How rewarding can it possibly be to win anything knowing you won only because the best didn’t show up? When it comes to racing I just love rivalry and no I’m not talking about Edwards and that kid with the elf ears that drives for Nascar. I’m talking about the good ole days when you either drove a Ford, a Dodge or a Chevy. Smack talk originated on the tracks right here in the U.S.A. and if you didn’t take a stand… well you just weren’t with the program.
When the Viper got factory backing they dominated everything they ran against including the Corvettes which have always been backed by the factory. The Corvettes began to really pour on the smack talk after General Motors began pouring millions more support into winning. The bad news was the Corvettes didn’t begin wining until Dodge felt as if they had dominated long enough to completely make their point thus ending their factory backing program.
But that didn’t stop the Corvette from talking smack as they went on to brag in their promotions, “CORVETTE FINISHES ONE AND TWO!” when in reality at the bottom in small print it should have said, “But Team Viper stayed at home.”
Just recently Nissan debuted its 480-horsepower, all wheel drive GT-R at Germany’s 12.9 miles of Nurburgring turning in a time of 7:29. A month later Chevrolet decided to make their own statement by announcing that their new 640 horsepower supercharged ZR1 Corvette was the king of the hill because it had broken the GT-R’s record by turning in a time of 7:26.
To Chevrolet’s surprise and after some pressure from membership of the Viper Club of America, the Street & Racing Technology team rented the Nurburgring for half a day and shipped two 600 horsepower Viper American Club Racers to give it what for on August 18.
The day after it rained and with the exception of only installing a Racetech seat and a six-point harness in a stock Viper ACR the Viper turned in the best time of the day with a 7:22.1 which was over four seconds better than the Corvette’s time.
I would love to have been a fly on the wall listening when the guys over in the Corvette camp got the news. Who knows… maybe Chevrolet will buy Viper out. They might learn something about going fast.
Saw the Vette onboard video, the driver did make an error and power slide through a corner, but boy that would be a hard choice to make if I had that kind of coin.
Viper or Corvette.
I’d still buy a Porsche hehehehe
A.
Why is the shift lever shaking on several occasions?
Andre,
Funny you should mention Porsche since one of the most visually exciting and best driven not to mention best film production of a lap of Nurburgring I have ever seen was in a Porsche. As a matter of fact he was sliding through almost every corner. Wild!
Strada,
The reason the shifter was shaking was because the driver had the rev-limiter maxed out.
Gary-This is exactly why I, as an enthusiast in general, wants to see the Viper carry on. The Corvette would be a lesser car today if not for the Viper.