It took a while but after looking through all the pictures and driving my GEN III Coupe around the past few weekends, I finally figured out what about the new GEN V is just not sitting right with me. It is all in the new clamshell hood on the GEN V. One of the things I like about my GEN III Coupe that I did like over the GEN I and GEN II cars is from the front windshield forward to the headlights, the fender line (have to compare fenders and hoods together as GEN III/IV has fenders) did NOT go up and then swoop down. It just went straight across and then swooped down or just did a gentle taper from the front of the windshield down creating a slight rake, hence no Ronald McDonald floppy shoe look and a thin mean looking front end as opposed to a bloated clown shoe look.
While we can nitpick a lot on the new GEN V because it is different and for a majority of Viper owners, different is just hard to swallow at first, I think SRT did a bang up job with the new GEN V. The interior is perfect in my mind and would not change a thing with the interior on the GTS. The list of suggested changes or options is small however:
1. Adopt a hybrid of the GTS hood and the GTSR Hood. The GTSR car hood is so much more agresssive, with deeper side exhaust vent scoops, not cheap plastic food server vent covers (those HAVE to go for sure). Let those side scoops dip way down into the engine bay like on the GTSR car, and the VOI11 car. Just use black metal screens mounted from the underside of the hood which will make it look WAY better. On the fender cover portions of the hood, get rid of the clown shoe **** that goes up from the window forward. You can still have a rounded look but do it in a raked stance not a ****** stance. The **** stance makes the car look like it had a front end designer and a rear end designer and they did not talk to one another. Looking at underhood pictures, there is room for you to lower those portions sligthly above the wheels. The front NACA duct, just make it flow straight in instead of creating a older look NACA duct where it v's out from the front. Then your hood is perfect!
2. I don't like exposed Carbon Fiber pieces on the exterior. Body color paint that shows the carbon fiber pattern underneath is much cooler looking and less like a slapped together parts car look like the imports out there. True carbon fiber cars don't feel a need to show the carbon fiber bare and let the sun fade and yellow it over time. The Viper has carbon fiber, we know it, so just let someone look at the beautiful paint and when they get close enough, they will see the cross hair carbon fiber pattern underneath. It is way cooler looking than exposed. Hence the back taillight panel should be painted body color. The side brake vent should be black and should swoop further back than it does. Not sure why you stopped short of extending that brake duct panel back further along the swoop. It would have extended the look from the side and made it look wider and more followed through. Not a good example but the 1987 Mustang GT accomplished the same thing with the side window. The window went back further than the viewable window from inside but it created a more proportional and sleeker look, even though it was not using curves.
3. A lot of people are saying the front end looks busy and to me it looks good but where it is busy is that the front brake ducts are so exposed. It would clean it up a lot if you just moved those back further in the grille behind everything. There is no reason to even use carbon fiber on those. Again, makes it look added on and too highlighted; it is not a kit or parts car anymore. Move those back into the opening so they are hidden but still functional and then use black METAL mesh in the opening around your bars and V. It will clean the front end up and look more as designed and intended. While I thought I would like the two side scoops in the ground effects at the front, they just don't do it. The fog lights, like on the GTSR car look better and more at home on the car. Paint the grill bars body color, don't paint them, it doesn't matter to me but I think they look good black, just need to move those brake ducts and limit exposed plastic grilles.
4. The roof just needs to get rid of the hard angular part to the humps and make them rounded and more rounded and pronounced like the GEN II GTS and GEN III / IV cars. That was signature to the Viper and EVERYONE loves them. What you have created now looks too Corvette-ish and there was absolutlely no need to do that. Go back to what was working on that design element.
5. Rear end looks good but there are three areas that still bug me; The rear panel not being painted (which I mentioned already), the rear difuser looks way too busy (just make it simple like the GEN III and your Ferrari breathern) and the side scoops beside the lights. Again get rid of the cheap plastic scoop cups and just have metal mounted from underneath. Additionally take the look from the GTSR car where the scoop is not a small pocket but fills up the tailight panel space fully without lights above it, creating a true skin over skin look like on the GEN II GTS and GENN III / IV Coupe cars. Again this was a design feature everyone loved and was no need to change it. Go back with what was working and what owners want.
