Disclaimer: I own both of the cars discussed in this review, and hopefully this will be a non-partisan exercise. I have posted this review on both the FORDGTFORUM and VIPERCLUB sites, and I welcome views from both camps. I will base my comparison of the two cars on random categories, presented in no particular order. First, the basics:
The 2006 Ford GT.
I purchased the GT new in 2006. Since then, I have driven it about 6500 miles, on both the track and the street. It is the second GT I have owned, the first was a 2005. Since purchase, I have added a larger Whipple supercharger, a cat-back x pipe, and I lowered the car about an inch. I also installed a transmission cooler and a short shift kit. In fairness, I will base my comparison of the GT’s engine performance in its pre-Whipple form.
The 2008 Viper ACR.
The ACR arrived about a month ago, and I’ve already put over 1500 miles on it, on the street and on the Track. I have not modified it in any way, except to lower the ride height by an inch front and rear, which is very easy, considering that the Viper comes from the factory with fully adjustable KW shocks.
Category 1: Engine
Ford GT. The Ford engine is an all-aluminum mechanical masterpiece. Supercharged, liquid intercooled, dual overhead camshafts, 32 valves, dry sump. Its beefy bottom-end design allows for major power modifications, sometimes in excess of 1000 horsepower. In comparison to the Viper, the GT engine is relatively compact, and the dry sump allows for low mounting in the chassis, reducing the car’s overall center of gravity. The power delivery of the GT is unique; a satisfying combination of polished refinement and neck straining ferocity. The engine starts with an exuberant bark, but it is docile at light throttle and as easy to drive in traffic as a Lexus. When you decide to poke the loud pedal, however, prepare for honey smooth, fire hose volumes of thrust. The GT pulls and pulls and then pulls some more. There is virtually no lag between pedal and blast off, and the power build is exponential as the revs climb. It’s an experience in controlled violence, like igniting dynamite in a billet steel box. When evaluated as a complete package, the GT has the most satisfying and entertaining engine of any car I have ever owned. It really is that good.
Viper ACR. After spending some seat time in the Viper, including a road trip from Arizona to Utah and some quality track time, I have tried to imagine the conversation that the Viper team had when they first envisioned the project: “Okay guys, here’s our mission: first we get the biggest honkin’ engine we can, (hey, how ‘bout maybe we use our V10 truck engine?) then we cram it into the front of a light, mean looking coupe so we can stomp the snot out of the Corvette. Refinement? We don’t need no stinking Refinement. We spit in the mother’s milk of your refinement.”
The first ten minutes in the Viper will convince you that they did not stray from their mission. The engine has so much torque that it twists the two-by-sixes in my garage when I fire it up. The Viper is a hoot to drive from signal to signal simply because it all feels so effortless, like you have a well of freight train torque so deep that you could never fully plumb its depths. The Viper takes that concept of effortless power to its extreme, and then adds about three more liters of displacement to it. For crying out loud, this thing has ten pistons, all going medieval on the crank at the same time. And it’s got 8.4 liters! That’s a Ford GT engine with a Porsche engine added in for good measure. As you would imagine, acceleration is ballistic; it distorts the vision and even makes respiration a challenge. Where the GT engine builds power in an exponential swell, i.e., 2 becomes 4 which then becomes 8, the Viper starts at 8 and stays there all the way to red line. This thing is a brute. A strange characteristic of the Viper is how the engine note in your ears and the accelerometer in your **** do not correspond: take a long draw on the throttle, and the engine just sort of grinds out a low, protracted belch. All the while, however, your internal organs are jostling for new positions as your body cavity is compressed. A glance at the speedo and your now overworked self-preservation nerves begin screaming phrases like “criminal speeding” and “custodial arrest
While driving the Viper on the two lane roads between Arizona and Utah, I was passing cars like swatting flies. Just outside of Panguitch, I busted a move on a wheezing Toyota Yaris. As I approached, I grabbed a lower gear for effect and mashed the throttle. Without warning, the little giblet of a Yaris got sucked right into the Viper’s intake. It just disappeared. The remains came rattling out of my exhaust a few seconds later. The owner’s manual didn’t say anything about this dangerous phenomenon.
ADVANTAGE: Refined power: GT. Unrefined, jet-engine-strapped- to-a -sled power: Viper.
Category Two: Fit and Finish, Exterior and Interior.
