Ralph Gilles comments taken out of context - Pure Lunacy follows!

[purenxs]

Personally, I find it refreshing to see a CEO like Ralph Gilles, who can walk the talk and not afraid to openly speak his/her mind, especially when they share that passion and enthusiasm of the Viper, as he does. I'm currently a Corvette owner, but I love the Viper as well and plan on buying a Gen V. Both are great American Sports cars. The quality of hand built, detailed high quality interior & exterior, coupled with awesome performance and unique styling.

Now for the lunacy; http://forums.corvetteforum.com/c7-...es-call-the-corvette-a-disposable-device.html

 

[Nsane1]

Thanks for the link. That thread is pretty disrespectful. I don't think you'd find that kind of character assassination of Bob Lutz, or anyone at GM for that manner, here. I think the c7 looks terrible from the rear, but that's a matter of taste, to take it where these zealots have taken it is lunacy, as you say.

I'd put Ralph and his passion against anyone over at GM. Sure, they can laugh all they want at less-than-stellar sales, but isn't that the true mettle of a man, seeing what they do in adversity? What's he done with it? Improved, learned, changed (T/A, crazy colors). Please don't take this personally Pure, but we are comparing a car that many can afford, and where MANY are sold and comparing it with, even in amazing years, a car that sold a tenth of what Vette sales were in a year. So I care not when guys like that say "I'll take a vette anyday over a Viper" since, clearly 30k people a year make that same decision, not a real reason for elitism, or crazy-awesome decision making examples.

Thanks again for the post, and car love, I LOVE old Vettes and will have one one day, but c5+ simply don't do it for me, but I won't assail (at least not jokingly) assail anyone for making that choice.

 

[purenxs]

Thanks for the link. That thread is pretty disrespectful. I don't think you'd find that kind of character assassination of Bob Lutz, or anyone at GM for that manner, here. I think the c7 looks terrible from the rear, but that's a matter of taste, to take it where these zealots have taken it is lunacy, as you say.

I'd put Ralph and his passion against anyone over at GM. Sure, they can laugh all they want at less-than-stellar sales, but isn't that the true mettle of a man, seeing what they do in adversity? What's he done with it? Improved, learned, changed (T/A, crazy colors). Please don't take this personally Pure, but we are comparing a car that many can afford, and where MANY are sold and comparing it with, even in amazing years, a car that sold a tenth of what Vette sales were in a year. So I care not when guys like that say "I'll take a vette anyday over a Viper" since, clearly 30k people a year make that same decision, not a real reason for elitism, or crazy-awesome decision making examples.

Thanks again for the post, and car love, I LOVE old Vettes and will have one one day, but c5+ simply don't do it for me, but I won't assail (at least not jokingly) assail anyone for making that choice.

No offense taken. I love my '427' but I will probably own a Viper next, for the reasons I've previously mentioned. I love some of the technological and performances advances the C7 has over my C6, but I'm not a big fan of the C7 styling, particularly the rear end so I chose to buy the '427' at a price point higher than a fully loaded C7 Stingray. The Z06 will be an awesome machine but I can't get passionate about the looks.

Now back to the some of the comments made regarding Ralph Gilles in the Viper seem to rejoice in sagging sales and invite it's (Viper) failure. If you're a sports car enthusiast or motorcycle enthusiast drive/ride what you like (end of story)!

 

[rollymohan]

i just pick up a genv ta and i love it.the car is beautiful inside and outside.Anyone who says that this car is still like the old viper doesnot know what they are saying. this car can be driven like an everyday car.it is so comfortable .I kept my 2001 supercharged viper and i am glad i did because when i need that crazy tires smoking ,rough on the edge thrill i will drive it.

 

[Bruce H.]

Maybe the SRT and Gen V critics here could go join the SRT and Gen V critics over there and they could all have a wonderful time

(And congrats Rollymohan!)

 

[Twister]

52k base price verses 102k base price. Why do people even try and act like vettes and vipers are in the same class. There is a HUGE differance in ownership betweeen the two cars. Sure you could but a fully optioned z06 carbon at 100k that matches the price of a base viper. I get that.

You can also buy shelby mustangs that cost more than base corvettes. Dosent mean a mustang is on the same level as a vette.

I just dont get the vette guys anymore. I was a vette owner and on that forum. I made it no secret that I liked my vette but only got it over a viper because I could afford a 50k 2004 c5 but not an 85k 2004 viper. I never had any delusions that my mass produced vette was as good as a viper.

90% of the vette owners have 450hp and below vettes. Thats like 1996 for us. 505 hp is 2003 for us. We are talking 10 or 20 years ago.

Im venting but I just gotta laugh. Is the vette a nice looking car. Sure. It sounds good and the higher end models are plenty quick. So is a shelby mustang. But if you can get the base model of your car for 50k then guess what. Your car is nothing special. No differant than the abundance of 50k bmws mercedes and audis you see literally every where.

 

[ViperSmith]

Half the comments could have been copied and pasted from this forum

 

[DMan]

Half the comments could have been copied and pasted from this forum

LoL, true dat.

