Another snakebite, the good and the bad

[RTTTTed]

As titled Snakebite. Williams Lake guy wrote off his '05 Copperhead last month. I heard about it by, "I heard you wrecked your Viper, Ted?" Nope, not me. Spoke to Cliff yesterday. He said he just 'burped' the throttle to answer a big bike's 'burp'. He says he remembered sand hitting the wheelwells and then pulling himself under the steering wheel when he realised that he was going over the embankment.

The 05 Copperhead is a convertible, of coruse. Cliff rolled the SRT10 over a 20' embankment into the parkinglot of a "Costco" style store. Written off of course. Cliff said he scratched the shoulders of his leather jacket. Amazing that he still has a head and he didn't recieve any head injuries. He walked away from the accident. This was his second SRT10 that got crashed!

Cliff's son Tyson lost control and slid 300yards off road and wrecked that Viper. Also no injuries last year. I heard of that accident when people told me that they heard I crashed my Viper as well.

Showed Cliff my 2000 ACR with Paxton and Nitrous RTTTTed's Ads - ViperClub Classifieds.

I don't understand why he prefers the Porsche Carrera he just bought. He said even with the Turbo upgrades it's MUCH slower and therefor easier to control than a stock Viper. The Cliff told me that his friend crashed 3 Vipers and finally bought a Ferrari because he couldn't handle the Vipers either. Cliff and his neighbor said that their reactions slowed down because they're over 60. Your reactions slow down? Nawh, I know a lot of 20 year olds that would say that their reactions are slower than mine (55).

So I'll be keeping my high powered Vipers and Duster because they're too fast??? What's going on? Old?

Viper owners are changing to Ferraris and Porsches are slower???

What's the world coming too? Unfotunately, those two guys acount for 5 crashed/wrecked Vipers.

 

[Toomanycars]

All these stories I hear of how easy these cars are to wreck really makes me not want to drive our Supercharged 06 that is supposed to get here tomorrow. Of course it sounds like these guys could have used the driver mod

 

[RTTTTed]

It is driver error. I recommended the high performance driver's course, remember? I think it would have helped all 5 accidents - and it allows you to experience what these cars can do to recover from a spin instead of just "losing it". I've lost it a few times, and recovered. The recovery is because the car is a Viper and has the potential to recover just as fast as it can get out of hand. HPDE is driver training to prevent accidents. There is a lot of threads on tires here. I believe that Cliff's 07 had 15,000 miles on it so that's probably the end of the life of runcraps and those particular tires are the worst traction tires for a Viper. Cliff's copperhead also probably still had original runcraps on his car. Runcraps (zp) came on 2003-2007.

It sounds like you may respect your car enough to use caution and take driving lessons?

Ted

 

[Viper ACR]

My 08 handles so much better than my 00 ACR did . A huge part of it is due to how sticky the new PS2's are compared to the ones that came with the GTS .

 

[dragon rider]

All these stories I hear of how easy these cars are to wreck really makes me not want to drive our Supercharged 06 that is supposed to get here tomorrow. Of course it sounds like these guys could have used the driver mod

Keep us posted. I'm excited for you. That is a beatiful car. As Ted stated, the run craps can account for many snake bite incidents. My car with rub craps was hard to control. PS2's made a huge diff. in the cars peformance. Your car appears to already have drag radials on in. That should help a bit.

 

[TAILWAG]

agreed. It is amazing how sticky the PS2 ares and how predictable their behavior becomes.

 

[CPPRHD265]

agreed. It is amazing how sticky the PS2 ares and how predictable their behavior becomes.

I'm in Florida, and as everyone knows it rains a bunch here. I don't drive my car to work it there is an obvious threat of rain that day, but I still get caught in storms on occasion. I put on PS2s last November, replacing the 05 vintage run flats. I noticed an immediate difference, but in the wet it was awsome. I used to get so much unintentional tire spin with the run flats in the wet. The PS2s are 1000% better in when it's wet out. I've not had any unintentional wheel spin with these tires at all. Key word is unintentional

 

[Red Snake]

5 Viper crashed between 2 owners tells me that those 2 didn't need to be driving Vipers anyway. They need to be driving Porsches and Ferraris IMO.