Ford GT. The longer I own the GT, the more impressed I am with its quality. After two years of pretty regular use on both the road and track, it still looks, feels and drives like brand new. The quality of the interior is evident in how well the materials stand up to use, and the exterior paint and panel quality is among the best of any car I have ever owned.
Viper ACR. The paint/panel work on the Viper is virtually flawless, and for a black car, that is saying something indeed. It has no detectable orange peel. The red stripe on my car is sharp and clean edged. The panel gaps are surprisingly tight and uniform, easily comparable to any of the European competition. The interior is well assembled, but overall, lower quality materials are used than in the GT. For example, the fantastic leather on the GT seats could easily compete with that of the Ferrari F430, where the seat bolsters on the Viper are vinyl. (This is probably great for wear and durability, but somewhat unusual in a $100,000 car.) Ironically, the Viper seats are far more comfortable and have better lateral support than those in the GT. The Viper’s interior is obviously not where the Viper guys spent a lot of their design or financial resources. However, I am more than impressed with the overall quality of the Viper.
ADVANTAGE: Exterior, Draw. Interior, Ford GT.
Category Three: Handling and Stability on public roads
Ford GT. As mentioned earlier, I lowered the GT about an inch, and I also had a more aggressive alignment performed on the front end. The already excellent handling of the GT is significantly improved by adding a bit of negative camber. Steering response is even more razor sharp, and turn-in crisp and accurate. The alignment work also dialed out the mild understeer that I noticed when I really pressed the car into a corner. On the road, the characteristic that is the most striking about the GT is its straight line, high speed stability. My personal top speed record was shattered (by 40 mph!) in the GT, and it was without any mechanical drama. At warp speed, the GT tracks so effortlessly true that it makes the posted speed limit seem like a cruel joke. I have yet to drive a car that is as stable and secure at speed as the GT. It is, plain and simple, a missile on rails.
Viper ACR. I must preface my comments on the Viper’s street handling by stating that I have not measured the car’s alignment, either before or after I lowered the spring perches on the adjustable shocks (I also have not altered the rebound or compression from the factory settings). Certainly, lowering the car has a significant effect on the alignment specs.
The Viper, not surprisingly, feels like a race car on the road, much more so than the GT. I can’t imagine being brave, or foolish, enough to exceed its incredible adhesion thresholds on any public roadway. Frankly, all the ACR swagger seems like overkill if all a guy does with it is drive to the mall for a Starbucks. The steering is almost too sensitive; the smallest movement on the wheel translates into an instantaneous jink in that direction. The steam roller front tires follow ruts in the asphalt with alarming proclivity, and on several occasions during the drive to Utah, I had to slow down where the Southwestern sun and tractor trailers had rutted the tarmac. On smooth roads, of course, the problem disappears. However, you’ve still got to hold the wheel stock steady unless you want to wander about like a drunken sailor. I’m not sure if this characteristic is a result of the tires, the alignment, or something else, but it does take some getting used to. When my bud drove the Viper for the first time, his initial response was that the steering was very nervous. High speed stability (120+) on a smooth road is fine, but even under the most ideal circumstances, the Viper cannot compete with the stellar GT in the category of high speed stability.
ADVANTAGE: GT, by a long shot
Category Four: At the Race Track.
I am fortunate to have a membership at Larry Miller Motorsports Park in Utah. This is truly a world-class facility, and I have been privileged to drive the track in various configurations on many occasions, in at least six different cars. I’ve gone to driving school there twice, and regularly participate in open track events. While I certainly do not fancy myself an expert (my lap times establish that I am in no danger of leaving the “gentleman driver” category any time soon) I have, at least, driven the track enough to allow for some basic comparisons.
The GT. (On hard-as-a-brick factory supplied Goodyears) The GT is as friendly and stable on the track as it is on the street. When driven at 8/10ths, the car is remarkably neutral and composed. The chassis is billet rigid and flex free, and this makes for a sense of absolute precision and composure at the track. When pressed, the GT has mild plow in a neutral, steady state corner. However, this is easily corrected with either a) a heaver right foot or b) a minor alignment modification. The GT’s abundant power and torque make gear selection on corner exit not nearly as critical as it would be in, say, a Porsche. Overall, it is an incredibly satisfying and confidence-inspiring car at the track. The engine temperature in my GT tends to get a bit hot when driven in anger at the track on toasty summer days. This is usually not a factor since the sessions are only twenty minutes long, but it is something that causes me concern.
