Well you know a lot of this boils down to attitude & values.
For example, it is easy to compare European high performance cars and conclude they are more sophisticated, with refinements such as double overhead cams and consider the American iron as agricultural with pushrods etc....
But then again consider this; in most European countries you are taxed (heavily) on engine displacement, so there is a strong impetus to get all the power you can from a small displacement engine. Here we aren't taxed on displacement, so we can utilize more displacement to get the power we want. Pushrods allow an engine to be externally smaller, lighter, simpler, cheaper etc. So what if it doesn't get as much power per cubic inch - just use more cubic inches, that won't cost more to manufacture, nor will it be harder to maintain. Oh and simpler also translates to more reliable.
You can actually drive the Viper every day and enjoy it. Try that with a Ferrari some day, and unless you have very deep pockets you will soon see why most Ferrari owners don't do that. How about a Lamborghini or Maserati? Top Gear loves those kinds of cars, but guess what? You really can't drive them much either.
The only really high performance European car I can think of that you can drive a lot is the Porsche. Some would claim the Mercedes and BMW, but I don't think many of them are in the Viper performance league.
Ask some of the European writers what they drive (and actually own) and I would bet most don't have the kinds of cars they rave about, they probably drive some POS they can afford.
Another consideration is the price differential. A Viper here is pretty reasonable price-wise, but if you were spending what they cost in Europe you could well expect to find more than the Viper offers.
Just my opinion.
Thats exactly right. Thats why they aren't crazy about our cars, they can't live with them, because first of all, like you said, they pay much more for them over there, and our cars are generally bigger, and they have many more narrow roads, tighter lanes, tiny parking spots, all factors making a smaller, more efficient car ideal. They also pay a tax based on how much emmisions the car spews, and the list goes on. I understand all that, and am not suprised at their attitude towards us. Add to all those factors, the fact that the USA exceeded their influence and power, and there is a jealousy angle also.
Plus, over the years, the big three did make a lot of crap. A whole lot of it. Boatloads, in fact. While we were crusing around in gas guzzling luxo-barges coated with 125 pounds of genuine-simulated chrome-plated plasticized aluminum trim, off-center hubcaps wobbling as we motor down a lane 12 feet wide, meanwhile the Euros were learning to squeeze as much performance out of every drop of fuel they could. That dichotomy has existed for 50 years, and there is a cultural inertia of disdain for American automobiles that won't go away anytime soon, regardless of what we do or manufacture, even if its equal to, or better than theirs.
They will always prefer to think of us as stupid, fat and wasteful people, in the same way that some Americans only feel comfortable thinking about the Chinese having long fingernails, wearing coolie hats and doing laundry. Its just the way that they feel good about themselves, choosing to focus on laughable American sterotypes, so they can feel comfortably superior.
Truth is, American cars are much better than they ever were.
Notice that Clarkson doesn't mention the world-class stopping power of the SRT10s brakes! He completely glosses over that point, preferring to critcize some other percieved fault. Maybe it bounces around too much on a cobblestone road, I dunno what his trip is. I don't know how good of a driver he is, but here in the States, Vipers regularly hand the competition their azs on road courses, P-cars, and F-cars included. Vipers couldn't be only "crap" and still kill the competition, could they? Whats' that say about
their cars?
When Clarkson was reviewing another all-American sports car, the ZO6, he didn't mention that Jan Magnussen lapped the famed Neurbergring in a blistering 7:40. Anything under 8 minutes was formerly the exclusive hyper-exotic territory of $500,000 European marques. All he had to say was something cautiously negative, like how old-fashioned leaf-spring suspension is, and dismissing the car offhand. (Notwithstanding the epic handling prowness and ground-pounding acceleration in a $65,000 car, not available in a Euro car until you have a couple of hundred thousand dollars to spend.) No wonder they are always ********** at us, we got more for less!
Now, over here in
God's country, (wink!), we generally have wider roads, more and bigger parking spots, no emmision based tax, and cheaper gas to boot.
So what country you live in, has a lot to do with what kind of car you can live with. I'm just glad I live where I do, 'cause its like automotive heaven out here.