 

[FastestBusaAround]

Thing about these cars is that they bite, no matter which boots they wear; it's just a fact of life. They must be treated with the utmost respect. Stickier tires simply raise the driver confidence levels and the bar - causing them to bite even harder when provoked. I don't know for sure, so I won't pretend and won't quote stats, but I'd bet Vipers are amongst the most frequently trashed cars around and as a Gen IV Viper owner, I get it. Any car with this kind of un-neutered power and grunt would do the same, given the intended lack of any driver safety net whatsoever, but the Viper is one of the few modern sports cars around that doesn't have safety nets...

 

[jdavis]

I know that this goes against the grain for many forum members but, to me this is all the more an argument for having stability and traction controls on this car that can be left on or off by the driver. Most Viper owners would not like to admit that it is likely that they are not capable of controlling an unrestrained 500 to 600+ hp VIPER at its limits with or without driver school training. Most street accidents seem to occur unexpectedly and quickly. I have to wonder how many Vipers and Viper drivers would be saved with the ability to employ the technological nannys.
"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure"

 

[Asp Man]

Thing about these cars is that they bite, no matter which boots they wear; it's just a fact of life. They must be treated with the utmost respect. Stickier tires simply raise the driver confidence levels and the bar - causing them to bite even harder when provoked. I don't know for sure, so I won't pretend and won't quote stats, but I'd bet Vipers are amongst the most frequently trashed cars around and as a Gen IV Viper owner, I get it. Any car with this kind of un-neutered power and grunt would do the same, given the intended lack of any driver safety net whatsoever, but the Viper is one of the few modern sports cars around that doesn't have safety nets...

So...better tires make the car less safe by raising the limits and increasing driver confidence? Spurious thinking, at best.
But, gee, maybe you're right. Anyone want to trade some old MXX3's for my PSII's?

 

[Toomanycars]

Keep us posted. I'm excited for you. That is a beatiful car. As Ted stated, the run craps can account for many snake bite incidents. My car with rub craps was hard to control. PS2's made a huge diff. in the cars peformance. Your car appears to already have drag radials on in. That should help a bit.

Car should be here within the next few hours so I'll keep you all posted. Also I noticed it has Toyo Proxes R888's on the rear. Not sure how good those are but I guess we will find out.

 

[RTTTTed]

I'm hoping that you're "shaking in your boots" with excitment. It's only your first Time once, ...

 

[Toomanycars]

You have no idea! We barely got any sleep last night. I'm lucky to have a woman in my life that loves cars as much as I do!

 

[RTTTTed]

You are lucky that you 'significant other' enjoys cars as much as you.

My wife has motion sensitivity and doesn't enjoy the car. she enjoys the VCA events and the different areas of the continent we have gone to however.

When I bought my 98 GTS the Doctor (previous owner) told me that his wife had never even sat in his Viper. That sure must cut back on the miles!

My wife even sat through a Mountain Climb/rally event we had that was awesome. At the top I remembered that she was in the car and asked her if she was OK (first time she'd been in the car under full throttle. She replied, "I think the carpet is worn out where the passenger's brake pedal should be." LOL.
I got second!!!
Ted

 

[FastestBusaAround]

So...better tires make the car less safe by raising the limits and increasing driver confidence? Spurious thinking, at best.
But, gee, maybe you're right. Anyone want to trade some old MXX3's for my PSII's?

Not exactly what I'm saying...but you can interpret it whichever way you prefer.

 

[swexlin]

I just had PS2s installed this week, replacing the 7 year old ZPs that were on the car (rears didn't pass PA inspection). I was thinking, how different could they be? Well, Wednesday when they were installed, it had been raining, and the roads were wet, in in just the 6 miles drive back home, I could IMMEDIATELY tell the difference. Today was the first time I've had the car out since then - gorgeous and sunny, temps in the 70s. I put about 80 miles on today, and there is simply NO comparison. While I am being VERY respectful of this car's power, it's amazing how much better these tires are.

 

[FastestBusaAround]

Unfair comparison LOL. Anything against 7 year old worn out tires would be a huge improvement...

 

[swexlin]

That's the thing - the fronts actually passed PA inspection, and the rears didn't LOOK too bad. Hey, what do I know?

 

[FastestBusaAround]

Thing is though - the rubber was 7 or more years old. All of the characteristics change dramatically for the worse over that kind of time...just sayin....