Z06 Tom said:
I read that article yesterday at the barber shop... I couldn't believe how they were banging on the Zs handling!! If a car comes from this side of the pond, they always turn their noses up to it...:eyerole
Both "Car and Driver" AND "Road and Track" have the exact same comparos this month. They both came to the same conclusions... The vette spanks the viper in pretty much every category. Much of it's success lies in it's power to weight ratio over that of the Viper.
As for knocking the Z06 for it's handling, I've been reading more than a couple reviews, both magazine and personal opinions from people that say the handling or more specifically, road feedback, is somewhat dead. Besides the lack of solid road feel, C&D basically complained about what is essentially bump steer. But they also praised it's daily drivability, as opposed to the Viper which is only at home on a racetrack. I certainly wouldn't criticize C&D for their review or say that they always bang on american cars. In fact, my recollection is that they've ALWAYS held the Z06 in their highest praises, right up there with their love for Ferraris. From a purely automotive standpoint, the Ferrari deserves that praise. But as soon as it's a dollars and cents game, they've always backed the Vette (at least since the mid 1990's)
Vettelt193 said:
The viper in the real world, with a 'regular' drivers will probably wax a Z06 with all the extra torque it has, and at a lower RPM too.
The 6 is ok, but the Viper still has the guts in my book. IMO GM needs to do more than a couple styling cues to set the 6 off from the rest of the crowd.
Regular drivers can barely afford a Z06, let alone a Viper. For those that can, they'll either know how to launch a car like the test drivers at the magazine, in which case the power to weight ratio will win (as evidenced in both mags) OR the drivers will have the money but no real performance driving skill and the lesser Tq at lower RPMs will work to their advantage.
But the reality of it is that it almost all comes down to power-to-weight and the vette simply does it better. That's why the old standard Mustang 5.0's in the fox body were so stinking fast. It was a lawnmower engine strapped to a tuna can! Of course it's gonna be fast...because of the power to weight ration. But then add the weight of the GT package to the car and it became a much slower car. As for the Viper's "higher torque at lower RPMs", as
ajla said, that would just make it more difficult for
regular drivers to launch the car.
My own personal opinion in all this regarding the Viper and your comments on it's styling cues, I don't like the Viper's new look as much as the last gen GTS with the blue/white stripe and the wing. THAT was a badazz looking car! The new Viper is just...ehh...
Oh yeah, here's another opinion regarding the Viper... How much HP and Tq from a car sporting a
V-10??? And the vette does it with 8? I've never been much impressed with flaunting a V10 without having serious numbers to back it up. I carry the criticism for the mid-70's 454ci vettes that were pumping out a whopping 245 HP..."ooohhh, there's some bragging rights!"
(And we can't compare import engines running 4 or 6 bangers with equivalent power, as they are 1) different technologies and 2) not normally aspirated.)
All in all, the Corvette proves o the world yet again that it simply can't be beat in the "Bang For The Buck" category.
, but maybe I'm just an idiot.