As for the cars, it's just guys being passionate and defensive about their car of choice. As for Ralph, I've heard him speak a few times and have spent over an hour personally with him to get feel of his personality. He is a little up on himself, but he's a CEO, I'm a CEO twice over, once of a NADAQ company, and you have to have strong confidence and some peeps can read that wrong. But he's down to earth in that it's his baby & he'll defend it and get emotional about it like a parent does their child. I take it as a good thing.

One thing about those posts is seeing where the optiions about the viper come from, the gaffs in the press with bad test cars and the mags putting it down, all adds up. I do think people are forming opinions based on these reviews. "the viper is fine if want to go in a straight line", are you kidding me??!!?? In the same thread where they talk about it holding the Laguna record, they post it's a straight line car, then what about every other performance car that runs slower at Laguna, which would be all cars, including the vette. All from a video review or whatever.

I keep seeing Dodges commercial with a spear formation of vehicles on an airstrip with a theme that they don't drive too fast, they fly too low ... and no flagship Viper in the commercial. Really? I still say the marketing is so screwed up on this incredible car, people believe what they review & watch, and MT would have you believe it's more fun to drive a Ford ****** than a Viper.

 

[mnc2886]

I agree with the sentiment here that Viper is a different vehicle than a Vette. However, if Ralph didn't want to be compared to it, then he should have never mentioned that his Viper program purchased a ZR1 as an evaluation tool during development. So what if a Vette gets compared to Viper? Doesn't everyone here get excited to mention that no Ferrari, Porsche, Lamborghini, or McLaren under a million dollars can beat a Viper on a track? How is that any different. Forget the Viper costing what 2 Vettes cost. An Aventador is 4-5 times the price of a Viper.

In reality, Ralph just invited more head to heads with Vettes. He is sturring the ***.

 

[purenxs]

I agree that SRT Viper needs to make a better effort at promotion (no Viper at the S.F. Intl. Auto Show) and immediately dispell mis-information as quickly as it comes out. In this particular instance Ralph made no comments referencing the Vette, more like the Vette journalist (I loose the term loosely here) saw an opportunity to stir the ***, knowing Ralph is a controversial figure.

I love my Vette as well, but I'm not so delusional to think for a moment it is on the same level of a Viper, costs aside. In terms of quality build, paint, interior, and assembly, the Viper clearly exceeds the Corvette. In my case HP & Trq as well as I'm at 505hp & 470trq, however the ZR1 would be Viper SRT's counterpart in terms of cost and performance.

 

[BigDawg]

The reason you cannot compare them is they are in different classes. The Corvette is a sports car. It's mass produced. The Viper is an exotic. Period. That's why it makes more sense to compare a Porsche 911 to a Corvette. THey are mass produced, mass marketed machines. They are not exotics, and they sure as hell aren't supercars.

Sure it's fun to compare the performance of them. Just because the GTR (sports car/exotic) is faster than some supercars doesn't make the GTR a competitor, nor does it make the GTR a supercar.

Ralph is right. In reality, the Viper is in a league of its' own. It's not a mass produced sports car, and hopefully it never will be.

 

[crimson11]

Ralph is right. In reality, the Viper is in a league of its' own. It's not a mass produced sports car, and hopefully it never will be.

I wholeheartedly agree, I thought that he cleared up the whole, "not selling well" rumor already but I guess not...a low volume Supercar that's not selling millions of cars who would've thought?!:roll eyes: Seems like that's the only ammo they have over there at the vette forum is "how's the sales?" not thinking that if you're comparing the sales of a rare, low-volume/production supercar with that of a HIGH-VOLUME/PRODUCTION car with a VERY LARGE BUDGET that you see on every corner, then sure, you may have an argument but I don't really see one here, for a company that has less then half of that budget, and less to work with, I think SRT has done a great job, they've made some mistakes, but most importantly, how they've learned from those mistakes is the important thing.

P.S. I love this message

Quote:
Originally Posted by 2k07z06 View Post
So how did it go this past week end at the Rolex in those Vipers?

i think one came in 3rd of 4th. they beat the vette..

 

[bushido]

The reason you cannot compare them is they are in different classes. The Corvette is a sports car. It's mass produced. The Viper is an exotic. Period. That's why it makes more sense to compare a Porsche 911 to a Corvette. THey are mass produced, mass marketed machines. They are not exotics, and they sure as hell aren't supercars.

.

Different classes? So why is the Viper racing against the corvette at the 24 hours Daytona, or at Le Mans in the same class?This rivalry goes back many years. You know those famous words "race on Sunday sell on Monday"..

IMO Ralph has ran out of ammunition for the Viper,and has to make excuses .. Where GM has vast amount of money for development, innovation. Not to mention their huge connections in motorsport racing in Europe.. It is going to be up to FIAT since they now own Chrysler.. Hopefully Sergio will cut Ralph loose,and let him and his team do what they want..

