A couple of Viper friends whom I first met at an autocross in Fall '01 were kind enough to invite me along for the Summer Kickoff Cruise/BBQ this past Saturday, a get-together of the New England chapter of the Viper Club of America.
Long story short: the day consisted of a scenic 1 hour ride to Rye, NH, where we had a BBQ along the beach. No racing or burnouts or any other shenanigans. It was great; as we ate and chatted, to one side of us was the amazing view of the beach and coast, and to the opposite side rested all of our cars, easily within plain view in the huge parking lot there.
The Viper and Prowler folks are true enthusiasts and just a very good group of people, very welcoming and friendly to me and each other from the get-go.
About half of the Vipers were stock and about half had just some minor mods (e.g., short shifter, exhaust), though one Viper owner had very recently installed a dual-stage nitrous system providing up to a 250-shot. He has not yet used it but will take it to the dyno this weekend and then to the strip soon after that. I believe that all of the Prowlers were stock or very near-stock.
It was quite a site to see all the cars snaking their way up to New Hampshire – lots of thumbs-up and hollers from so many people we passed along the way.
Wooo ya... thats an attention grabbing crowd... no wolf in sheeps clothing for sure... How does the Z8 compare to the Viper? Sorry I know Vipers are crazy but dont know their specs. hehehe
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2008 ///M5 SMG | Alpine White | Black Full Merino Leather w/Aluminum Trim | Logic 7 | iPod Adapter | HUD | Heated / Ventilated & Adaptive Comfort Seats | Comfort Access | Rear Side Airbags | Rear Side Sunshades | Folding Rear Seats | 35% Sides 15% Rear Windshield Tint
Originally posted by UCSDxB0i Wooo ya... thats an attention grabbing crowd... no wolf in sheeps clothing for sure... How does the Z8 compare to the Viper? Sorry I know Vipers are crazy but dont know their specs. hehehe
So different, not much to compare, more to contrast. Have driven Vipers GTS's just a couple of times and been on a few rides in them. Never driven in RT/10, but lots of stories of leaky roofs, and hard to use / not so good soft-tops, etc. Bottom line is Z8 is a grand cruiser, high-quality parts and build, very good but not great power. Viper is a raw and amazingly fun pure sports car, often sub-par build and parts quality. 8.0 liter (488 cid) V-10, 450+ horse, 500 lb/ft of torque (way under-rated from the factory, as seen in lots of stock Viper dyno tests), no traction control or the like, no ABS until '01. 12.0 1/4 mi, a few $K to hit low 11.0's.
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Originally posted by 2001's X5/Z8 Atrain, I hope you did me proud and showed all those vipers what real power is........Z8 power..... You should be able to take all of them except ....the 650r......
everything in the viper mechanically is very strong. the engine, tranny and rearend (except halfshafts) are virtually bulletproof. it is a low compression (8.5:1 i think) engine and is not stressed at all. people shoot 200hp nos on stock engines and they still run perfectly after 100s of nos bottles and 70k miles on the odo.
the z8 and the viper are totally different creatures. if you are a car-nut and you want performance, feel and looks, you get a viper. if you want a piece of mind and slightly less performance- you get a z8...
Originally posted by AJ everything in the viper mechanically is very strong. the engine, tranny and rearend (except halfshafts) are virtually bulletproof. it is a low compression (8.5:1 i think) engine and is not stressed at all. people shoot 200hp nos on stock engines and they still run perfectly after 100s of nos bottles and 70k miles on the odo.
the z8 and the viper are totally different creatures. if you are a car-nut and you want performance, feel and looks, you get a viper. if you want a piece of mind and slightly less performance- you get a z8...
alex
02 gts
Alex is right. The engine and mechanicals are by and large solid as rock and can take some serious, serious mods. I should have been clearer: have read many threads about general build quality issues of non-core mechanicals (remote door alarms not working, unusually large body panel gaps, yellowing door sills, etc.). Some folks' Vipers have been perfect, but the frequency with which there are posts about random problems seems much higher than with the M5/Z8. That is an observation, not a statistical truth.
A 500 bhp factory Z8 / M5 in exchange for some non-mechanical sniggles, slightly lesser quality leather, etc. would be a good trade-off for many here, I'd bet; I can think of at least one person who'd welcome it.
Comparing a Z8 to a Viper is like comparing a Patek Philippe to a Casio, While both might function similarly, the build quality and the craftsmanship behind the two are totally different.....
There are no grounds for comparison on the two cars......
And BTW, the ///M engines are built to rev a 6,000 rpm's for hours....They can take more abuse than just about any other production engine out there.......
the gts-r engine is basically a stock internals engine with ported heads, different cam and intake, headers and exhaust.
those cars dominate their class in the 24 hours of le man and other endurance races. what i am trying to say is that the stock viper engine can too spin at 5000-6000 for hours to deliver the victory. remember, the viper is as close to a race car as you can get on the street...
now, the electricals are another story. mine already has made me look like a car thief due to unwillingness to open the doors (so i had to go through the trunk to manually open the electric door and disable the blaring alarm)
also, squeaks and rattles galore- but i swear- you will not have time to notice them.
the z8 leaves some time to yourself for other thoughts while driving; the viper requires all your undivided attention.
more simply put- if you ignore price, the z8 is a suitable weekend car for the majority of folks. the viper is for few ones that have their priorities in a funny way
Originally posted by A_Train ... one Viper owner had very recently installed a dual-stage nitrous system providing up to a 250-shot. He has not yet used it but will take it to the dyno this weekend...
The nitrous owner's dyno numbers came in at 573 rwhp / 733 rwtq (stock M5 is about 335 / 310). The stock Viper guys were around 420 / 465, which shows how underrated these cars are from the factory.
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