[Mid-Life Crisis]

I'd like to hear from those of you who owned a GT-R, then bought a Viper to replace it. Care to share your thoughts on why you did so? Any regrets on selling your GT-R? What do you like about the two cars the best? The least?

 

[pdv25]

Sent you another PM.

 

[Ronin1099]

I am in the same boat. Been thinking about the new Viper. The only Viper I drove was 1998 and that was one wild car!

@pdv25, would also love to hear about your thoughts.

 

[humdizzle]

drove both and was very close to pulling the trigger on a gen V viper.

Pros vs the GTR:
- feels like a race car. makes the GTR feel like ur sitting in a camry by comparison.
- steering has better weighting, gtr feels overly assisted
- great manual gearbox.
- looks are subjective, but the viper definitely gets more looks
- NA torque. 0 turbo lag, just power everywhere. the 6200rpm redline doesn't even matter.

Cons:
- ride quality, it isn't awful but its a bit worse than the gtr.
- i'm 5'10 140lbs. getting in and out was easy for me, might not be for some of the bigger guys.
- traction. with 600+ ft/lbs going thru 2 wheels you better be on point. the TCS system will not save you like it does in the GTR.
- aftermarket.. its very small compared to the options you have with the gtr. their forums are significantly smaller than gtrlife as well.

In the end i ended up staying with the gtr, its just alot more usable performance for me year-round. especially when its gets around 30-40 degrees or its raining. If i lived in a warm climate things might be different. Its nothing like the old vipers, dodge really stepped it up with this one.

 

[The_Don1]

In regards to the comment about the traction issue, I'm told that if you leave TC on it's VERY unlikely for the rear end to break loose, even from low speeds.

 

[Mid-Life Crisis]

drove both and was very close to pulling the trigger on a gen V viper.

Pros vs the GTR:
- feels like a race car. makes the GTR feel like ur sitting in a camry by comparison.
- steering has better weighting, gtr feels overly assisted
- great manual gearbox.
- looks are subjective, but the viper definitely gets more looks
- NA torque. 0 turbo lag, just power everywhere. the 6200rpm redline doesn't even matter.

Cons:
- ride quality, it isn't awful but its a bit worse than the gtr.
- i'm 5'10 140lbs. getting in and out was easy for me, might not be for some of the bigger guys.
- traction. with 600+ ft/lbs going thru 2 wheels you better be on point. the TCS system will not save you like it does in the GTR.
- aftermarket.. its very small compared to the options you have with the gtr. their forums are significantly smaller than gtrlife as well.

In the end i ended up staying with the gtr, its just alot more usable performance for me year-round. especially when its gets around 30-40 degrees or its raining. If i lived in a warm climate things might be different. Its nothing like the old vipers, dodge really stepped it up with this one.

Thanks for the helpful inputs. Since I live in the DC area, my concern would be about being able to drive a Viper year round. Obviously not in the snow, but when the temps gets down to between 30-40 degrees as a daily high.

 

[mark896]

Its nothing like the old vipers, dodge really stepped it up with this one.

Careful, for some odd reason now they want you to acknowledge it as simply, the 'SRT Viper'. They have removed the Dodge moniker from the car, for whatever reason.

 

[jjp11]

Nah, Dodge realized that was a bad idea after a couple of years. It's officially the Dodge Viper again, and has been since last year.

 

[Mid-Life Crisis]

I love the looks of the '13+ Vipers and much improvements have been made, to prevent people like me from wrapping one around a tree. But the GT-R still wins out when you tally up the pros and cons for what supercar to own, at least in my personal opinion.

 

[Jojipoji]

If I lived somewhere warm all year round I would have a c7 z06 or viper but living in the northeast where I'd only be able to put the power down safely 6 months out of the year no thank you. It's like paying for only half the time making the car twice as expensive.

I had the GTR out in the snow doing donuts in parking lots. I can drive it in the cold weather and with snow tires I can actually launch the car and do wot runs at around 40 degrees with snow tires on.

 

[JLHILL82]

I'm with you guys. I know there is a least a guy or two on here that went to a new viper/viper ta.
Me personally am looking for road course performance and am in the middle-end of a fairly extensive gtr build but now with the new act viper coming out I am seriously considering ordering one. I have been a mopar fan since birth and a viper fan since they came out. I went with the gtr last year as more of a "bang for your buck" thinking but with the better price point of the viper now and the supposed numbers of the acr I may have to pull the trigger.

 

[mark896]

If I lived somewhere warm all year round I would have a c7 z06 or viper but living in the northeast where I'd only be able to put the power down safely 6 months out of the year no thank you. It's like paying for only half the time making the car twice as expensive.

I had the GTR out in the snow doing donuts in parking lots. I can drive it in the cold weather and with snow tires I can actually launch the car and do wot runs at around 40 degrees with snow tires on.

How exactly does this work? I know that our cars aren't AWD like a typical Subaru or something like that. As I understand it, ~90% of the time the rear wheels are getting all of the power. Does it really handle snow that well?

 

[humdizzle]

http://jalopnik.com/...slope-498729440

The system can go from 10/90 to 50/50 within milliseconds. Honestly you can get around in ANY car if you have a good winter tire. A viper with blizzaks would fair better than a gtr on oem bridgestones. Difference is that in a viper you will be pussy footing it around everywhere with that giant torque curve and rwd. With a GTR you can still use the performance thanks to awd, electronics, and 3800lbs pushing the tires into the ground. The car was designed and tested for winter driving.

