Another Newbie!

[Sweet Ride]

So here I am after drooling and fantasizing over Vipers since I was 10 years old and finally realizing my dream! Last Friday I purchased a Red/Black 1997 GTS. It currently has 20,000 miles on the clock. Oh yeah, and it has a Paxton blower and Corsa cat-back exhaust. It was "conservatively" dyno tuned to 589 hp at the rear wheels. OMG!!! This car is everything I hoped for and more.

Here's the rest of the story (long version):
I finally decided on a Viper after about a year of looking at Mustangs and Chargers. I had a price in mind and decided that if I could spend that much on a Charger, I could spend that much on a Viper. I have been perusing the VCA classifieds and Autotrader for about 8 months now. I had recently found a '98 GTS at Palmer Dodge in Roswell, GA. It was a pretty nice car and it was priced well. After getting a run around from a couple of sales guys I put my $1000 deposit on the car. I called back three days later to finish up the deal and the GM told me that one of their guys had sold the car. WTF!!! So after a cooling off period I asked them about another car they had on the lot. About the same time, I received a PM from 97GTSMonster. He mentioned that he was about to list his car and wanted to know if I was interested. After getting all the stats I decided to go for it.

So last Friday, my wife and I flew out to Tampa to pick the car up. After a nice meet and greet I checked the car out and gave it a nice little test drive. I fell in love almost immediately. I had to have it! So I called my bank, made the transfer, and within a couple of hours we were on our way back to AZ. I was thrilled to be able to get a chance to spend the next 2200 miles with my new toy. What a great drive! It started raining about 4 hours into the drive. The rain lasted for about 3 hours. It was a pleasant introduction to the wonders and amusement of hydroplaning. I had to drop my speed down below 45mph at times due to the tendency of the car to want to drive me off the road. Great fun! Pulled into Pensacola and spent the night.

On the road bright and early (10:00 A.M.) Saturday morning. Finished out Florida. Put Alabama and Mississippi in the rear view mirror. Hit Louisiana later in the day. Drove through New Orleans and was almost brought to tears at the sad state of that city. It was really heartbreaking. Got through Louisiana and on to the never ending stretch of Texas. For those of you that have not had the pleasure, you enter Texas at mile marker 880. Ugh! It's especially depressing because we had traversed into and out of 5 states in one day, yet the bulk of the rest of the trip was spent in one giant, featureless state. (Sorry Texans...) Made it through San Antonio late Saturday night. On the stretch out of San Antonio I was within a lane change and a few feet of hitting a deer. That would have ruined the trip. I figured it was as good a time as any to bed down for the night.

Up early again (10:00 A.M.) Sunday morning. Are we really still in Texas? I was a little tired so I handed the reigns over to my wife. I don't think she enjoys the car as much as I do. I must also take the opportunity to say that sleeping upright in the passenger seat for about 300 miles is not the most comfortable thing I have ever done. Still in Texas.... I have never been more happy to see mile marker 1 on any road trip I have ever been on. Finally into New Mexico. I hooked up with a couple other speeders and we made quick work of New Mexico. Back into Arizona. A stop in Tucson to show off the car to my dad and finally back to Phoenix.

In summary, it was a pretty decent trip. I thoroughly enjoyed the car. The power is amazing. The attention is great. Texas is huge.

And now the endless list of thank you's:
My mom and dad for teaching me the value of a dollar and hard work. Without those lessons I wouldn't be living this dream.

God for daily breath and this life.

My wife for actually going along with all this nonsense and pretending to enjoy it. Extra thanks to you honey!

Every Aries, Omni, Caravan, Monaco, and Diplomat owner that allowed Dodge to get to the point where they could sell such an amazing low production super car.

VCA members 97GTSMonster, XLR8, Joseph Dell, and V10SpeedLuvr for all of their help and knowledge.

Whoever wrote on page 19 of the owners manual the following passage: "In a collision, an unrestrained child, even a tiny baby, can become a missile inside the vehicle." Absolutely priceless statement that makes me chuckle every time I think about it. Baby = Missile. Funny stuff.

Palmer Dodge for hiring the most inept sales people on the planet. Without them I never would have had the chance to land the car that I did.