The Viper ACR. (On super wide, soft, semi slick Michelin Pilot Cup Sports) The ACR is, pure and simple, a brilliant track car. Several months ago, I was at the track driving my GT, and I had passed and respassed most of the other street cars participating that day. I began to feel quite smug. I was reflecting upon my heroic driving skills when a brand new green Viper with the Woodhouse plate still on it entered the track. It came blowing by me like I was driving a Plymouth Volare. I attempted to give chase, but it was hopeless. The Viper was simply too fast, and/or too well driven for me to compete. I was so impressed that I decided to look at getting a Viper and oulah, the ACR called my name.
Allow me to digress for a moment. I lived in Chile for a time. One day, while visiting the seaside, a tiny little penguin came weebling and wobbling up the beach. We were all amused at how ungainly the wee little creature was on dry land. Obviously, mother nature had not designed the bird with an emphasis on taking beach strolls. However, in the water, the penguin was quick as a watermelon seed squeezed between two fingers. The disparity of ability was amazing. On the performance/predator evasion spectrum, the weight was obviously on the surf side, not the turf.
Similarly, the ACR makes a whole new world of sense to me once it is unleashed at the track. It’s gargantuan torque becomes the equivalent of a medieval mace in a pumpkin patch. The hyper-quick steering, which is distracting on the street, is like a scalpel at the track. The massive aerodynamic aids really do pin the car to asphalt as speeds increase, and I feel more confident in it, at much higher speeds, than in any other car I have taken to the track. Those massive front tires that wander through ruts on the street? They laugh in the face of understeer and make the car change direction like a slot car on the track. The Stoptech brakes are terrific, and, at my level of driving, are in no way inferior to the carbon brakes on the Porsche GT3RS that I owned. (Except, of course, for the comparative unsprung weight penalty). The car is so far beyond my driving capabilities that it will be a year-long project for me just to find and exploit its limits. This is not a car for amateurs, but I won’t let that stop me.
ADVANTAGE: VIPER ACR, and its not even close.
Category Five: Styling
The GT. Viewed from the rear ¾ view, it’s striking how hunkered down and horizontal the GT is. The roof line is so low that you can lose the GT completely when it is surrounded by other cars in a parking lot. Equally striking is the supercharger-under-glass centered in the rear clamshell. Viewed from the side, you are surprised at how compact and tidy the car appears, the rear haunches of the car mounting up taut and poised behind the cockpit, stretched over those tall rear wheels and fat tires. The top of the broad, flat front fender comes up just above your knee, and the broad, deeply contoured venturi wedge of a hood is unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. Only a mid engine car can look this good. At the rear of the car, the diffuser, strapped way down low, looks like something straight out the American LeMans series. The whole car looks brooding and purposeful, as if it will slip beneath the wind like a polished stone under a silk sheet. If you’ve ever seen a GT jink through traffic on a busy freeway, you know that is looks like an F1 car among school buses. The GT is seriously one of the coolest cars, ever.
The ACR. I must admit that I have been a sucker for the styling of the Generation III-IV Vipers ever since I first saw one at the Chicago auto show a few years back. The Gen III-IV out Corvettes the Corvette, that is, it perfects the look that the Corvette tries for: long, low, wide hood, sharply creased pontoon front fenders flowing back to muscular rear haunches. The proportion of the hood length compared to the size of the cockpit and the flowing rear glass is just right to my eye. It’s hard to find a bad angle on the Viper Coupe. The ACR package in black makes an already mean car look sinister. The rear wing, in all of its exposed carbon fiber glory, is almost cartoon scale and surprising complex in its contour. It sits so high that the driver cannot even see it in the rear view. The front splitter and winglets, also in carbon fiber, combine to make a sort of visual-mechanical logic when viewed in conjunction with the massive rear wing.
The Viper’s styling can best be described as exuberant swagger. The hood is a masterpiece of overstatement: huge, functional air inlet front and center, impossibly long with beautifully sculpted symmetrical vents stacking back on one another like the exhaust outlets on a P-51. The single red stripe, offset to the driver’s side, is transferred, with a wink of the designer’s eye, to the top of the steering wheel, as well as to the upright that supports the rear wing. When I look at the Viper, I almost get the impression that the designers was like the homerun slugger who gives a devilish smile just before he puts the ball out the park. The ACR seems to say, in its own southern drawl, “It aint braggin’ if you can do it.”
