- Jul 13, 2006
- 4,782
Snakebite: Z06
- Thread starter Kayvan
- Start date
Honestly, I was surprised they gave the Vette such a hard time. They really preferred it heavily the last time they tested the two cars, but really made it sound like a car for pansies this time around (compared to the Viper). Very different cars either way.
Cyclenirvana
GT Owner
In the past, most reviews of have given points to the vette for practicality, better every day driveability, luggage space, etc...so it usually beat the Viper and even our Ford GT (especially when affordability was concerned). It appears that this time they placed a greater emphasis on the performance and the track.
Like everything else it comes down to driver, but I don't believe that test! It was by far the slowest I have seen a Z06 tested. I have owned many, many vipers including the first successful supercharged one done by Jason Heffner and I am a fan of the viper although I don't think its nearly as refined a car as the Z06 with its alum frame and so forth and I feel they were unfair with the Z06. I also own a Z06, an 06 with about 1500 miles on it, in another thread on this site DBK posted a couple video's of my GT running some 1/4 miles, on that exact same track the day before my bone, stone stock Z06 ran 11.28 at 127.2 and 11.20 at 127.6 on my only 2 pass's. If you scroll up and look at one of the video's DBK posted of my GT I was running a guy in a new Z06, the guy I was running was driving his sons car for the first time and it was his first pass ever in the car and he was 71 years old!!! He ran like an 11.7 at 126 and they could only get 122 out of theirs in the test??? For me the Ford GT is the most awesome all around beautiful rolling artwork of a car I have ever seen, performance, looks #1 (FOR ME!). But the quickest factory stock car I have ever driven by a long shot is the Z06 and when they start building the new Viper I want someone to bring one out bone stock and drive it around my Z06! It ain't gonna happen!
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FORDGT001
GT Owner
- Dec 9, 2005
- 300
I think Edmunds got it Right. Most of the time the Z wins these Comparo's because its more comfortable with more amenities. If I want more comfort I'll buy a bentley. I just sold my 07Z and although it was a good performance car for the money it doesn't hold a candle to my 06 Viper in as far as ownership experience goes. Once the 08 Viper hits the streets we will see real world numbers and the Viper will easily prevail in speed contests stock for stock. Its simple physics the 08 Viper has better power to weight and better tires and a revised rear end and tranny.
It's purely because of the way they do they testing. In excessive heat on what is essentially a large parking lot you will never turn anywhere near what you'd turn on a real track.
I'm sure if Karl sees this he'll chime in, but you can tell they are definitely testing the car on a large and somewhat dusty pad of concrete. Good luck getting any kind of stellar numbers.
I do think the 08 Viper will be faster than the C6 Z, albeit marginally in a straight line. The brief period I drove one it felt extremely strong. I think straight line isn't it's strength though, as it looks to be a tremendous out of the box track car.
Its possible the Viper will prevail on the track, hell anything is possible! As far as power to weight the cars are almost identical, but the difference the vette has much better gearing, one of the reasons in my opinion why the 03 to 06 vipers didn't run as good as the old GTS. The SRT engines make there power at higher rpms than the GTS did and really need gears to take advantage of the extra 50 hp. If the new Viper is any quicker in the real world it definatly won't be by much as it will have to run 11.1 or better on the factory tires as many Z06's have run 11.20's, 11.30's as delivered. I guess its all preference, I have had a couple SRT's and the performance just wasn't there? I might buy one of the new Vipers because of all that extra performance, maybe this time it will live up to the hype? I really like the looks of the Viper but looks can only take you so far! The driving experience needs to be there as well!
I know alot of guys here have older Vipers, but to be honest, the few times I drove them I never got that into it. I preferred the way my 02 Z06 drove to the RT/10 of a friend who let me drive it. That said, the 08 definitely felt in a completely different league speed wise to that RT/10. It still felt like a Viper, but it felt like it had alot of "hp" as opposed to just "torque" (if that makes any sense).
Why do you care anyways, you know you're just going to buy both :lol
Mark Gerisch will be introducing his newest creation at SEMA in 2 weeks. It's an upgrade conversion of any C6 Z06 into a vehicle much sexier than the Z06 and with considerably better performance than the much anticipated Corvette Blue Devil/SS/or whatever it is going to be named. I expect Mark will provide some insider info to the Forum before the official announcement and introduction at SEMA.