A newbie from germany...

[Datenede]

Hello,

I just received my first Viper. I bought it from an owner in New York via Eric Lee, Idaho and imported it to germany.
It is a 2002 GTS ACR from the last edition, 6k miles, very clean and in superior condition. CatBack, FreeFlowCats, Jesel 1.7.
It was a very exciting procedure because all agreements were done only via email, fax and phone. I transferred a mass of money from bank to bank to new york and began to wait and tremble.
The german importer took up time and I got nearly no news. Then, six weeks later the viper arrived in germany and the real work began. In germany all cars have to be quiet and peaceful .
There is a institution called "TueV" and (unbelievable) I now got the clearance for this car for germany, without changing anything except rear (fog-)lights.
Perfect.
My garage walls vibrate when I start the engine, my neighbours too
I got the number-plate "AC-R 488" and I am very happy now.

I have bought a really fine car, I got to know Eric Lee and Chuck Tator at the phone and had great experiences till now.

First I looked to this forum because I was searching about suspension settings for the ACR (I want to drive it on the Nuerburgring), now I think it is a great forum in general.

Sorry for my deficient english.

Kind regards

Heiko

[Venomiss]

Welcome!
Be sure to check out more threads in this section and congratulations on your Viper.

[topsnake]

Hi Heiko

Gruß aus Stuttgart
Dennis

[mad0953]

Welcome Heiko, wow the Nuerburgring!!!!! That would be exciting to say the least. Drive safe.

[Walker]

Congratulations! We all speak Viper here. Having owned an '02 ACR, I suggest taking the car to the track and run it with the factory settings. Then tune the suspension to the track and your driving style. Suggest a high performance driving school 1st, if you have no experience.

[Datenede]

Originally Posted by Walker

Suggest a high performance driving school 1st, if you have no experience.

Thanks for the felicitations.
I forgot to write that I do long distance races on the Nuerburgring, 10 times a year VLN (4h-races) and once a year the 24h-race (all races on a 3.0-BMW).
That was the really reason to buy the viper. She won the 24h and a lot of the other races and is omnipresent at this track. For the spectators she is like a legend there.

Greetings

Heiko

[Neil - UK]

congrats on the cool viper, you did well to get a FE ACR there wasnt many produced

remember to post some pics from the track !

[CitySnake]

Welcome Heiko!

Glad to see that you were able to find the perfect Viper from my region! Tator's quite a blessing isn't he!

Welcome!

[mike & juli]

Welcome Heiko~!!! Your English is perfectly fine~~we are SO glad to have you onboard! Have NO doubts that Chuck Tator helped you out, he's our *gem*, and we're lucky he's in our region. You have a GREAT car in that '02 GTS/ACR...please post pics when you can!
Next, you can join the overseas people in joining the VCA!!!! VERY envious here when you can be on the Nuerburgring...our dream!!! ENJOY~~~juli

[Viper Wizard]

Wie gehts Heiko and Welcome to this site! I'm glad I could help you with your new Viper and you got a REAL GOOD one! I've known that Viper since it was new and let me tell you the owner never drove it hard at all [I think he was scarred of it! ]. We would all like to hear your times from the "Ring" & pics.

[ViperGTS]

Hallo Heiko und WELCOME to the Viper world!

Schau mal auf unsere Seite, da gibt es Berichte zum Nürburgring und zum Fahrevent im Okt. 2007.
Have a look at our website and you will find a report about our RING-event in October 2007.

http://www.viperclub.de/videos/Nuerburgring2007.wmv

Markus
aka
ViperGTS

[InjectTheVenom]

Herzlich wilkommen Heiko Where in Germany do you live exactly? Congratulations on such a good deal, like the others I would love to see pictures! You know there is a song about the Nürnburgring right? It's Helmut Zerlett - King of the Ring.

[Tripple-V]

Hallo Heiko,

Gratulation zu Deiner neuen Errungenschaft!!

Wir sind Genossen, da ich seit letztem Sommer ebenfalls eine '02er ACR mein Eigen nennen darf.

Die Nordschleife steht fest auf meinem Programm für 2009 (ev schon im '08). Vieleicht können wir uns ja dort mal treffen. Wollte schon dieses Jahr mal am Sport Auto Perfektionstraining teilnehmen. War Angemeldet, musste dann aber kurzfristig geschäftlich nach Frankreich .

Anyway, take care on the Nordschleife, and some suspension-settings-info would be highliy apprecciated

Nochmals, Gratulation & alles, alles Gute!
...Some pics would be great...

Greetings from Switzerland
Edi

[Datenede]

Hello,

here are a few pics. Not so nice (inside the garage) because these days in germany is very bad weather:






@InjectTheVenom: I live in Aachen. It's near cologne (50mls) and near the Nordschleife (70mls).

Kind regards

Heiko

[Vic]

Heiko, Congratulations on your purchase, I hope you have a lot of fun with it on the "Ring".

Did you know that you shouldn't turn the front wheels to the left or to the right, when the hood is cracked open? The tires will hit the hood corners, and break them. The only time that it is ok to turn the wheels is when the hood is all the way up, or all the way down, but not in-between!

There is a breather vent, at the forward end of each valve cover. It routes into the incoming air box. During heavy braking, some oil may slosh forward, into the intake plenum, and this will make very embarrassing big blue clouds of smoke. People will think your engine blew up! What you need to do, is to take the hoses from each valve cover, and route them to a small oil catch tank, that you can possibly mount to the aluminum cross brace, just in front of the engine. ITs a good idea to also vent the power steering resevoir into this tank as well, to avoid getting p.s. fluid on the exhaust headers.

There is also one more hose, right under the throttle body, that can allow oil to enter the intake plenum. I'm not sure what racers do with this one, but Dave Cawthorne on this site has a fix for it. He sells under the name "Dave's Big Brakes"

Make sure you flush out the old brake fluid, and go with DOT 4 fluid, like Motul 600, or equivalent. You probably know a lot of this kind of stuff already, from your BMW experience at the Ring. (Damm, I envy you!!!!) heh heh!

Here is a few more things to do to prep a GTS for the track-
*brake ducts for cooling air
*high temperature brake pads
*wrap ball joints with foil or something, so the hot rotors don't melt the grease out
*add "trap doors" to the oil pan, to help oil pick-up in high G turns
*add modified windage tray to the oil pan area, to help the oil return faster to the pan
*add an Accusump, maybe the three quart variety, to provide oil pressure, in case the pan is dry
*If you can't spring for the tripple-adjustable Penske shocks, the stock shock can be revalved for improved track performance. (a "dirty, cheating bastard" trick)
*change power steering fluuid to Red Line brand, much higher boiling point, and less foaming
*add 5 or 6 point harness
*roll bar
*big brakes, from Dave, or Stop Tech, etc

If you don't get a track alignment, the car tends to understeer. There are "sport shims" where the top, front, control arm bolts to the chassis. Removing these shims will give signifigant negative camber to the front wheels, balancing out the understeer, (as well as rendering more toe-out, so you gotta hold the wheel steady). I never tried this myself, but just had a mild track alignment done instead. The advantage of taking the sport shims out is, that you can put them back for the street, and that way you won't be wearing out your tires prematurely. If you go with racing tires, then you will probably have a second set of rims. The list goes on and on!

Sorry if you knew this stuff already,I included as much as I could, and assumed nothing. Hope I didn't tell you anything wrong.

Please let us know about your experiences on the North Loop! We live vicariously through your exploits! Stay safe out there.