First Impressions of the Comp Coupe...

Bob Woodhouse

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Fellow Viper Comp Coupe Followers: In the tradition of Frank Parise, I shall share some beginning experiences with you about our beloved new cars. The company direction this car represents is consequential and I expect that soon it should come into the spotlight. Once the media get an idea, this may change. A factory race car, engineered and built by an American car company, hey that isn't too common. At first blush the car is taken for an SRT with a few modified body panels and some safety equipment added in so we can go racing. Hmm, amazingly more than this and amazingly underpriced as well. You Viper GT-1 owners will be the first to appreciate it.

Pictured here: Tom Gavin and Eric Petersen during our tour of the assembly facility when we came to pick up chassis # C10. Tom is a specialist in assembly line processes, and Eric most of you know, the head engineer on this project. That's Rick Maxwell blending in with the tool box.

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These body panels belong to Phil Deleo's car. Wow, fabulous quality, done by PVO. Cory Gehling, yours truly and Rick Maxwell wanted to be in the picture to keep it from being too beautiful.

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The rear quarters here represent the construction type for a major portion of the panels. The material is a thin composite with a honeycomb center for strength and a thin back layer. I would guess that all of the body panels together would weigh well under 200 pounds. The flatness, along with panel to panel fit shows a high level of quality.

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Carbon fiber side sills, just a shame they have to be painted. Good insulation material is installed on the back side for the high heat areas. I was especially excited to see the insulation on the inside of the trans tunnel. Our previous car recorded 155 degree in the cabin before and a lot of it is attributable to heat convection through the metal.

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This shot shows the air chamber on the roof of the car. The roof scoop delivers air to this chamber and the two vents facing the driver have a filter behind them!

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C10 as it arrives in Nebraska... kinda Navy ship lookin, hmm... USS, naa, lets paint it.

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She can shed her skin in 4 to 6 hours.

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Snake skin laid flat

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This black box houses both the trans and rear diff coolers. Be sure and inspect the inside of this box. We sealed off some areas where air can bypass the two stacked coolers. Very ingenious set up this is.

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The interior is a class act: the toggle switches are all lettered on the panel, Motec, "one screen does it all" panel takes over from all the other gauges and any open dash holes have been back filled. The red rectangle at the top of the dash is the buckle for the driver's right side net. The red button is the electronic trigger for the fire bottle.

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A viper snake head on the shift knob, seat back, and in the window net buckle is a nice touch. A full dash panel no less, look to the far side above the glove box, you will see a data port surrounded by a piece of kevlar . This is where you plug in your lap top to download those Motec "create it while you drive" track maps.

This pic is laying down but you can see the 4" duct and adjustable stabilizer bar link.

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Still hoping you will see a lot of these cars at Thunder but the timing is real tight. The best way to track them is come to a Viper Days event, check the calendar at www.viperdays.com
 

Gary Lashinsky

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Thanks Bob for the pictures. My CC # C-6 is at Archer Racing getting painted and gone thru front to back. Let me know how you like the new CC when you get a chance to take it to the track.
 
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Bob Woodhouse

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Fred and all, looking forward to seeing you at Thunderhill. We got 2 hours of lapping in Friday here at the local track to give the engine some run in at modest loads and rpms. Ooooh my am I excited, this thing feels goood. I hope you get to see this paint job, I call it the blizzard, cause this car will never get lost in one. It is LOUD.
 

ACR Jim

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Are you going to let us see some pics of the blizzard paint job?

Good luck at Thunder Hill, I'd sure like to see you bring that beast to VIR this summer :eek:
 

GTS97

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BOB, MINE scheduled for delivery tomorrow AM I can't wait but we have to see pictures of yours before You go Racing
Adel
 
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Bob Woodhouse

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OK Gentlemen, you can find some good photos of my comp coupe and several others by going to two places:
Find the thread in the General Discussion on SRT VGX section. Title is: "I think you'll like this! Custom paint schemes! LIVE!" Joseph Houss last posted to on 3/25/03 Tony E took these

Second: Bruce Donaldson has done a great job of putting his under the photo section.
We need to post a butt shot and one from above. This thing is louder what you can make out here.
 

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