SRT on BBC Top Gear

Neil - UK

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At last, filmed on the track last week for a new series shows going out in late October, they used a black Chrysler viper (Dodge import not a euro car) which was given a good thrashing, they also had one of our new club guys gen1 red RT for a comprassion, he's only had it a month (just happens to be my old car) but he stood his ground and wouldn't allow JC to trash it and smoke the tires as they normally do

The Stig didnt drive the SRT that day, so hopefully there was another days filming planned for that, the RT owner Richard, has got us tickets for the studio part of the show which is being filmed shortly.
 

Kai SRT10

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Can't wait to see it.

I hope that the Stig gets to drive the Viper.

All right, let's see who can guess the Viper's time on the track and get closest to the actual time:

I guess 1:24.8

Porsche Carrera GT - 1:19.8
Mercedes McLaren SLR - 1:20.9
Ford GT - 1:21.9
Ferrari 360 CS - 1:22.3
Porsche GT3 RS - 1:22.3
Murcielago - 1:23.7
Zonda - 1:23.8
Koenigsegg - 1:23.9
Noble - 1:25.0
Gallardo - 1:25.8
Corvette C6 - 1:26.8
Lotus Exige - 1:26.9
Porsche 911 GT3 - 1:27.2
 

SnakeBitten

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After seeing the way he drove the Vette Ill guess 1:25.8....He had that car sliding through turns. Not a very clean lap compared to some others but still got a very fast lap..Talked about the torque etc...If that 400lb tq Vette gave him a little trouble keeping the car straight, just imagine the 525lb tq SRT in his hands....Im betting he will be spinning out repeatedly...This may be the first car the Stig cant get around the track....If he does, the Viper will be sideways across the finish line :D
 

Joseph Houss

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In theory, he could surely be right in there with the 360 and GT3!

I'll go with a 122.5 (.2 over those two for its' "brutal torque") ;)
 
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sachin

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Isnt the Chrysler SRT-10 down on power compared to what we get over here in Norht America?
 

Snakester

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They bad mouthed the C6 Corvette in their recent test, and downplayed the good track time. They did comment though that the Corvette was the "only" legitimate sportscar built in the U.S. :(

I figure that they will make various digs about the brute force engineering, and comments about it being "crude" and a blunderbus. But as long as they haven't really hacked away the power to badly with smog/tuning as they did with the earlier European Vipers, I think that the SRT-10's great braking, handling and acceleration should get a very good track time.

122.2 :laugh:

I would just love it if they could beat the 360CS's time, as it would be that much harder for them to justify the inevitable hack job that they do on the rest of the car with the great acceleration, braking, and handling shown off by a good track time staring them in the face.
 
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Neil - UK

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Isnt the Chrysler SRT-10 down on power compared to what we get over here in Norht America?


there isnt such a thing as a Chrysler SRT, they will all be DODGE this time around, but the noise modifications that stiffle the power will still be in place :(

There is said to 50 different things from a USA spec viper in a euro viper. Still no dealership official SRT's for sale, the ones in Europe are all USA spec private imports. In the UK they are taking orders but you still cant buy a official viper yet
 

DBK1

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I'd bet on 124.1. All depends on the Stig though. They don't do too well with cars they don't have readily available. Seems like the Porsches and Ferrari's always get really clean, slide free laps...
 

InjectTheVenom

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I'd bet on 124.1. All depends on the Stig though. They don't do too well with cars they don't have readily available. Seems like the Porsches and Ferrari's always get really clean, slide free laps...

...except for the Porsche Carrera GT (seen that episode myself) ;)
 

Snakester

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Yeah. The Stig spun to two out of the three track runs (and then got the fastest time yet) with the Porsche CGT.
 

Autostream

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They bad mouthed the C6 Corvette in their recent test, and downplayed the good track time.
Only Clarkson bad mouthed it, Hammond loved it. AND if you read clarksons review (i have it if you want) he loved it as well. I'd call that two-thumbs up!
And they only downplayed it because for 400hp it should've gotten a Great time, not a mediocre time-considering the Evo beat it and its $15k less and has 4wd which on a dry track makes it slower.
All things considering they were pretty objective.
 

Snakester

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Personally, I do not think that they could have been more biased. They complained that it was cheap, crude, rough riding, hard to shift, poorly engineered (plastic tail, leafspring suspension), and Clarkson finally (begrudgingly) admited that it was not too slow around the track. :(

Despite the Stig doing some power sliding the C6 (without the Z51 package) ran almost the same as the track-prepped Lotus Exige, and a good deal better than the 911 Turbo, NSX Type-R, and Lotus V8TT. It ran 2 full seconds quicker than the regular EVO VIII.

The occasional faint praise was always followed up quickly by a flurry of criticism.

I do hope that they can be fair-minded about the SRT-10 Viper, but frankly I doubt it, as the British auto press has long been horribly biased against American performance cars.
 

onerareviper

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Personally, I do not think that they could have been more biased. They complained that it was cheap, crude, rough riding, hard to shift, poorly engineered (plastic tail, leafspring suspension), and Clarkson finally (begrudgingly) admited that it was not too slow around the track. :(

Despite the Stig doing some power sliding the C6 (without the Z51 package) ran almost the same as the track-prepped Lotus Exige, and a good deal better than the 911 Turbo, NSX Type-R, and Lotus V8TT. It ran 2 full seconds quicker than the regular EVO VIII.

The occasional faint praise was always followed up quickly by a flurry of criticism.

I do hope that they can be fair-minded about the SRT-10 Viper, but frankly I doubt it, as the British auto press has long been horribly biased against American performance cars.