ADVANTAGE: The nod here has to go to the GT, but it’s purely subjective on my part. The GT’s mid engine configuration allows for a more unique styling language than the traditional front engine design of the Viper.
Category Six: The “Keeper Equation”
This refers to whether a car is the kind of woman you want to date or the one that you want to marry. In this regard, both cars are, without a doubt, true keepers.
Ford GT. Even in exotic-drenched Scottsdale, seeing a GT rolling along is a rare treat. Ferraris and Lamborghinis are commonplace in comparison. Ford broke the mold after they built the GT, and given the price of fuel and the new green craze, it seems unlikely we will ever see the likes of it again. When it comes to the GT, I like that idea that I will never be driving “last year’s model”. When you drive the GT, when you wax the GT, when you look at its engineering and its aerodynamics, you know that it is a very special car. Viper guys, if you haven’t had the chance to ride in, or better yet drive, a GT, you owe it to yourself to do so. If you are ever in Utah (summer) or Arizona (winter) I would be happy to oblige.
Viper. The Viper is slated for extinction in 2009, and the ACR is the Viper in its purest, least compromised form. It is the high water mark of modern, front engined American race muscle for the street, and I can’t imagine a better example of pure, exuberant excess. It is a track monster that, in the right hands, will slap down all comers, the new GTR included. It has a street presence that will make the Corvette driver soil himself. I can see myself still owning both of these cars twenty years from now. At least, that’s what I keep promising my wife.
Special Awards:
Best shift action: Viper. I thought the GT’s shifter was the ultimate, I was wrong. If there is a more positive and perfectly mechanical shifter than the Viper’s, I haven’t found it yet.
Car most likely to result in bodies hanging out of windows on the freeway taking cell phone photos: Draw. True story: A bud of mine and our wives went out on a Saturday night in the GT and the ACR for dinner. We were rumbling side by side on the freeway. I now know what it must feel like to be a rock star. My friend said he actually started to get nervous with the hectic swarm of groupies crowding around us – all while driving at 80 mph! We began to tire of the theatrics, and when some poor little misguided M3 thought he’d try to do a roll-on, he got slapped down by the Whipple-ized GT and the Mighty ACR like a Bavarian prima dona in a WWF tag team match.
Car most likely to make a Z06 owner pummel his forehead and ask “what was I thinking?” The Viper. For roughly the same money (yes, even the non-ACR Viper is more expensive, but only by a bit, and what’s $10,000 when automotive greatness is at stake?) the Viper bests the Corvette in every category. I’ve had significant wheel time in a Z06 and it just can’t compete with the Viper, much less the ACR. For my money, the Viper is worth twice the price of the Z06. Hmm…wonder if the new ZR1 can step up to the plate?
Worst exhaust note of any car, ever, for all time: Viper. I once read in Car and Driver that the Viper sounds like a UPS truck. I thought they were exaggerating. They weren’t. I’ve read that the Viper team has worked on making the Viper sound more exotic. It didn’t work. I guess you could say that the Viper’s engine note is exotic in its own, “special” way. To me, it sounds like a cross between a school bus and a dump truck. Guess I just have to accept that the V-10 geometry results in an engine that sounds like an industrial cement mixer.
Final Thoughts. Overall, both cars certainly deserve their reputations near the top of the exotic car food chain. If I could have only one, it would have to be the GT, owing to its unique design, engineering, and high speed abilities. However, if I made my living as a track hustler, I’d be crazy to try to go up against a well driven ACR. When I get out of the Viper at the track, I find myself spontaneously gushing that gem of astute observation annunciated by the unnamed Nascar driver: “Ma car’s jus’ all ate up with motor”.
For you comic book movie fans, the best analogy I can come up with is that the GT is the equivalent of Iron Man, lithe, quick, tough and ballistic. The Viper is Hellboy, cigar stub smoldering in his mouth, a stone sledge hammer hand on one side and a street cannon being held by the other.
Thanks for taking the time to read this, and as always, I would sincerely appreciate my fellow GT and/or Viper owner’s comments, criticisms, corrections and observations. I also apologize in advance to the Corvette owners that I have offended. May I assuage their anger by sharing that I have owned no less than five Corvettes, and I have many fond memories of driving each of them. I’m also a huge Corvette GT1 fan in the Amercan Lemans series. Just take my word for it, Corvette guys, and don’t try to tangle with an ACR.
