 08 viper. If not, then either the viper is poorly designed and overrated on power or the vette is under rated on power and is setup amazingly for those two cars to be that close and 90 HP apart.

 

[Andrew/USPWR]

I remember when the mags did comparisons with the c5z06 and the viper and the numbers were very close. The z06 also won top honors even though the numbers showed a different story. However, when owners went to the track it was a whole different story. I'm thinking it will be the same with the 08 viper. If not, then either the viper is poorly designed and overrated on power or the vette is under rated on power and is setup amazingly for those two cars to be that close and 90 HP apart.

Great point.

C5 Z06 could keep up in the corners but on the staights they were to competition to my stock GTS.

 

[Vipermann]

I agree for sure , I've always been a Dodge guy . Dodge appeal to me more than any other line of vehicles . The SRT line up is awesome . I don't feel that there is another company that has a more complete line up of cars . The look and power of the SRT line up is uncomparable IMHO. They even make a station wagon attractive with their magnum . I know there are a lot of Viper owners , where there only Dodge product is the Viper . But I have had great experiences with all my Dodge vehicles .

The SRT approach was a page out of Mercedes' AMG approach. Now that Mercedes is no longer in control, I hope that we don't find ourselves, 10 years from now, saying, "remember when Dodge had all those cool SRT cars" (and gas was only $2.99 a gallon) ...

 

[SD SRT Coupe]

And the winner is.... the Chevy Astro Van. Not only does it have 4 more cup holders, better gas milage, higher ground clearence, and greater cargo capacity, but it also has two extra doors to aid entry and exit!

Why do these mags use features that are not what the car was designed for to rate them? If I wanted to buy a car the was really easy to get in and out of, with more trunk space I would buy a Lexus.

 

[black mamba1]

Of course they picked the bow tie as #1-
0-60 viper 3.5 vette 3.7
0-100 Viper 7.6 Vette 7.7
0-150 Viper 17 Vette 17.5
Top Speed Viper 202 Vette 198

Yup They ****

PBR

There are several issues here; (1) The Viper is 3440 lbs and has 600 hp. Anyone know of any other car of this weight w/ 600 hp and 560 ft lb of torque that does not have traction control or awd like the Vettes and Porsches do? My point is that traction is going to be the Vipers biggest problem in the 1/4 mile race from a dead stop on street tires. Now, as you see to 150 mph the Viper stretches the lead out to 1/2 second, which is about say 11 to 12 car lengths or more?
2.) If this test was done in Virginia Speedway the road was damp. Advantage to the Vette, lighter and traction control.
3) The Vette probably had many more miles on it, but we dont know. Everyone knows that a car w/ say 8,000 miles on it or more is stronger than a car w/ say 1500 miles.
4.) No reason to get upset that they pick the Vette over the Viper, they are two different animals. Miss America would never win Miss Sexiest USA contest b/c the judges would focus on different things. The Viper is the best sports car, period. The Vette is the best sports car for your average Joe that knows little about competitive driving, and that is by far your largest audience for these magazines. The average Joe buys 10,000x as many mags as your small sports car purist crowd...

Funny thing is, if there was a Ruff Porsche in the contest that weighed 2200 lbs and had 600 hp w/ a basic steel cage interior no a/c and no radio....it might still have come out ahead of the Viper. Why? b/c its a Porsche and there are many more Porsche owners than us.

 

[DII]

I thought it was a decent article. We are Viper-fans so of course we want to see our girl win! As someone else noted, 60-80% of the car buying population follows the C&D train of thought regarding performance, comfort, gadgetry, etc so of course the Vette wins. My brothers C5 Vette is like a Bentley Arnage compared to my car! LOL

The beautiful thing is, that's what makes our car so exclusive! I love the fact that I NEVER see another Viper on the road. Rarity has its perks! Hell some days I see the car in the driveway and I'm amazed, lol

1 more point, for the Viper to beat the Z06 in such a decisive manner points to its real power. The Z06 is beating EVERYTHING on the market right now, so this truly does establish the Viper as the new King! I mean really, 600hp for 90k? Can't go wrong

 

[Yellow32]

Of course they picked the bow tie as #1-
0-60 viper 3.5 vette 3.7
0-100 Viper 7.6 Vette 7.7
0-150 Viper 17 Vette 17.5
Top Speed Viper 202 Vette 198

Yup They ****

PBR

Mind you the vette has stock 3.42 gears vs the Viper's 3.07s...if you up the gear ratio on the Viper it would pull even more on the vette, but the top end would be less.

-J

 

[Tranzow]

Real world common sense! No way Chrysler would build the 08 without knowing that it would hands down beat the Z06 in every performance catagory. Truly magazine bias brewing. Now will see if GM is truly poised to up the competition with the alleged Blue Devil or whatever it will be called. New 600hp plus Vette will surely be priced at 100 grand or over. If I'm wrong and priced within a few of the 08 Viper, they've outslicked us but I'd still prefer the exotic look of my VIP 05.

 

[Lawrenzo]

The new car drops about 3.5 seconds to 150mph according to some tests. That's a big decrease, and trumps one of the recognized strong points of the Z06 in some of the older tests.

 

[Vic]

Dodge knows the Blue Devil is coming, and is already preparing the response. Think of this as a chess game, thought out to like 12 moves ahead. The proposed available extra 675hp from Mopar, at the Viper's current weight, still will not equal the Blue Devil power-to-weight ratio. So the response from Dodge will either be more power, or lighter weight. Forgive me for not falling in love with the 08 Viper, but what I am really interested in is the next shoe to drop, which is how Dodge will try to top the Blue Devil. Now there's a fight brewing, that will push sports car technology to the stratosphere!

btw, I don't fit in the 07! Or the 08, for that matter. Plus the body style doesn't excite me. I still think my has-been GTS looks better!

THey need to do something special to bring me back as a buyer. And make it so a big guy can slide in without doing contortions.

 

[Rapid Transit]

I don't know if it's bigger advertising budget by GM or what, but I agree with you guys that the Viper should've been the winner. Yes, I have an LS7 Z06, but I read performance comparisons for PERFORMANCE, not for interior comfort,blah blah blah. I remember when the C5 Z06 lost a performance comparo against the M3, because the Bimmer had a backseat. Can't wait for more head to head tests between the 08 Viper and 08 Z06.

 

[CarDude]

Pretty funny, if you think about it. They knew only the drivetrain in the Viper changed, so why compare them at all if you already know what the Viper has as far as appointments (creature comforts). The Viper never stood a chance. By what margin of performance does the Viper have to win by in order to get a fair review?