EXACTLY! :usa:
 

fluffy

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Despite the Stig doing some power sliding the C6 (without the Z51 package)
The car the Stig drove may or may not have had the Z51 package, but the car in the first segment certainly did. It had the cross-drilled rotors which only come with the Z51.
 

SylvanSRT

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i will place the SRT somewhere between the -3rd- place Ford GT and the 6th place Lamborghini Murcialago. I think if they give it a real go it could beat the GT
 

Snakester

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Does the new Corvette REALLY have leaf springs!?
There is a single transverse composite leaf spring up front and out back on the Corvette. This has been a suspension design element of the Corvette for years. Top Gear made parallels to Prams and Ox carts in their condemnation of the "outdated" suspension technology. If the design had been in a British Noble or TVR they would have been falling over themslves in praise. Claiming all of the virtues of the innovative and different suspension design that saves weight, space, and cost. But in an American car the design is archaic and cheap (despite the performance of the car). :rolleyes:
 

Autostream

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Despite the Stig doing some power sliding the C6 (without the Z51 package) ran almost the same as the track-prepped Lotus Exige, and a good deal better than the 911 Turbo, NSX Type-R, and Lotus V8TT. It ran 2 full seconds quicker than the regular EVO VIII.

Lets keep the facts straight.
The C6 they tested has the Z51 package.
The Lotus Exige isnt any 'track-prepped' model, they only come one way.
The Evo VIII 320 beat the C6 by 0.8 seconds.
The C6 beat the 911 Turbo in the wet (and they say you take about 4 seconds off to make up for the dry) so it puts it at about the SAME time.
The NSX also was in the wet. (half second slower than 911 turbo). And its a 14 year old design-the new one is less than a year away so that should be interesting.
And the Lotus? Yes, the C6 obliterated it and so did half the board too including the Ford Focus RS.
And while I'm on the subject of Lotus. I dont think it has any business being mentioned with the above company anyway. Its a 30 year old design that hasnt kept up the pace. It has a tiny 3.5 V8 and a ***** transmission. So like the NSX, it should shuffle on to the 'renault alpine rest home for retired supercars'

Dont forget the GT3 which was beaten by the C6. But again it was soaking wet (they should really wait till the track is dry to test stuff,lol) and if you take 4 seconds off that, that should be enough to blow away even the Murcielago
 

SnakeBitten

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If you want a sports car with a plastic body and Vietnamese suspension then the Vette is for you....

Jeremy Clarkson....lol
 

Autostream

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Claiming all of the virtues of the innovative and different suspension design that saves weight, space, and cost. But in an American car the design is archaic and cheap (despite the performance of the car). :rolleyes:

My Chevy Astro has composite leaf springs too and its hardly innovative. Its there for one reason, its cheap.
What's next? back to drum braks because they save cost?

There is no denying is archaicness. The top ten power lap car all have coil overs. So do all high end race cars. And there's a very good reason for that. And even the Saleen S7 uses coil-over dampers and thats as American as you can get.
 

Vic

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If the coming ZO6 trounces all but the most expensive hyper-exotics, they will still complain about its leaf springs or something, and dismiss it offhand. Maybe there should be a performance vs cost ratio, and another chart for the cars that offer the most performance as a function of their cost. (That damm EVO will probably be on top! On second thought, skip it!)
 

Autostream

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I agree Vic.
Problem is these days with high technology, you dont need a huge heavy V8 to make 400hp. Only America still does because its a tradition, and it defines us americans as the stereotypical-likes things big like our egos. if the viper had a 500hp V6- no one would buy it!
But its weight and bulk and the low technology design works agaisnt it when it comes to going around bends and mpg, emissions, etc.
But around here I see mostly imports at the autocrosses and mostly american iron at the strip. So maybe thats why the vettes and vipers work great here and not so well everywhere else.
 

fluffy

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Problem is these days with high technology, you dont need a huge heavy V8 to make 400hp.
Fortunately the LS2 in the corvette is an extremely light, compact engine, as are all the Chevy OHV V8s. The LS6 for example weighs 355 lbs bare (497lbs fully dressed), which is only about 70lbs more than the 2.0 liter F20C in the s2000, and 35 lbs less than the I6 in the BMW M3. And considering that the LS1 is a popular swap into Miatas and FD RX7s... well, it's not exactly a large engine. In fact it's an extraordinarily small engine... the LS2 has less weight and bulk than pretty much any DOHC engine on the market, so I don't know exactly why you are saying the opposite.
But its weight and bulk and the low technology design works agaisnt it when it comes to going around bends and mpg, emissions, etc.
The low technology, high displacement design improves mpg. The LS2 Corvette gets 30mpg on the highway and 20 in the city, and that's more than I can say for, say, the Ferrari 360 or anything else I can think of in that power range... the "high tech" 333hp BMW M3 for example only gets 23mpg on the highway and 16 in the city.
 

allanlambo

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I dont think any of Top Gears times are to be taken seriously. They test some cars in the wet (Lambo Gallardo) some in the dry. As for the Srt beating the Ford Gt? I doubt that. I doubt it will run down the Murcielago also.

Autostream, as for your Lotus comments, im suprised at the outcome. I have not seen this test. What was the Lotus's time? What year and model was it? The Esprit came in several different versions in Europe. I have a 2000 Esprit, and i have to say, its one of the best cars ive owned. It will go gear for gear with a stock 405hp Z06 in acceleration, The brakes are unreal (i have the larger AP brakes) and the handling is phenomenol. I much prefer it to any of my Ferrari's. The tranny is a bit clunky, but its given me no problems. If its attention you seek, the lotus also puts the Ferraris to shame.
 
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