Frank Marcus: Our next best handling competitor is a serious ringer, Dodge’s
Viper ACR. That stands for American Club Racer, it’s Dodge’s
racer for the road. It has the standard horsepower and torque but
it’s 40 pounds lighter than the normal Viper, thanks to the forged
wheels. It’s got the Michelin Pilot Cup sport tires, Stoptech brakes
and that aerodynamic stuff you see there adds a thousand pounds
of down force at 150 miles an hour. I’m not sure if we’ll hit 150 at
Laguna Seca but I tell you, if this thing doesn’t win the contest
here, I’ll be very surprised.
Arthur St. Antoine: All right Randy, you’ve just driven the most powerful car here, the
Dodge Viper ACR, 600 horsepower V10 driving those rear wheels,
Michelin Cup tires, basically a race car for the street. What did you
think?
Randy Pobst: Well we just made the jump to light speed. It’s really a wormhole
into another galaxy. The Viper ACR has the Michelin Sport Cup
tires which is a race compound DLT legal tire and on top of
everything else a viper can do, it just raised the limit of the braking
and the cornering and in tire dimension. That car is a tremendous
amount of fun. One thing I noticed is it was geared really tall. Here
at Laguna Seca it’s not a really fast corner track but I was using
second gear in most places where I normally used third. And I was
barely getting to floor it, going up the hill on the back to the
corkscrew, which indicates that it’s a tall gear.
Arthur St. Antoine. Now this car doesn’t even offer traction control. Did you miss it,
did you notice the car putting the power down, how did it feel?
Randy Pobst: I was so pleased to be driving without all the electronic controls. It
was a wonderful experience. The traction control is not a problem,
I mean the car had so much grip that even with 600 horsepower
and goodness knows how many pound feet of torque, it would not
break the tires loose unless you really coerced it in maybe second
gear. The ACR package actually helps wrap a little more grip
around the incredible capabilities of a street viper.
Arthur St. Antoine: How about steering feel, how did the viper treat you?
Randy Pobst: It was brutal. G’s were high, the steering effort was high, the
steering was a little bit numb compared to the best like the Audi
R8 and the BMW M3 but it was very quick which I actually
enjoyed, the quick ratio and along that same line I enjoyed the
shifter, a good old H-pattern, 6-speed that goes straight into a
transmission, it’s just -- you’re working metal on metal, got a big
round shift knob, I loved it.
Arthur St. Antoine: In terms of overall handling feel, how would you rate the viper
compared to the rest of the cars today?
Randy Pobst: Very high in terms of the numbers of -- but rather brutal and a little
bit more like riding a bull than riding a quarter horse. And I mean
if the Audi R8 is a thoroughbred, this thing is a bull with a rope
through its mouth and really entertaining and just so satisfying, but
a handful. You better know what you’re doing or be darn careful if
you’re going to try to drive a Viper ACR at its limit.
Arthur St. Antoine: Great. Thank you Randy.
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