Watch the 2008 Dodge Viper rocket around the Ford Proving Grounds
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MotorTranscript
00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]
00:19 [CAR ENGINE]
00:45 [MUSIC PLAYING]
01:12 [CAR ENGINE]
01:37 This car going through the corners is the best.
01:39 It seems to jump over the bumps a little.
01:44 It seems like it hits the bump, and the grip level
01:47 doesn't recover quite as well as what it needs to.
01:51 It definitely doesn't feel as settled as the Corvette.
01:59 I just actually broke into the corner a little bit, and it
02:04 actually took it just fine.
02:06 I thought that the brakes didn't feel uncomfortable.
02:11 I can feel chattering through the front steering wheel, the
02:16 front tires, a little bit, over these bumps.
02:20 It's just not as good in the corners.
02:23 It's just rougher.
02:25 [CAR ENGINE]
02:35 It sounds good, and it feels like it's accelerating, but
02:39 it's really not really accelerating that well.
02:42 [MUSIC PLAYING]
03:03 Danica, the Dodge Viper, your first impressions?
03:08 Acceleration and the launch control, I think it's
03:11 pretty good.
03:12 Acceleration in the lower gears, you really had to be
03:14 hard on the throttle to feel the grunt.
03:18 But it accelerated OK.
03:20 You felt torque for sure.
03:23 But once you got up to speed, it was like you'd be coming
03:27 off the corner at a decent speed, and you'd be flat.
03:30 And it just sounded good.
03:32 It sounded like it was grunting, but it really wasn't
03:34 going that much faster.
03:35 It wasn't picking up speed like it sounded like.
03:38 It sounds good, but it's not going anywhere.
03:41 In the corners, the car went over the bump soft, but it
03:48 went over the bump, but it didn't recover.
03:50 So if it's going to take the bump soft, it needs to have
03:55 grip on the other end.
03:56 And this car didn't really have that.
03:58 So it was fairly unstable over the bumps.
04:01 I thought that if the track was smooth, the feeling of the
04:05 car might be all right.
04:06 I like the Corvette was, where you just kind of put the
04:09 power down and it sits the rear a little bit.
04:11 I didn't feel that attitude quite as much in this car as I
04:14 did the Corvette.
04:15 The Corvette was very definite.
04:17 But it just didn't take the bumps like it needed to be
04:20 able to carry speed through the corner to be able to get a
04:23 good top speed.
04:24 So a couple of things.
04:25 Even though it's got an 8 liter V10 under the hood, you're
04:28 not getting the torque that you were expecting.
04:30 I feel like in the lower gears it feels OK.
04:33 But I feel like you have to use the revs and you had to
04:37 use a lot of throttle.
04:39 But for some reason, in fifth gear, which--
04:42 I mean, sixth gear was like you drop a couple thousand
04:44 revs and you're just in cruise mode.
04:47 But fifth gear, like I said, it sounded good, but it didn't
04:50 pull.
04:51 It didn't pick up speed like I expected.
04:54 And the Corvette rode much nicer over the
04:56 bumps than this one.
04:57 Yeah, the Corvette took the bumps and had grip on the
05:00 other side of it.
05:01 So it was soft over the bumps, but it still maintained grip.
05:05 Where this car took the bumps soft, it rolled over them, but
05:09 it didn't recover afterwards.
05:11 So you were constantly waiting for the rear.
05:14 So the Porsche would go over the bump and skip a little
05:17 bit, and it was a bit nervous in the rear.
05:19 Where this one was, this one, it took the bumps off but
05:22 didn't have the grip.
05:23 So they both are a little bit similar.
05:26 The Porsche just rode a little bit more rough.
05:29 And this one just didn't have the grip that you needed.
05:32 That'd be good.
05:33 Thank you.
05:35 [CAR ENGINE]
05:39 [MUSIC PLAYING]
05:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]