For those who drive HARD, how many have spun their Vipers??

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

I gradually worked my way up to the limits of my RT/10. I finally spun it. There was no traffic, no cars anywhere, just me on a one-way road with a sweeping left turn in it.

When I spun my RT/10 at Moroso I decided to get a GTS for the track. The GTS has seen the grass and kitty litter many times.

Click on the Road Atlanta link for a spinout.

 

[Serious Eric]

Gen-1s were NOTORIOUS spinners. If you had one and claimed not to have spun, you were either lieing or hadn't found the gas pedal yet. Spun my 95 four times over the course of five yrs of track events - never any harm done. After a while you actually get used to the knife-edge oversteer behavior. Hoosiers mitigated that quite a bit ... you could actually drift the back end a bit. Those original XGTZs though ... YIKES!! Spun once on the street with those tires. Perfectly straight line, WOT shifting to 2nd over just a very slight rise and in the blink of an eye I'm heading backwards towards a guard-rail. Two feet in real quick saved my butt ... thank you track. Also learned to watch for any little shape of the road that could unload those rears even in the slightest.

Gen 2 cars ... totally different machine. Night and day. Sure you could probably spin it if you tried, but after a gen 1 - no worries. Still notice quite a bit of trailing throttle oversteer on the gen 2s. Don't want to lift too abruptly while cornering at speed - I think it wants to come around on you there.

 

[Vip-RT10]

I have spun on a calculated route...Chuck knows, he was there for the Speedvision taping. Gerald also does it on command...It is fun when you know the limits of the car and the trajectories....

 

[RockStar]

Spun mine 3 weeks after I got it

First rule of Viper ownership: Always make sure the wheels are pointed straight when you punch it. I got lucky. Was pulling a U-turn, hit it too soon. Missed a telephone pole by 6 feet that would have totalled the car. Ended up with a bent wheel and some minor suspension damage. Definately a learning experience. I remember when it happened someone on this board told me "if you haven't spun your Viper, you don't own one"

 

[Paul Fischer]

I think it's a good idea to take your car out to a track or open lot just to find where the limits are depending on how you are going to set your car up. You'll never know where to draw the line unless you are able to look at it from the other side. You can burn up a set of tires but the knowledge can be critical, especially if you are going to track you car.

Small tracks can be rented cheap, a little one miler SCCA autocross course can be a couple hundred bucks a day during the week. Split the cost with some buddies and go find out where the limits are. You'll be a better educated, safer and more confident driver. Gaining respect for the mass of a heavy car that has gone out of control and learning how to bring it back is an education in itself.

 

[jimandela]

a few weeks after getting mine I was taking a turn on to a busy road too fast...the rear end kicked out and got spun 1/2 way around, so I was facing the sidewalk... I quickly cut the wheel and got off the throttle and on the brakes... stopped just short of the curb.. no damage at all but needed to change my shorts!!!
definite learning experience.. to take it easy in the turns or she will go round!!!

 

[SapphireGTS]

I drive my car harder than I have driven anything. You CAN dunp it at 60 in 2nd gear. I have found the car is quite strong if you dump it into 2nd at 60 and shift around 85-90 the car pulls quite nicely.

As for spinning the car. NEVER. I spun my old M3 more than the viper. I think on a track if someone didnt know what they were doing the car would be a handfull.

Try the 60 in 2nd. You will have a new gained respect for the car

 

[slaughterj]

Had a nice half-spin with Chuck following me on our way to VIR, not far from my house, ******* the brakes, and the rear end avoided contact with the on-ramp guard-wall, it was a quick-slowdown and turn spin as opposed to a turning & acceleration spin.

 

[Dion Fisher]

"Bless me father for I have spinned"

 

[Afy]

I spun mine five mintues into ownership.. pulling out of the showroom. Three times in the first six hours.. including going backwards at 60 mph.. with the brakes locked and tires smoking... scared the he!! out of me.

Since then have spun a few times.. but no damage so far.. and hopefully it will remain that way..

But yes even the Gen2 cars are very easy to get into trouble with..

 

[George Murray]

I did about 15 doughnuts in the grass on a Navy parade ground for a friend's retirement from the Navy (he did 20 years as a Naval Aviator, and is an avid Mopar nut) a couple of weeks ago. We had a 70 Charger R/T 440 6 pak 4 speed, my yellow 95 RT/10, and a 2000 ACR on "doughnut detail" all at once. Mud, dirt, and grass flying all over the place. No wrecks, although the ACR almost ate a horseshoe pit! It was more of a crowd pleaser than the F-14 flyover conducted during the ceremony. The Marine honor guard guys thought we were nuts.

