24 hours with a SRT Red Launch Edition

SilveRT8

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After street driving and Tracking my new Gen 5 for 3 weeks now, all I can say is Mr. Former345... yor review is spot on, and right to the point.
I also had a Gen4 for 4 years, raw fun but scary at times, and have been driving a CTS-V as a DD for 2 years now, good example of a competent but a bit boring car to drive, unless you really push it to it's limits, not nearly as much fun to drive as my former Jeep SRT8 wich was a blast at all times. I think SRT as the fun factor well sorted out !
 

Hemotoxic

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It was worth every penny, we both really wanted to get our hands on the car for an extended period of time to see if it would be added to the purchase list, or if we should be considering buying gen 2s and just doing the big brake kit, suspension tuning, power adders, etc. In the end both of us concluded that this is essentially what SRT had done with this new car, taken a gen 2 and done the tasteful modifications without losing the soul of the car (which was our primary concern pre-drive). So I would say, if I could only have one car between a gen 2 and a gen 5, I would take the gen 5 hands down. However, I would not say the gen 5 is of such a nature that it renders a gen 2 totally redundant either.

A big part of the excitement is passing along our personal opinions/impressions (whatever they are worth) to others who may be looking at this car, because I think we both felt that the media was not doing the car any justice and it deserved an enthusiast-style review. I also think we are fairly objective albeit we both did love the gen 2, however we are always honest about its faults with people and that is just part of the deal with this sort of car. It isn't a for-everyone-and-every-occasion type of car, it is very purpose-built. We are not single-brand type of owners, and are not, in strict terms, fanboys. I've owned Mustang, Viper, S2000, modded 335i, Z4M, 997.2 Carrera S, 09 Z06, and now I am hunting for a Ferrari as well. So I am a real basket case in terms typical brand demarcation lines and platform types, and I am not shy to point out flaws (and all cars have flaws no matter what the journos say). It just bugs me that the majority of journalists do not really understand this car and what is intended to do / who it is intended for, and I feel sort of depressed that it is the end of an era. I can't see how the media loves the F40 (my favorite car I haven't driven...), and yet they don't seem to understand the Viper, it is very frustrating.

Anyway I highly recommend this (renting a Viper) to people who don't have access to a gen 5 for a serious long-term evaluation, and are considering dropping 100K+ on a car. 1K is basically a tenth of the sales tax one would pay on one of these cars in CA, so it is well worth the expenditure to make sure you are not about to make an expensive mistake, and this car is certainly not for everyone, it just feels like it was meant for me :drive:
Sure sounds like it's for me. I had a regular red S2000 for 56,000 miles and then a yellow S2000 CR, the one with hardtop and cartoonish wing and quick steering and gumball tires and stiffer suspension that would loosen your fillings on rough interstates. That's why most car rags said the CR was unusable as a daily driver, but I did just that for 79,000 miles. When the deals on Corvettes got too good, I switched to a 2011 base coupe and it's even better in every way except the soft (for a sports car) suspension. It will turn 60,000 this month and I've been thankful for every minute.

As you probably know, automotive writers aren't always picked for their love of sports cars, but because they're catchy writers who can pontificate to the lowest common denominator of readership, and are inclined to bestow their papal blessing upon pushbutton driving appliances, not raw performance monsters that demand some respect in return for hours of good clean loud fun. If the factory doesn't give them a perfectly prepared ringer as tribute, the review sure will say so, good and hard. So what if not all the French fries got vacuumed up after the last press junket--concentrate on the car and the experience, please.

Thanks to reviews like this one, just a couple of guys who like sports cars and want to find out whether others like them would be reasonably happy in a Gen V, when the time comes that I can take one home, I can just put the thousand bucks toward the first month's payment.
 
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former345bhpLS1

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I figured that I would post a few pictures from my iPhone. I have a nice digital SLR, but of course the battery was dead and I could not find the charger in time...funny how that always seems to happen.

I'm amazed how much better the car looks in person. I would shoot a picture and could not believe the difference between my eyes and the screen. I don't know why the car doesn't photograph better, but it was definitely meant to be viewed in person.


I also took a quick picture of the G-meter before resetting it and handing the car back. The numbers weren't real high, but higher than I expected given that we were driving the car conservatively since we were unfamiliar with it.

In any case, it was a fantastic day and I wish that I had more pictures and not just iPhone pictures. Maybe I'll fix that the really expensive way...in a little while.

-Nick
 

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