Say hello to the 2013 SRT Viper GTS. But don’t make eye contact, or it will bite you. That’s the truth. Chrysler’s made much noise about how it’s gone and civilized the infamous snake. In a word, hogwash. The Viper might now have traction and stability control, but I’ll place my hand on whatever sacred book you like and swear that SRT brought in the Marquis de Sade as a consultant. Remember, no matter what software it’s running, the Viper still has an 8.4-liter V-10 now spitting out 640 horses and 600 lb-ft of torque, the latter of which isn’t available until 5000 rpm, aka when all hell has already broken loose. That power number is up 40 horses compared to the last Viper. And as you may recall, a 2010 Dodge Viper ACR is the current Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca production car record-holder. Er, I should say was, because one of the two cars you’re reading about broke the ACR’s record by more than two-tenths of a second on December 11, 2012, with Randy Pobst behind the wheel. I’ll save those details until later in the article. For now, let’s talk turkey about America’s two most ferocious supercars.
“I can’t think of two other direct competitors that are so equally matched, so equally designed, so equally sadistic,” says our road test editor Scott Mortara. “The Viper and the ‘Vette are twins separated at birth. Their technical specs overlay each other’s as far as length, width, and height, power output, drive configuration, seating position, weight, everything. There simply isn’t a better comparison when you look at the numbers. But that’s why we do comparison tests, because numbers never tell the whole story.”
Of course, numbers do tell part of the story. These two are within 2 horsepower of each other and 4 lb-ft of torque, and the Viper weighs just 13 pounds more than the Corvette. The ZR1’s R-compound Michelins are rated at 80 treadwear. The Viper’s Pirelli P Zero Corsas are an equally yet somehow even more ludicrous 60 treadwear. As for performance, both cars hit 60 mph in 3.4 seconds and run the quarter-mile in 11.4 seconds. The Corvette’s trap speed was fractionally faster than the Viper’s --128.8 mph versus 128.7 mph -- but talk about splitting hairs. Both pull a maximum of 1.08 g laterally, though the ZR1 knocked off the Viper on our figure eight by two-tenths of a second, 23.0 compared to 23.2. The Viper stopped from 60 mph in 93 feet, one foot behind our former record holder, the Z06 on cup tires. I say former because hey, look at this, the ZR1 with the sticky Michelins managed to do the deed in 91 feet, the best stopping distance we’ve ever recorded for a production car. Anyhow, these two are basically dead even, dynamically speaking.
