How many Viper tuners does it take to...

[Paolo Castellano]

Make the 335'5 go 'round FASTER? I have just been thinking about how many more choices we all have as Viper owners as compared to just a couple short years ago. Does anyone know how many more tuners we have available compared to 2-3 years ago? What percentage would you all say that the prices of headers, engine work, superchargers, turbochargers, brake packages/etc... has come down in the last couple years. Also with the emergence of all these different tuners it seems that customer service and standing behind their product has become the determining factor in many, if not all of the upgrades everybody on the Viper board has been purchasing. I am very proud to be a part of the new era where performance gained per dollar spent is only going up! There are so many different forced inducton packages both supercharger and turbo which are DIY, Roe + Heffner with the do it yourself superchargers, and Axis with the do it yourself Turbo kit. Then you have Heffner that has a stage II intercooled Supercharger kit accompanied by a complete engine rebuild for around 20K installed, there's Golden West Performance that does blowers, there's Doug Levin Motorsports who has built the highest HP and number of supercharged cars, (What I see is that all the Heffner and Levin legions have nothing but great things to say about their quality workmanship, customer service and standing behind their product {As well as having ripping a$$ fast cars!} Their customers idoloze them!=> this says a lot about these tuners to make such good HP reliably in such a pioneering fashion! Levin and Heffner really have the whole V-10 fuel management figured out and have built+sold many systems! My hat is off to them! Sean Roe has figured out how to make 50 blower kits at a time and sell volume+quality at a price that is fantastic and makes more power than the Venom 650's for roughly 1/5 the price! I like how Tom Welch has gone the Nitrous route to a 9-second car and makes drag racing videos to help all of us w/lousy 60ft times and does not take any crap from anyone, TNT is still doing what they do best. There are people like Archer racing doing all kinds of setup, suspension work, engine mods/etc..., Autoform Development in Michigan has pioneered work on body panels, body kits and has built some awesome light weight race cars, MGW also has such great products to dress up the Viper, Stoptech has made a phenomenal brake kit for the Viper/etc...Last but not least, there is Scott Sutker and his TOOFAST nitrous kit in the Chicago area(I would not forget you buddy! LOL) For the last couple years, I have been following the forced induction news on the board and am very pleased with what has come to pass! What I have not been following is things like headers, rotors, pads. What other header packages are there out there that make good power? How much do they cost? What kind of power do they make?
I think this post just went crazy!!!!!!!! What do you all think of this post? I love all of the ways there are to modify the Viper! Has anyone else been thinking of these things lately? Comments anybody? Anyone, Anyone know the effects, Bueller, Bueller? Paolo Castellano
P.S. Sorry if I left anybody out=> Viper Board members please help me out here!

 

[SUN RA KAT]

I was thinking the same thing, too. A few years ago any decent gain in power was like buying another Viper and now even I can afford (barely) to have it done. But I CAN afford to have it done now!

I know there are a lot of Viper owners that have their Vipers either stock or barely modified with filters and smooth tubes, but how many of us have put expensive mods on our Vipers? With all the supertuners out there it would appear that a lot of us are not satisfied with 450 horsepower.

 

[TOOOFST]

Paolo,thanks even though i'm at the bottom of the tuner list.We ALL want to see the viper stay ahead of the competition.Hopefully a few new track records from chi-town in 03.

 

[Chuck 97 GTS]

I agree, the increased competition has helped to drive down the price vs. performance and raise the level of customer service. It will be interesting to see where it goes from here.

 

[Steve Ferguson]

I STILL have everything, even the filters, pure stock. I have enjoyed spending my money on learning how to use all the power the Viper comes with, plus it keeps my Viper under full warranty.

But the fact that there are a lot of good suppliers out there is a very good point to make. At least now if I ever fall on my head and get the urge to splurge I have choices, and some very good ones at that.

 

[Tom Welch]

Paolo,

Thanks for the comments, a well written post. Four years ago, I purchased my first Viper and like everyone else I wanted to make it more powerful. In sourcing out the available options, I found that pricing was high and I had to deal with shipping and long waits, neither of which were options for me.

Having been involved in motorsports for over 20 years, I decided to do a few things myself, got lucky with a few combinations and a good, safe nitrous system and everyone knows the rest of the story.

It is a pleasure for me to deal with Viper customers, as they are very informed shoppers, just like I was. There are several great choices for performance mods for these cars now and several respected names for Viper owners to choose from. I am always on the search for a less expensive way to achieve competitive power gains with quality and reliability and as the number of Vipers in existance continues to grow, more products will come to market which will make the cars faster and the pricing even more competitive.

Take care,

Tom
Http://btrviper.com