Sure is! One of my favorites
A little late...but getting anxious for spring (PIC HEAVY)
- Thread starter 13COBRA
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Sure is! One of my favorites
Absolutely gorgeous! I really like it a lot. Question. Is there a special significance to the single red stripe that goes front to rear on the driver's side? I also see the steering wheel has a red stripe.
They call it a driver's stripe. 99% just for looks.
You know your steering wheel is straight when that red stripe lines up with the one on the hood.
OP, beautiful car! Love the ACR's.
You mention it will be mostly a weekend fun car, or grocery getter. Shame. These cars just aren't that fun to drive on the street, and I'd imagine an ACR would be even worse than a base Viper. The visibility sucks, they ride like crap, and they're loud as all hell with the side pipes right under your ears. Not to mention you can't go anywhere without people stalking you in their cars or asking you how fast it is every time you get out of it. I don't know, I'm clearly approaching or at old fart status to think this way, but I've had a few cars, including a C6Z, and that car was WAY more driveable than a Viper. Oh, the tranny gearing is so tall, if you want to have fun, you can only bang one gear because 2nd does 90 mph in no time. Banging gears in my Boss 302 was way more fun, with the high redline and short gears. I find Vipers just aren't that fun to drive at normal, street speeds. That's probably why so many of them have nothing on them for miles.
Now, if you plan on tracking it, well you got one of the funnest cars to drive on track. I did 8 track days with mine last year, and for a cheap, used car, I was able to hang with or in almost all cases, pass: Lambo Hurrican, 2015 GT3's, modded GTR's ( although a few I had trouble with and they were faster, and very well driven), ZR1's, pretty much all dedicated E36 or 46 track BMW's, C6Z's. The Viper is a great track car, oil temps never got hot, and coolant temps stay normal. Mine has the ACR 2 piece rotors and they are very, very tough and cool extremely well. You have one of the best tires next to a full slick ( maybe as good even), and I'd say it would be a shame not to track that car to within and inch of its life. The TALL gearing works EXTREMELY well on track, totally opposite the street.
Enjoy it and by all means, take the time to learn driving it at its limits on the track, because otherwise, you will tire of the car very quickly.
You mention it will be mostly a weekend fun car, or grocery getter. Shame. These cars just aren't that fun to drive on the street, and I'd imagine an ACR would be even worse than a base Viper. The visibility sucks, they ride like crap, and they're loud as all hell with the side pipes right under your ears. Not to mention you can't go anywhere without people stalking you in their cars or asking you how fast it is every time you get out of it. I don't know, I'm clearly approaching or at old fart status to think this way, but I've had a few cars, including a C6Z, and that car was WAY more driveable than a Viper. Oh, the tranny gearing is so tall, if you want to have fun, you can only bang one gear because 2nd does 90 mph in no time. Banging gears in my Boss 302 was way more fun, with the high redline and short gears. I find Vipers just aren't that fun to drive at normal, street speeds. That's probably why so many of them have nothing on them for miles.
Now, if you plan on tracking it, well you got one of the funnest cars to drive on track. I did 8 track days with mine last year, and for a cheap, used car, I was able to hang with or in almost all cases, pass: Lambo Hurrican, 2015 GT3's, modded GTR's ( although a few I had trouble with and they were faster, and very well driven), ZR1's, pretty much all dedicated E36 or 46 track BMW's, C6Z's. The Viper is a great track car, oil temps never got hot, and coolant temps stay normal. Mine has the ACR 2 piece rotors and they are very, very tough and cool extremely well. You have one of the best tires next to a full slick ( maybe as good even), and I'd say it would be a shame not to track that car to within and inch of its life. The TALL gearing works EXTREMELY well on track, totally opposite the street.
Enjoy it and by all means, take the time to learn driving it at its limits on the track, because otherwise, you will tire of the car very quickly.
Thanks for the compliments and the advice.
I will take it to the track a bit; but it will really just be a fun driver. I work 70-75 hours a week, so putting 5,000 miles a year on it would be a lot for me. I don't keep anything very long, so if I get tired of it, off to something else.
The tires are really sticky, I cringed driving it home listening to all the gravel and loose rocks hit inside the wheel wells; but I can see why they would make an excellent track tire.