6. Finally Who ever is in charge of the rims for SRT, take them out back and shoot them or just be humaine and let them go. The SRT rims offered on the Viper and the JEEP SRT8 are amongst the ugliest rims I have ever seen. I KNOW why you are doing it but stop. The Jeep SRT8 is a lightened refreshed rim which is almost the same as the "flower pattern" rim on the earlier Cayenne Turbos, I get it but stop. The Viper rims on the GTS show car are hideous. Yes they are lighter but they just do NOT go with the body style. Bring back the 5 spokes and other carients. Again talk with your Ferrari breathern as they have some nice options and for the most part know what looks good for the most part. Borrow their software and play around but let the current SRT rim chooser go. It's not helping! Also not everyone is into the dark color rims. I for one am a silver or polished/chrome rim guy. Don't alienate the buying public with these dark color rims as the only option. I don't like them and to be honest if I was paying 100k+ and did not get the rims I wanted factory in the car I was looking at buying new, I just wouldn't buy that car. Crazy to say but there are a lot of others out there like me that will use that same rationale. You need to cater to that to bring people with their check books into the cars. Rims are EXTREMELY important and can make or break a car's looks and appeal.
7. Why do we still need the black exhuast panel around the trim ring. There is a trim ring now so it should absorb the heat negating the black portion to be there. Just make it body color and it will look so much better. It is not like the exhaust pipe is stiking through like in the older GENs. It will make it sleeker looking.
The rest I think you have done a great job. Yes it would be nice to see more power. It's always nice to see more power but to those that want power, they always want more, though 660 hp or a flat 10% improvement would have been nice to see. I am sure a paddle shift tranny will be in there in the future and for those that want or need it, it will be there. No harm by me.
I will say that the car improved in a number of areas from the VOI11 car and that was nice to see but in some of the areas it is not and that was not as nice as compared the VOI11 car. Great first effort however, now build on it to make it the perfect car. It is still not at the point I could consider selling a number of cars in my very small collection including my GEN III Coupe (which I bought new) to have. If you built upon the suggested changes/options, I think it would be pretty close for me to consider it THE CAR I would like to live with for a very long time and just have to have. Unfortunately I just don't feel that right now as I did with the GEN III Coupe or Saleens or other new vehicles in my life. Finally I assume stripes are going to be an option. I hope you offer both traditional dual wide stripes that do NOT taper and a Shelby Super Snake style of stripe, both that carry through the entire car length of the exterior with no license plate break ups, etc. Those are important as well.
Can't wait to see the final product. It is close but still no cigar as most of what I mentioned is in the fine tuning only. It's that little bit extra that will make the difference. It is a great hit but not out of the park just yet.
While we can nitpick a lot on the new GEN V because it is different and for a majority of Viper owners, different is just hard to swallow at first, I think SRT did a bang up job with the new GEN V. The interior is perfect in my mind and would not change a thing with the interior on the GTS. The list of suggested changes or options is small however:
1. Adopt a hybrid of the GTS hood and the GTSR Hood. The GTSR car hood is so much more agresssive, with deeper side exhaust vent scoops, not cheap plastic food server vent covers (those HAVE to go for sure). Let those side scoops dip way down into the engine bay like on the GTSR car, and the VOI11 car. Just use black metal screens mounted from the underside of the hood which will make it look WAY better. On the fender cover portions of the hood, get rid of the clown shoe **** that goes up from the window forward. You can still have a rounded look but do it in a raked stance not a ****** stance. The **** stance makes the car look like it had a front end designer and a rear end designer and they did not talk to one another. Looking at underhood pictures, there is room for you to lower those portions sligthly above the wheels. The front NACA duct, just make it flow straight in instead of creating a older look NACA duct where it v's out from the front. Then your hood is perfect!
2. I don't like exposed Carbon Fiber pieces on the exterior. Body color paint that shows the carbon fiber pattern underneath is much cooler looking and less like a slapped together parts car look like the imports out there. True carbon fiber cars don't feel a need to show the carbon fiber bare and let the sun fade and yellow it over time. The Viper has carbon fiber, we know it, so just let someone look at the beautiful paint and when they get close enough, they will see the cross hair carbon fiber pattern underneath. It is way cooler looking than exposed. Hence the back taillight panel should be painted body color. The side brake vent should be black and should swoop further back than it does. Not sure why you stopped short of extending that brake duct panel back further along the swoop. It would have extended the look from the side and made it look wider and more followed through. Not a good example but the 1987 Mustang GT accomplished the same thing with the side window. The window went back further than the viewable window from inside but it created a more proportional and sleeker look, even though it was not using curves.
