Hey Guys,
We just tested these three cars at Fontana Speedway today, and at Willow Springs on Tuesday. Wonkawonka came up to Willow so we could shoot photos of his white GT with the red Viper and blue Corvette press cars (our press GT was Tungsten). The shots look awesome and make a nice theme for our "American Exotics" comparison. :thumbsup You can see a picture here: http://blogs.edmunds.com/karl/
Anyway, at Willow the GT was the fastest in lap times, but all three cars were within a second of each other. In order of fastest lap times it was GT, Z06, Viper.
For acceleration and braking today we got some killer numbers (BTW, I didn't do any of the driving for this; it was an outside, "hot shoe" guy we brought in to ensure good numbers -- and to avoid any possible bias by yours truly).
I can't remember everything, but all the numbers will be in the story when it posts in a few weeks. Here's what I do remember (and these numbers are UNCORRECTED AT 1,200 FT ELEVATION):
Ford GT -- 0-60 4.1 seconds; 1/4-mile 11.91 seconds
Corvette Z06 -- 0-60 can't remember :confused ; 1/4-mile 12.10
Dodge Viper -- 0-60 can't remember :confused ; 1/4-mile 12.80 (I think)
Basically, I remember the GT was the quickest in acceleration. I didn't catch braking numbers. Also, GT was the quickest through the 600-foot slalom, though again the Z06 wasn't far behind. Our test driver had never driven a GT before Tuesday, so yet more proof that this car is very easy to quickly master and drive very fast. :biggrin
Remember, these numbers are UNCORRECTED. The temperature was actually really good for testing today, so that will have almost no effect on the numbers when we correct for conditions, but the altitude at Fontana is consistently good for around 3/10ths of a second. In other words, I expect the corrected number on the GT to be somewhere around 11.6 seconds in the quarter (it might even be a high 11.5 :eek ).
Either way, these cars are all very fast! :banana But I do feel bad for the Viper Coupe. Throwing the GT out for a second and just looking at the sub-$100,000 cars, the Viper is more expensive, slower, and harder to live with than the Vette. It also has a weaker interior (which is pretty scary, 'cause the Vette's ain't great), and the exhaust note isn't as good. I think the Viper still clearly wins the styling category, but otherwise I don't see how you justify it in today's world. I was the car's biggest fan for the past 14 years, but as of late 2005 I feel like the performance car world has passed Dodge's supercar by. :frown
We just tested these three cars at Fontana Speedway today, and at Willow Springs on Tuesday. Wonkawonka came up to Willow so we could shoot photos of his white GT with the red Viper and blue Corvette press cars (our press GT was Tungsten). The shots look awesome and make a nice theme for our "American Exotics" comparison. :thumbsup You can see a picture here: http://blogs.edmunds.com/karl/
Anyway, at Willow the GT was the fastest in lap times, but all three cars were within a second of each other. In order of fastest lap times it was GT, Z06, Viper.
For acceleration and braking today we got some killer numbers (BTW, I didn't do any of the driving for this; it was an outside, "hot shoe" guy we brought in to ensure good numbers -- and to avoid any possible bias by yours truly).
I can't remember everything, but all the numbers will be in the story when it posts in a few weeks. Here's what I do remember (and these numbers are UNCORRECTED AT 1,200 FT ELEVATION):
Ford GT -- 0-60 4.1 seconds; 1/4-mile 11.91 seconds
Corvette Z06 -- 0-60 can't remember :confused ; 1/4-mile 12.10
Dodge Viper -- 0-60 can't remember :confused ; 1/4-mile 12.80 (I think)
Basically, I remember the GT was the quickest in acceleration. I didn't catch braking numbers. Also, GT was the quickest through the 600-foot slalom, though again the Z06 wasn't far behind. Our test driver had never driven a GT before Tuesday, so yet more proof that this car is very easy to quickly master and drive very fast. :biggrin
Remember, these numbers are UNCORRECTED. The temperature was actually really good for testing today, so that will have almost no effect on the numbers when we correct for conditions, but the altitude at Fontana is consistently good for around 3/10ths of a second. In other words, I expect the corrected number on the GT to be somewhere around 11.6 seconds in the quarter (it might even be a high 11.5 :eek ).
Either way, these cars are all very fast! :banana But I do feel bad for the Viper Coupe. Throwing the GT out for a second and just looking at the sub-$100,000 cars, the Viper is more expensive, slower, and harder to live with than the Vette. It also has a weaker interior (which is pretty scary, 'cause the Vette's ain't great), and the exhaust note isn't as good. I think the Viper still clearly wins the styling category, but otherwise I don't see how you justify it in today's world. I was the car's biggest fan for the past 14 years, but as of late 2005 I feel like the performance car world has passed Dodge's supercar by. :frown