Esquire Magazine

[shine]

So not exactly my car in a magazine, but I did inspire Esquire to do a segment on car rivalries.

My letter to their editor:

Sam Smith in "The 2013 Car Awards" states that the Porsche 911 is the "perennial rival" of Corvette. And that the Vette is "Detroit's only real sports car".

As a (Dodge/SRT) Viper owner and enthusiast, I take GREAT exception to both of those statements. For the past 20 years, the greatest rivalry in American sports cars has been Viper - Vette. I don't know where Sam is from, but out here in Kentucky, we all know that 1. Vettes aren't made in Detroit. They're made in Bowling Green. 2. Viper is a hand built sports car, actually made in Detroit. and 3. I've never seen a Porsche 911 at a drag strip racing a Vette, much less trying to win the hearts and minds of folks on the street. Call us "flyover country" all you want, but desiring Porsche is a construct of coastal regions and midlife crises, not country boys with a little extra change who like eating up Mustangs on Friday nights.

You've talked about the 2013 Viper in previous issues, and it's a glaring error in judgment to call Porsche a rival of Vette, and to ignore Viper as "the other" sports car America produces.

Their reply in this month's Esquire:

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If you can't read it, it says the following:

In our 2013 Car Awards (November), Esquire car correspondent Sam Smith called the Porsche 911 the "perennial rival" of the Corvette. Matthew Snoddy, a proud Dodge Viper owner, took exception. We had no idea this would be so contentious. Or fun. So we asked Smith to give us a few more great automotive rivalries, along with what each car might say about its driver.

(and yes, I don't currently own a Viper but I still consider myself an owner, just "between Vipers" at the moment)

 

[Stretch]

Well played shine. Hopefully they will add some nice pictures and info on the Viper in the future. Making believers out of people, one snake bite at a time.

 

[shine]

Thanks, and they've actually had several blurbs about the Gen V over the past year or so. They've always praised it. The article that led to my letter was an anomaly, I'm sure.

 

[gb66gth]

I just recently wrote Road & Track a scathing letter about not including the GenV in their best of issue.
They're always moaning about the demise of real steering feel (as opposed to all electric like Porsche) and a proper manual gearbox (as opposed to paddle shift) and yet they elected to leave out the Viper. Just another Viper hatin' car mag I guess.

 

[vancouver-gts]

Was browsing mags at the magazine stand at the mall and the headline on Mopar action mag caught my attention. It said: 100 years of Dodge 1914-2014. Not a single mention of the Viper in the mag, go figure. There was a single page ad showing a gen 5 yellow Viper though,lol