3. A lot of people are saying the front end looks busy and to me it looks good but where it is busy is that the front brake ducts are so exposed. It would clean it up a lot if you just moved those back further in the grille behind everything. There is no reason to even use carbon fiber on those. Again, makes it look added on and too highlighted; it is not a kit or parts car anymore. Move those back into the opening so they are hidden but still functional and then use black METAL mesh in the opening around your bars and V. It will clean the front end up and look more as designed and intended. While I thought I would like the two side scoops in the ground effects at the front, they just don't do it. The fog lights, like on the GTSR car look better and more at home on the car. Paint the grill bars body color, don't paint them, it doesn't matter to me but I think they look good black, just need to move those brake ducts and limit exposed plastic grilles.
4. The roof just needs to get rid of the hard angular part to the humps and make them rounded and more rounded and pronounced like the GEN II GTS and GEN III / IV cars. That was signature to the Viper and EVERYONE loves them. What you have created now looks too Corvette-ish and there was absolutlely no need to do that. Go back to what was working on that design element.
5. Rear end looks good but there are three areas that still bug me; The rear panel not being painted (which I mentioned already), the rear difuser looks way too busy (just make it simple like the GEN III and your Ferrari breathern) and the side scoops beside the lights. Again get rid of the cheap plastic scoop cups and just have metal mounted from underneath. Additionally take the look from the GTSR car where the scoop is not a small pocket but fills up the tailight panel space fully without lights above it, creating a true skin over skin look like on the GEN II GTS and GENN III / IV Coupe cars. Again this was a design feature everyone loved and was no need to change it. Go back with what was working and what owners want.
6. Finally Who ever is in charge of the rims for SRT, take them out back and shoot them or just be humaine and let them go. The SRT rims offered on the Viper and the JEEP SRT8 are amongst the ugliest rims I have ever seen. I KNOW why you are doing it but stop. The Jeep SRT8 is a lightened refreshed rim which is almost the same as the "flower pattern" rim on the earlier Cayenne Turbos, I get it but stop. The Viper rims on the GTS show car are hideous. Yes they are lighter but they just do NOT go with the body style. Bring back the 5 spokes and other carients. Again talk with your Ferrari breathern as they have some nice options and for the most part know what looks good for the most part. Borrow their software and play around but let the current SRT rim chooser go. It's not helping! Also not everyone is into the dark color rims. I for one am a silver or polished/chrome rim guy. Don't alienate the buying public with these dark color rims as the only option. I don't like them and to be honest if I was paying 100k+ and did not get the rims I wanted factory in the car I was looking at buying new, I just wouldn't buy that car. Crazy to say but there are a lot of others out there like me that will use that same rationale. You need to cater to that to bring people with their check books into the cars. Rims are EXTREMELY important and can make or break a car's looks and appeal.
7. Why do we still need the black exhuast panel around the trim ring. There is a trim ring now so it should absorb the heat negating the black portion to be there. Just make it body color and it will look so much better. It is not like the exhaust pipe is stiking through like in the older GENs. It will make it sleeker looking.
The rest I think you have done a great job. Yes it would be nice to see more power. It's always nice to see more power but to those that want power, they always want more, though 660 hp or a flat 10% improvement would have been nice to see. I am sure a paddle shift tranny will be in there in the future and for those that want or need it, it will be there. No harm by me.
I will say that the car improved in a number of areas from the VOI11 car and that was nice to see but in some of the areas it is not and that was not as nice as compared the VOI11 car. Great first effort however, now build on it to make it the perfect car. It is still not at the point I could consider selling a number of cars in my very small collection including my GEN III Coupe (which I bought new) to have. If you built upon the suggested changes/options, I think it would be pretty close for me to consider it THE CAR I would like to live with for a very long time and just have to have. Unfortunately I just don't feel that right now as I did with the GEN III Coupe or Saleens or other new vehicles in my life. Finally I assume stripes are going to be an option. I hope you offer both traditional dual wide stripes that do NOT taper and a Shelby Super Snake style of stripe, both that carry through the entire car length of the exterior with no license plate break ups, etc. Those are important as well.
Can't wait to see the final product. It is close but still no cigar as most of what I mentioned is in the fine tuning only. It's that little bit extra that will make the difference. It is a great hit but not out of the park just yet.
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