The Charger sounded best, but the Vipers looked best half-buried under clouds of flying dirt and grass. Afterwards we went out on the auxiliary landing field adjacent to where the ceremony was conducted and did some pavement doughnuts and some speed runs. A great place to practice "spin control." Hey...we had to dry off the tires.

Oh yeah...I need a set of tires for a 99 GTS (unrelated story - will do a separate post).

OK so it took 3 or 4 hours to clean up the cars (and we trashed our dress white uniforms), but my buddy and his sailors loved it!

George Murray
Norfolk, VA

95 yellow, last 300 SP
71 440 4 speed road runner
68 Charger R/T (clone) 440/727
and lots of brand "x" muscle stuff

 

[GR8_ASP]

Yes it is easy to spin the GenI with the original tires. I am on my 3rd set of tires now and each generation of production tire has improved the progressivity (transition to loss of traction and resulting oversteer) considerably. The current Pilot Sports allow much more aggressive driving near the limit, without the abrupt spin concern, and allow controlled oversteer. My feeling is this was more of a tire issue than GenI versus GenII.

Ron

 

[Clayton Kresge]

Have spun both gen1 and gen2 cars. Spun the gen2 on several occasions under controlled circumstnaces and very hard driving, or on the track. A sure way to spin a gen 1 car, is to go from driving a gen 2 and then get in a freind's gen 1 car, with XGTZs, and try to drive at the same limits! I recently spun a freinds '95 RT/10 on a back street by my shop. This street heads straight towards a small lake right at the edge of the road, and then makes a hard, short radius right turn and then turns back to the left. If you don't make that first right turn, you go in the lake! After many trips in a GTS with pilot sports or MXX3s, I decided to show off for my freind while driving his car with him as the passenger. I proceeded to approach the turn at high speed and then hard trail braking, and as we are going through the turn, the back end came around and we did almost a perfect 180!! Luckily we avoided going in the drink, the car never even left the road, I just turned around and kept going! My freind even said he thought it was fun!!

 

[JonB]

How about the most EMBARASSING spin?

The SCCA "E-Chief of 2000" {top Emergency worker in USA} was at PIR along w/ SCCA CEO. I take the Chief on a hot-lap of my home track, where I have only 1/2-spun once when my coolant dumped in 1996.6. Pace-II Viper, Tony Cantafio, on my tail.......

Enter T-2, the infamous "Festival Curves" and fail to unsteer fast enuf as I power up..... "SPIN and Continue" on course. Chief no mentions that at every event as he puts E-crew in for a demo........ Sheesh.

The next WEEK I am driving a loaned GT-2 Pace Car with balded rear MXX3s. (My ECU harness melted, remember?) 1st lap. Cold tires. Danny Sullivan would have been proud: A complete 360 thru T7-8 S, but lost ZERO noticable momentum and continued. The corner workers were laughing and applauding, becasue it looked so {luckily} 'smoothe' ... The passenger was delighted.
Sheesh II.

I also 'safely' spun Dean Word's GTS at PIR-AZ in a NASA event. Stayed on pavement. My Lap one, cold tires, new-to-me track, mid session. Sorry, Deano, but NO flat spots!

3 spins in 9 years........ 3 too many.

 

[picflight]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SapphireGTS:
I drive my car harder than I have driven anything. You CAN dunp it at 60 in 2nd gear. I have found the car is quite strong if you dump it into 2nd at 60 and shift around 85-90 the car pulls quite nicely.

As for spinning the car. NEVER. I spun my old M3 more than the viper. I think on a track if someone didnt know what they were doing the car would be a handfull.

Try the 60 in 2nd. You will have a new gained respect for the car

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

What would be the most critical thing to watch for when you dump to 2nd at 60? What are the charecteristics?

I have driven my Vette very hard and dumped to second and WOT all the time but never felt that I could loose it. How different is the Viper?

 

[Makara]

I was taking a left turn onto a street in my Gen I. Traffic was stopped to let me through so I started to take my left. An Audi TT didn't want to wait and zoomed through a parking lane and was headed straight towards me as I was almost through the intersection. I hit the gas to get out of the way which rotated my car around the front tires just leaving enough room for the TT to speed by. That scared the crap out of me. I just remember finding myself facing the street I just turned off of and everyone was looking at me almost as shocked as I was. I found that the little spin around trick worked well for U-Turns rather than doing 3 point turns.