 

[Free2go]

I thought I read somewhere that the original Gen V test car at Laguna Seca failed to beat the Corvettes so they tweaked it and called it a T/A...and the T/A's were born. There is a clear rivalry and I believe they are in the same class. Comparing the ZR1 to the Viper seems fair. You don't see ZR1's everywhere and they are comparable performance wise.

 

[DMan]

I thought I read somewhere that the original Gen V test car at Laguna Seca failed to beat the Corvettes so they tweaked it and called it a T/A...and the T/A's were born. There is a clear rivalry and I believe they are in the same class. Comparing the ZR1 to the Viper seems fair. You don't see ZR1's everywhere and they are comparable performance wise.

Ralph reported that the TA was already designed and slated for later release in the year, the Laguna event caused him to push it up on timeline, so if you believe that than they didn't create the TA as a response they just released it earlier than planned to save face.

 

[Bobpantax]

They are just jealous that SRT has a CEO with a personality and they do not. Who would you rather hang out with? Ralph or the stiff who introduced the 2015 Z06? It isn't even close. GM could have used a Walt Disney Automaton instead of the human they utilized. Wait. Maybe it was an automaton.

 

[purenxs]

They are just jealous that SRT has a CEO with a personality and they do not. Who would you rather hang out with? Ralph or the stiff who introduced the 2015 Z06? It isn't even close. GM could have used a Walt Disney Automaton instead of the human they utilized. Wait. Maybe it was an automaton.

Now that is really on the money. G.M. could take a lesson from Ralph on how to make a presentation, when introducing a new model. The Z06 presentation was dreadful, and that's being kind!

 

[Twister]

Ralphs the man!

 

[Stealth]

Different classes? So why is the Viper racing against the corvette at the 24 hours Daytona, or at Le Mans in the same class?This rivalry goes back many years. You know those famous words "race on Sunday sell on Monday"..

IMO Ralph has ran out of ammunition for the Viper,and has to make excuses .. Where GM has vast amount of money for development, innovation. Not to mention their huge connections in motorsport racing in Europe.. It is going to be up to FIAT since they now own Chrysler.. Hopefully Sergio will cut Ralph loose,and let him and his team do what they want..

EXACTLY! Well said. I believe Ralph is a awesome car guy and just needs the greenbacks!

 

[JonB]

Here is exactly what Bob Lutz says about the industry, and about Ralph Gilles at minutes 32 and 43.If you are a CAR GUY of any stripe, you will thoroughly enjoy this 60 minutes. If you are fortunate to know some of the players that Mr Lutz mentions, you will belly-laugh more than once. ENJOY, and THANKS to Chrysler Rertirees Org:http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CY2-in...=/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=CY2-in-G4vc

 

[kdaviper]

should we expect anything else from Vette fanbois? let them drink their arsenic-laced kool-aid.

 

[Bobpantax]

Very interesting Jon. Thanks for posting the video.

Here is exactly what Bob Lutz says about the industry, and about Ralph Gilles at minutes 32 and 43.If you are a CAR GUY of any stripe, you will thoroughly enjoy this 60 minutes. If you are fortunate to know some of the players that Mr Lutz mentions, you will belly-laugh more than once. ENJOY, and THANKS to Chrysler Rertirees Org:http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CY2-in-G4vc&feature=player_embedded&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Ffeature%3Dplayer_embedded%26v%3DCY2-in-G4vc

 

[hawkeye]

I'm at the point where, I'm doing that annoying thing that Ferrari guys who "get it" do (at least for the older Ferraris... I'm not so sure about the new ones).

I'm saying "Yes, but... Viper is Viper". Especially after spending some time with a Gen V which I believe could be one of the most engaging street cars ever made (I have yet to drive a F40 or CGT but they have their work cut out for them...).

But, but, but, XYZ has a dual clutch that shifts in 30ms. "Sure, but... Viper is Viper".

It will just drive people bat**** who don't understand, and those who do understand will simply smile and nod in agreement...

 

[JohnHammer]

I was working the SRT display at Petit LeMans last Fall & spoke with the owner of a current ZR1. He was giving our new Viper GTS a thorough once over & was VERY complimentary. He told me he'd been a Corvette guy since he was a little boy & when he finally had the means, got himself the biggest, baddest Corvette he could (the ZR1 at $130k). However, he pointed out, he was "...sick & tired of explaining to everyone why his Corvette is special." Pointing out that to Joe Average, the ZR1 still looks like every other C5/C6 Corvette out there. Folks like us can tell, but face it, enthusiasts like us are NOT the norm. He went on to say that "...but no matter what year, EVERY Viper is special to anyone on the street!"

His story is one I share often when folks ask me to compare the 2 cars.

 

[DMan]

I think my son put it best. He's away at college.

When the Z06 was revealed I texted him and asked if had seen it yet, he replied "no, but I saw the base C7, so yes"

I laughed out loud, a 20 yr old gets it.

 

[Nsane1]

Sounds like your son picked up some good car taste along the way... Thanks for the laugh

I think my son put it best. He's away at college.

When the Z06 was revealed I texted him and asked if had seen it yet, he replied "no, but I saw the base C7, so yes"

I laughed out loud, a 20 yr old gets it.