 

[Mid-Life Crisis]

http://jalopnik.com/...slope-498729440

The system can go from 10/90 to 50/50 within milliseconds. Honestly you can get around in ANY car if you have a good winter tire. A viper with blizzaks would fair better than a gtr on oem bridgestones. Difference is that in a viper you will be pussy footing it around everywhere with that giant torque curve and rwd. With a GTR you can still use the performance thanks to awd, electronics, and 3800lbs pushing the tires into the ground. The car was designed and tested for winter driving.

Not sure I completely agree with the statement about a Viper with Blizzaks transversing snow covered roads better than a GT-R with the Bridgestone Summer run flats. I've had two high horsepower RWD vehicles (a couple of CTS-V's 556 HP at the crank, Pontiac G8 GT modded to 432 RWHP) shod with Winter performance tires, and if you goosed it a bit too much or did a u-turn a bit too fast when you stepped on the gas, the rear end liked to come out. But I get what you're saying, and certainly dedicated snow tires are much better than Summer only tires. The rest of what you said was right on point. The GT-R was designed to be driven by anyone, anywhere, at anytime. It's hard to be it as a top all around supercar, that you can actually drive year round.

 

[jaspergtr]

Not sure I completely agree with the statement about a Viper with Blizzaks transversing snow covered roads better than a GT-R with the Bridgestone Summer run flats. I've had two high horsepower RWD vehicles (a couple of CTS-V's 556 HP at the crank, Pontiac G8 GT modded to 432 RWHP) shod with Winter performance tires, and if you goosed it a bit too much or did a u-turn a bit too fast when you stepped on the gas, the rear end liked to come out. But I get what you're saying, and certainly dedicated snow tires are much better than Summer only tires. The rest of what you said was right on point. The GT-R was designed to be driven by anyone, anywhere, at anytime. It's hard to be it as a top all around supercar, that you can actually drive year round.

He is spot on regarding Winter vs Summer tires in the cold weather (even states the normal recommended temperatures of Summer tires right in the manual). I have driven Summer tires in warm rain, and cold rain. I've also driven All-Seasons in warm vs cold rain. All-seasons are NOTICEABLY better for lateral and longitudinal grip (to the point where my wife and I both prefer the All-Seasons over the new Dunlop Summer tires on our BE wheels). When I stress "noticeable", it is practically at almost every turn, and from almost every stop.

Regarding the Winter tires (I haven't had any on in the past 4 years, so I'm not sure if the tires changed), but they are MUCH better in snow for longitudinal grip (if there is such a thing in snow), but lateral grip was similar to the All-Seasons. If you drive in the snow, using Winter tires, the compound never really operates in its desired temp, which then not only turns the Summer tire into a roller skate wheel, but also may deteriorate the rubber (because it has become frozen, and may start to chip away (instead of give)).

For me, in NC, I use All-Seasons all year long, and have no problems with grip (except on ice).

*edit: (None of this applies to those who drive as slow as possible everyday, everywhere - and/or who wished to never have purchased a sports car, regretting not getting the Prius or Smart Car, or is trying to equate anything I've just said to any other car, especially RWD)

 

[Mid-Life Crisis]

He is spot on regarding Winter vs Summer tires in the cold weather (even states the normal recommended temperatures of Summer tires right in the manual). I have driven Summer tires in warm rain, and cold rain. I've also driven All-Seasons in warm vs cold rain. All-seasons are NOTICEABLY better for lateral and longitudinal grip (to the point where my wife and I both prefer the All-Seasons over the new Dunlop Summer tires on our BE wheels). When I stress "noticeable", it is practically at almost every turn, and from almost every stop.

Regarding the Winter tires (I haven't had any on in the past 4 years, so I'm not sure if the tires changed), but they are MUCH better in snow for longitudinal grip (if there is such a thing in snow), but lateral grip was similar to the All-Seasons. If you drive in the snow, using Winter tires, the compound never really operates in its desired temp, which then not only turns the Summer tire into a roller skate wheel, but also may deteriorate the rubber (because it has become frozen, and may start to chip away (instead of give)).

For me, in NC, I use All-Seasons all year long, and have no problems with grip (except on ice).

*edit: (None of this applies to those who drive as slow as possible everyday, everywhere - and/or who wished to never have purchased a sports car, regretting not getting the Prius or Smart Car, or is trying to equate anything I've just said to any other car, especially RWD)

I hear you. When I bought my 2009 GT-R, which came with the Bridgstone Summer Run Flat tires, before I even drove it off the lot I had those removed and replaced with Blizzaks, as it was still Winter at that time. I do understand that even an AWD with Summer only tires will experience handling issues in the snow. Obviously having snow tires on during the Winter when driving in the snow is the way to go. At the same time, I had snow tires on my 2008 Pontiac G8 GT (sold recently), and actually slid off of my driveway a couple of times, driving less than 5 mph!

 

[Dntlvet]

Great thread discussion. I had a 530i BMW that was scary in the winter until a set of snow tires were fitted.
Sale in Wisconsin is the only reason I have not put snows on my GTR. I prefer my 2000 Toyota 4 runner for snow plowing.
I want to run in the winter, but just have better choices.

Tires make a world of difference.
I would not consider a corvette or viper for winter driving with any tires in Wisconsin.

 

[JimA]

Accurate OP name lol

 

[Mid-Life Crisis]

Accurate OP name lol

If you look at my signature element, it's obvious that I'm having an ongoing mid-life crisis with the cars!

 

[Dntlvet]

Mid life is just trying to enjoy life. It's only money!