By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com
October 24, 2005
Muscle car fans are giddy. The 510 horsepower Viper Coupe is here. That is a real 510 horses.
You may not have noticed, but there is a horsepower war underway in the land that pits the Viper against the Corvette. They both produce a 3.7 second zero-to-60 rubber-burning cloud heavy with the scent of burning clutches and hot brakes.
Wow.
The new Viper is a streetcar designed with racing in mind. The double-bubble roof design allows for helmet clearance and there is plenty of room inside the car for a roll-cage.
The stock seats can easily be fitted with racing harnesses, and the pedals are close enough for heel-and-toe shifting in the braking zone.
The Viper coupes top and spoiler produce 100 pounds of down force at 150 miles an hour. Top speed for the new Viper is 190 and its not cheap. Speed costs money you know and in this case Viper speed costs about $87,000. That is 20 grand more than a Corvette Z06 but a lot less than most other super cars.
Moving across town in Detroit, the Z06 is just the best Corvette ever. The car costs roughly $66,000. A lot of money for a lot of car.
The ZO6 is packed full of weight-saving materials like carbon fiber fenders, aluminum, titanium and magnesium. This racing beauty weighs in at 3,132 pounds. Since the Corvette carries 512 horses, thats a ratio of 6.2 pounds per horse.
About the only place you can give the new Z06 a good work out is on a racetrack. There is some good news here. Chevrolet says that taking the Z06 out for an occasional track day will not void the cars warranty. What do you know about that?
The car sounds like a race car whether or not you drive on the track. The Z06 carries larger six piston brakes to bring down the speed for turn one, or the stop at the light in the middle of town.
The Z06 Corvette is quite simply muscle car heaven and super car performance at less than half the price.
