[SUN RA KAT]

I've just had my Viper for a little over a month and I've been coming to this Viper site for over a year previously reading every post and using the search engine here to learn all I could. My Viper is the first manual shift car I have ever owned.

Try to drive your Viper every chance you can get in light traffic so you become familiar with it. You live in a beautiful state for driving - I found the western half of Iowa to be most enjoyable for doing my break in on my journey from Woodhouse in Nebraska to my home, just south of Dayton, Ohio. The eastern half of Iowa had quite a bit more cars than the western half and the further east I drove the more cars were on the road.

Follow the break in proceedure so you will have a trouble free car many years from now - there will be plenty of time to run it hard after the break in period. Always respect the Viper and be somewhat fearfull of it, too. Relax and drive smooth. Be aware of everything around you because the Viper has limited visibity to the sides and many cars like to pull up around your blind spots to gawk and drool. Unless you are extremely proficient at running your Viper hard, you would be better off not racing other cars. You can beat 995 out of a 1,000 cars on the street and the 5 that are faster than you are too fast to be racing on the street anyway.

Drive around your town a lot at or slightly below the speed limit so the police in your area become familiar with you and the fact you are not speeding. I have had no problems with my local police because they associate me with driving the speed limit. When they aren't around I usually accellerate quite quickly in first up to 5 MPH over the speed limit and then shift to whatever gear I choose or press in the clutch pedal and just coast. On the interstates in the western half of Iowa I bet you can safely exceed the speed limit temporarily, but if you cruise at well over the speed limit you may overtake the few of Iowa's Finest out patrolling the interstate.