My car has the MOPAR Racing ECM, American Racing Longtubes (catless), full AR exhaust, and K&N drop in; I imagine it'd dyno low 600's. I'm looking forward to putting some spirited miles on it.
Those are great mods. I'm guessing you're right on for low 600's. Mine made 556 bone stock. I figured it would be 525-540 so I was pleasantly surprised.
You sound like me, I work a lot too, and last year I put about 3500 miles on mine, mostly driving to and from tracks all over the North East where I live. I think I drove it maybe 5 or 6 times just "because" ( and a friend of mine has a 10 second Grand Sport who always wants to race, lol) and only once all year with my wife. She loves it, but I can't DRIVE the car with her in it, because she has a medical condition which makes her dizzy and nauseous from acceleration. I have other cars, and I will almost always drive those for street cruising over the Viper, I just don't enjoy it on the street.
I'd suggest maybe switching to Pilot Super Sports for street driving, as they ride okay and don't pepper the wheel wells and rockers with pebbles quite as bad. I have Toyo R888's on mine and they sand blast the rockers. I had my whole front clip clear bra'd, as well as the top leading edge of the roof, specifically so I wouldn't care about track debris damage to the paint. I asked the shop to do the rockers too, but they forgot, and in my anxiousness to get the car on the track, I took it and now the rockers aren't looking like a garage queen anymore, lol.
The previous owner had 3M clear installed on the entire vehicle. Nothing is exposed, so that was a big plus for me.
I'm thinking about going with 18" O.Z. Racing Challenge wheels all around to give me a few easier tire options. The E-Brake relocation kit is pretty cheap. I just have to justify dropping $5k on wheels and tires haha
Good deal that its 3M'd. I paid through the nose to have mine done, but wanted to keep it looking good while beating on it, so it was a value to me ( besides the rockers not getting done).
I need to move to an 18" wheel too. I can overdrive the R comp tires and need a full slick, but then again, I tire of cars quickly, and have been eyeballing ZR1's lately, so not sure the investment would be worth it. I can probably get 2 or 3 more track days out of my R comps, so it's hard to justify, although the added grip is appealing. From what I've seen, the tires on your car are even better than the R888's, I wanted them but no place had them when I tried to order a set last summer. Rear tires are hard to get for these cars due to the 19" wheels.
Regarding the E brake relocation kit, I'll have to look into that but be advised that the e-brake calipers often get stuck and will drag the pads on the rotor, and damage the rotor. That's happened to mine, and at this point I'm considering just removing them altogether since I never even use the e-brake. Of course that will be the one time I need the e-brake in my life and I'll end up careening into something, but that's a chance I'm willing to take to remove unsprung weight and rid myself of a maintenance problem, lol.
I need to move to an 18" wheel too. I can overdrive the R comp tires and need a full slick, but then again, I tire of cars quickly, and have been eyeballing ZR1's lately, so not sure the investment would be worth it. I can probably get 2 or 3 more track days out of my R comps, so it's hard to justify, although the added grip is appealing. From what I've seen, the tires on your car are even better than the R888's, I wanted them but no place had them when I tried to order a set last summer. Rear tires are hard to get for these cars due to the 19" wheels.
Regarding the E brake relocation kit, I'll have to look into that but be advised that the e-brake calipers often get stuck and will drag the pads on the rotor, and damage the rotor. That's happened to mine, and at this point I'm considering just removing them altogether since I never even use the e-brake. Of course that will be the one time I need the e-brake in my life and I'll end up careening into something, but that's a chance I'm willing to take to remove unsprung weight and rid myself of a maintenance problem, lol.
I hadn't heard of them getting hung up. I never use it either.
Here's the kit I found, $80 would fix it right up.
Racing Solutions
Definitely a attention getter, cops be watching you I'm sure
I don't drive like an idiot, so that's not a big deal.
I am going to have to get the front windows re-tinted. They're at 5% now, and Missouri law is 35%.
I may wait until my first warning though, as I won't drive the car a lot and the windows look good.
So much win...
Great upgrade!
Great upgrade!
holy thread revival batman! almost 2.5 years old
An old fap is better than no fap I suppose.
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