The Florida Highway Patrol officer that gave me a warning for going 88 in a 70 zone instead of a ticket.

And thank you to someone for the following inventions: the internal combustion engine, energy drinks, HoHo's, 80mph speed limits, the Ipod, loud exhaust, and freedom!

Check out the pics of the car here: Login | Facebook

Did I mention this is going to be my daily driver? It puts a smile on my face every time I think about it.

Now stop reading this and go give your Viper a hug.....

Talk to you all later.

Tom

[big-n-italian]

LOL - welcome!

[Sweet Ride]

Thanks for the welcome!

[RX VIPER]

Great write up and CONGRATS! Now, about those pictures... ??

[mad0953]

Nice story. I just went out and hugged my car after that. Welcome.

[Sweet Ride]

A couple things I forgot to mention:

Click on the facebook link for pictures. You don't have to have a facebook account to check them out.

Don't tell Al Gore, but I burned through 113.312 gallons of dinosaur juice with an average of about 19.42 miles per gallon. It's alot better mileage that I had counted on.

I forgot to thank the guy in the silver Z06 outside of Housotn. He reminded me how much of a posuer (most) Corvette owners are. If you must ask, I won!

[Red Snake]

Awesome!!

We have almost same car, 'cept Roe vs Paxton.

[Venomiss]

Great story and welcome!

[97gtsmonster]

hey Tom im glad you had a good drive.. hope you enjoy it.. i will be back in the game sooner or later..

[mike & juli]

WELCOME Tom!!! GREAT write-up!! That is one GORGEOUS GTS!!! LOVE red w/black stripes...don't see that around that often (ViperJon notwithstanding!!). TOTALLY ENJOY! ~juli

[SidewinderGTS]

Congrats.

11.83@121.6mph

[SSG CHIC]

Congrats on your car! I, too, went to Palmer Dodge just to check out the Vipers and make sure I could reach the pedals and see over the steering wheel. (Don't laugh guys, I'm 5' tall and this is a problem with some cars.) They proceeded to tell me that a 99 Viper was a '06 Viper. I laughed at them and left (after making sure I could see over the steering wheel). Be glad you didn't buy from these guys. They called us a couple of times and told a different lie every time.

Nice car and glad you made it back safely!

[tbsviper]

Great story Sweet Ride! Congratulations ... sounds like you are off to a great start. Certainly nice of the Florida patrolman to give you a break

[Sweet Ride]

Thanks to everyone for the warm welcome! It's great to be part of the best car club I have seen!

A few other responses:

Red Snake: What other mods have you done? You are rocking about 100 more ft lbs than me.

Juli: I think the only color combo I like more is Blue/White. I am partial to the GT2 White/Blue look as well. I am way impressed with how well the black stripes look on this car. And of course red with black stripes are the fastest Vipers out there! Thanks for the props!

SSG Chic: At least you walked away before you gave them any money. It was like going through hell to get my "refundable" deposit back. It took almost two weeks and a call to the GM's cell phone (thanks Joseph Dell) to finally get it all taken care of. The guys at that dealership are a piece of work. I don't know how they sell anything. I was considering starting another thread about bad dealership experiences. Of course I have to do a search first. I don't want to get yelled at for a double post...

tbsviper: Unfortunately for me the Texas patrolman wasn't as pleasant. He hit me with 85 in a 65. That's impossible! I had to have been going waaaaay faster!

I'm surprised that Dave6666 hasn't chimed in on this. I have made mention of Texas at least 6 times now...

[RTTTTed]

Last Feb. 07, when I bought my 98 GTS I got a warnign ticket from a higway patrolman in Wisconson. Did you know that their minimium ticket is $182? That if you can't pay immediately, on the side of the road you get a free trip to jail? Can't imagine what it would have cost you for more than 20mph over speed limit. Waited until state line before I started speeding again. Didn't really have to, since the next state to the west is 70/75mph.

When I bought my last GTS in Ohio I stopped at the first Walmart and bought a cheap radar detector to get me home. Now I run an SRX and tell everyone it's for "safety codes" ( fire truck, ambulance, road closed, construction, etc. 65 safety codes.



Ted