Why on Earth a VIPER?

[nissanguy_24]

Okay, Mopar wants to sponsor a drift viper.. why on earth a viper? Too expensive and frankly too much grip.

I dont know. I like this idea less then i liked the GTO. no doubt the viper can perform, not a question. But one of my big complants about the GTO was cost. I do worry that seeing a 80 thousand dollar race prepped viper will change drifting. hows a s15 going to keep up? ill tell you how, they will go to tube frame bodies, wider, larger engine to keep the wider tires spinning.

Yeah i know everyone had a kick out of the japanese GT car viper drifting. But it was just an exhabition.

Whats everyone's thoughts on the viper? is it maybe too much car for the d1? Whats next? a ford GT? a enzo ferrari? Why doesnt nissan just bring out there Le mans cars.

I am hestitant about the viper. I much rather see dodge build an inexpensive rear wheel drive vehichle and drift it. Something similar to pontiac's new kappa platform cars there comming out with.

[Nemesis]

Wide tires + Power + good driver = crazy super long drifts.....pretty cool i.m.o.

[nissanguy_24]

so if we go in that direction does that mean drifting with stay on the oval type tracks? someone brought this up the other day and i said soon as drifting gets more popular we will see more road courses, However if it stays in this direction it may not get away from ovals at all.

[PandaFD3S]

eww.....

mopar ehh?................*Censored**Censored**Censored* *Censored* mopar................didnt mopar make that stupid drag racing dodge neon?........viper sounds like a sweet drifter but theres only two people id trust that with................keiichi tsuchiya.......and jesse james.........because he made a pretty sweet viper if ya didnt know already........

[s0nny80y]

man, drifting is one of the few motorsports that allow economicaly priced vehicles (240SX) to compete against expensive cars (Viper) on one same platform; balance & handling & skill over speed & power & money.

[driftfreak]

i dont get why people are hating on the viper..
anyone ever see the build up bills for some of the other D1 cars compared to a comp coupe?
BTW torque is nice for drift...V10s have a lot of it!

[driftxtreem]

I like the viper no doubt about that. The price is to steep even for us. The power, the handeling hell ye. The good I se from theis is that maby someone will wake up and produce these eco sports cars again. What I wanna know is why not the Crossfire I would love to build one of them. I think we should all watch and see where it goes this might be what we all wanted. When they total a couple million trying to keep up they might try something new.

[MrodDrft]

yea i was the one who brought up the oval track thing.. i dont see how a viper can handle the tight technical courses of japan... so this is a USDM dorifta har har

[Tsunami]

Nissanguy the PVO Competition Coupe isn't the 800hp Carbon-fibered monster you think it is. It's still the stock Viper chassis (no tube frame stuff), and suspension, plus all they did to the motor is put headers and straight exhaust on it plus a cold-air intake. I think it's around 525-550 hp. The body is stock save for the wing and splitter (I dunno if it has widened fenders or not), plus the suspension is stock viper, although I think they may have tweaked the dampening some. They upgraded the brakes and removed the heater and A/C. Inside they gave it a digital dash. That's it. Basically you could make a comp coupe street legal easily. It's basically a spec racer for ALMS and Speed GT.

[Chas]

S15 can keep up, if not out drift a viper. Its balances isnt great. Ill bet you its going to be more then 80000 dollars, more like 130000++

[TRusst]

I'm not too surpised they went with the Competition Coupe. I was intially, but lets face it. The top D1 cars are basically race prepped machines. And as far as too much grip is concerned. It is my understanding that D1 cars are set up for grip. They have very similar setups as normal road race machines. In the Fuji Fast BMI, they have a Kei Office S15 in the touge battle that is running the same setup as their D1 car. Kazamas' car I assume they are talking about. Keichi set the car up himself, and it grips just as well as it drifts. The Japanese have been telling us all along that our set ups are about 10 years behind theirs'. They are the ones pushing drifting in this direction. Every turbocharged D1 car is putting out in excess of 400 HP. Several are closing in on the 500 HP mark. Honestly I wouldn't mind seeing tube frame chassis' and fat tires. Shouldn't the best drifters in the world, be driving the best and safest drift cars in the world. I like the idea of this progression.

But I don't know why in the hell anybody would trust Jessie James behind the wheel of anything...especially a Viper. Tough guy persona does not = driving ability.

[WildSe7en]

well lets think of it this way.

Mopar wants to sponsor a drift car. It'll obviously have to be a dodge because thats what mopar specializes in. So it'd basically be between a neon, a ram, a stratus or a viper. I think they made the right decision.

[Ghost of Duluth]

The Viper is the other performance flagship for America. The Vette being the other. So it stands to reason that an American company wants to produce a Drifter to compete against the Japanese, they do it in a Viper. A Viper is a very stunning car to look at. It reeks of muscle. While the Japanese are about grace and precision, the Americans are about muscle and bullishness. We are not very stylish in any of our pursuits whether it be cars or war. So our cars and even our very culture reflects this. You also need to get used to the idea that the cars are going to outclass you and I on the street. It will ALWAYS be more to build a pro-level car than the regular joe can afford for one 1 reasons. Sponsers. Someone with sponsers can get better stuff. If it was cheap to build a pro-level car then why would we even need sponsers. Without sponsers you got no sport.

I personally think a Viper is a great car for Dodge to build up. They are a company that is used to outstanding failure's and outstanding triumphs in one form or another, so why not continue that grand tradition and keep the ball rolling. There is no middle ground for Dodge and never has been. As for the Neon, you cannot argue with the Neon. Sure it's considered to be a chick car and no matter how fast your Neon is......it's still a Neon. But it did outstanding in it's market. The SRT-4 is an amazing car. Drive one and you will see.....but it's still a Neon.

As for Drifting being on ovals or road courses, we revert again to the American way. While the Japanese are tight and technical, we Americans are into "going big". If you don't believe me then look at 2 out of 3 rednecks at a Nascar event. They wear shirts saying such time honored American slogans as "No Fear", "Go big or go home", "If you cant run with the big dogs, then stay on the porch" or the favorite "Get in, sit down, hang on, and shut up".
Going big is what we Americans do and what we Americans want to see. So to make Drifting popular to the masses it has to be on an oval. Not only for going big but for spectators. How are you going to stick 20,000 fans on one corner or area of a roadcourse? Aint gonna happen.

[driftersil80]

1. LOL that sit down shut up thingy was on a new issue of Import Racer when they were interviewing Akinori Utsumi.

2. How do they stick 20,000 peeps on a course in Japan?

[Ghost of Duluth]

They don't. But they will in America cause we go big here remember.