Since I bought the Gen II, I have been very impressed with how well it can accelerate and brake while turning compared to the Gen I. I'm still cautious with it but feel much more comfortable.

 

[treynor]

I suspect 100% of Gen-I / Gen-II Viper owners who drive their cars hard have spun them

I certainly have, though only on the racetrack.

FWIW, the gen-III is much more stable than even the Gen-II. I tried to coax the rear end of the Gen-III into coming around at the VOI autocross, but it wasn't willing unless I did something very silly (like completely lifting). Modest throttle movements which would have gotten my Gen-II rotating were ignored by the Gen-III. All in all, a very VERY nice-handling car. Now if they could just fix the S2000-style butt

 

[Eddie N]

this is another one from the way back machine...

i think the woodchuck earning socal crew puts the rest of you guys to shame.. heck, spinmaster joe b spun twice is one session and 4 times in a day a few weeks ago at buttonwillow

...

i'm a lucky charm.. no one has ever spun with me in the car.. if you want to win races, just take me as a passenger...

- eddie -

 

[ACR Joe]

I've only spun once and that was intentionally on an auto-x course. I have never spun on a road course or the street and I do have a very spirited driving style. Go ankle deep into the go pedal like a Neanderthal, and you're likely to reverse direction. Apply prudence and track acquired skills and your experience will be non-hazardous. There's no substitute for smoothness! In billiard parlance - stroke it, don't poke it!

 

[onerareviper]

I've spun mine on purpose for 'sh*ts & giggles', but never accidentally (street driving). If you used to high horsepower, rear wheel drive cars, it shouldn't be a problem. Actually, I've found my 1998 GTS a LOT more predictable and controllable that my previous high-HP muscle cars. Of course, you would expect that to be the case, with advancements in suspensions, etc...

With stock gears (3.07), I would think you would have to do something really stupid to spin the car (on the street - not track). Now with 3.55's gears or above, you have to be a little more careful. But boy are they fun!

 

[JoeB]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Eddie N:

i think the woodchuck earning socal crew puts the rest of you guys to shame.. heck, spinmaster joe b spun twice is one session and 4 times in a day a few weeks ago at buttonwillow

...

- eddie -

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Eddie N,
SSHHHHHHHHH!!! Your letting my secrets out of the bag. I just wanted to Be King of the Woodchucks. I see that John Dearing was ahead at Viper Days last month with 2 woodchucks. I hope Josephine got all the dirt and rocks and dust out of here hair easily. I'm still getting the dirt out of my car.

Those D**M Tupperware cars!!

 

[-RUNNR]

I have spun mine once while trying to push the limits in a rain storm. Yeah, I know, duh

 

[PS78]

I've only spun once and that was intentionally on an auto-x course. I have never spun on a road course or the street and I do have a very spirited driving style. Go ankle deep into the go pedal like a Neanderthal, and you're likely to reverse direction. Apply prudence and track acquired skills and your experience will be non-hazardous. There's no substitute for smoothness! In billiard parlance - stroke it, don't poke it!

+1
fishtailed twice on the road, but thankfully no spins. 4 spins on the track; no problems. very worthwhile finding a big empty smooth car park etc, not just for donuts

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

Wow. A post from 2001??? Kinda interesting to see some of the usual suspects and some of those who have moved on.

 

[GTS Dean]

At least the guy's doing his homework.

 

[GR8_ASP]

Now who you calling "usual suspects?"

As for oversteer propensity further derivations of tires improved that, even with ZP version. Best so far for me is the Kumhos V700's with great feedback for reaching the limit. No spins last year. Yippee! First year in a while I can say that. 2007 was not so kind though.

 

[FikseGTS]

my one spinout....


Dodge Viper GTS Spinout


.

 

[JonB]

At least the guy's doing his homework.

ME? Ive only spun DEAN'S viper !!

"Bless You My Son, Go, and SPIN NO MORE"

 

[whitebluevipe]

Wow. A post from 2001??? Kinda interesting to see some of the usual suspects and some of those who have moved on.

i was thinking the same thing. lots of names and faces i have never seen before. i think this is the first post i have ever seen someone listed as banned.

 

[Dom426h]

good stuff

spun mine twice banging U-turns in the rain while purposely trying to swing the tail out. (do this frequently when banging a U-y's when there is no oncoming traffic, low speed/ no harm, lots of fun for the passenger

i have since learned to anticipate the anticipation of the countersteer