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Z06 Master
Join Date: Mar 2001
Location: .Northern NJ
Posts: 9,721
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Dodge Viper SRT-10 vs. Chevrolet Corvette Z06 (Cool Motor Trend Review)
Dodge Viper SRT-10 vs. Chevrolet Corvette Z06
All-American sports-car faceoff
By Jack Keebler & Matt Stone
Photography by Bruce Benedict
Motor Trend, November 2002
There are obvious reasons behind this high torque, red-white-and-blue, what'll-she-do showdown: These are America's two most outspoken--in fact, America's only--mass-produced two-seater musclecars. They live to rumble, ruin tires, cruise the scene, talk the talk, walk the walk, and fly the flag.
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If you follow this kind of stuff, you know the Viper is virtually all-new for 2003, packing a fresh look, a much upgraded interior, a conventional convertible top, and V-10-generated 500 hp. The Z06 has upped its game to 405 horses and offers a superb blend of sophisticated underpinnings, a coupe-only body style, and what may be the ultimate expression of small-block Chevy V-8 offered to date.
This test isn't about cargo capacity, fuel economy, or who has the better cupholders. We could care less--so could you. We put these domestic heavy weights head to head: at our test track, on the dyno, and through challenging, serpentine mountain roads. Here's our take on the US of A's musclecar kings, and what they can do.
Viewpoint: Corvette
The new Viper is a roadster; the Z06 is a hardtop coupe. Yet from afar, and with similar road-frying missions, these big American-style sports cars seem closely related. Their curvaceous plastic skins, long-hood/short-deck profiles, two-place cockpits, deep body coves, and fat rubber create a strange sort of kinship. But from behind the wheel, they're shockingly different in terms of driving demeanor, refinement, cabin comfort, and styling.
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No question, the Z06 is friendlier, and this notion begins with its steering, handling, and ride. At highway speeds, it lasers in on the lane center and stays there, even on rough blacktop, with relaxed one-handed ease. With a slightly slower steering ratio, higher steering boost, and more suspension compliance than the Viper, the Chevy so feels much calmer. But civil doesn't mean numb: There's steering precision and solid road-grip feedback. Dive cleanly into a turn, and you feel the cornering forces build against your fingertips. Cook an unfamiliar bend too hard, and a touch of understeer checks in as an early warning. If you lose focus or misread a radius, there's electronic stability control to lean on. In terms of ride quality, the performance-spec Z51 suspension is firm, but in no way punishing, offering sufficient bump-absorbing wheel travel and good damping rates.
The Viper, on the other hand, is engaging from a ride-and-handling perspective. The SRT-10's harsh and sometimes noisy ride focuses your attention on dodging potholes or poorly mended expansion joints. While the previous RT/10 had a mean-handling rep and made even good drivers look stupid or unskilled, the new one seems much more forgiving. That encouraged us to explore its high cornering limits, even without a stability-control safety net. The steering-rack's ratio is race-car quick; even small inputs translate into big direction changes. Twitch that wheel while blasting across errant pavement, and you're swapping a half lane and spooking your roadgoing neighbors. Keep the tiller still, though, and the Viper arrows obediently at over 100. In sum, if the new Viper's handling were a love interest, you'd describe it as responsive--but needy.
Powertrain performance is at the heart of this Vette-versus-Viper debate. Even with its surplus 95 hp, two extra cylinders, and displacement edge over the Vette's 5.7L V-8, the Snake's 8.3L V-10 barely makes up for its 250 lb plus of extra mass. Our acceleration numbers reveal a close match, and it becomes a question of how the engines sound and feel. The LS6 V-8 is a stand-out in a long line of high-winding, high-output small-block Chevys. As it travels the rev range, it trumpets a sharp, badass basso through its four titanium tailpipes. No driver can resist blipping the pedal and downshifting just to hear it. But unlike all those past big-power small-blocks, it idles smoothly, like the 350 two-barrel in your granny's Impala. At the same rpm levels, the Viper is snorting from its sidepipes and shaking its hood, steering wheel, and leather shift knob like a Harley with a misfire.
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The icing on the small-block's civil behavior is the Vette's ability to nail mid-20s mileage at highway speeds. Indeed, the EPA numbers are 19/28 for the Z06. Driving the same flog route as the Vette, the Viper with the identical 18.5-gal fuel-tank capacity needed to be filled twice as often. However, the V-10 makes excellent use of the extra premium it swills. It turns it into an ocean of thrust (525 lb-ft) at any engine speed. Driving ascending, twisting mountain roads, we left the car in one gear and wound the tach needle between 2000 and 6000. The Viper rockets from corner to 110 mph sounding and feeling like it's propelled by a roaring steam catapult. The Z06 is no trembling dog in the torque department; but it likes being in the proper gear. That means lots of musical up- and downshifting between second, third, and fourth. It was the one driving mode where the flexible Viper was easier to pilot. Both cars swap cogs using customized versions of Tremec's T56 six-speed manual.
The weakest element of both cars is their interiors. Although the Viper's huge, white-face gauges are gorgeous, the pedals power adjust, and the buckets are supportive, overall cabin comfort was not a priority for the Viper team. It's noisy (forget the radio), it's hot (even with the A/C on), and there's not much elbow room. In contrast, the Vette interior is quiet, icy cool (even with the ambient temp at 108* F), and roomy for two. You can complain about the Chevy's poorly molded and cheap-looking plastics. But unlike the Viper, you won't burn your hand on the shifter's shaft and metal door pulls.
When it debuted in '96, the C5 Corvette was universally criticized for its styling: too conservative in some ways and over the top in others. But it's worn well in the same way a 10-year-old Porsche 911's shape is tasteful, recognizable, and still exciting. Like many earlier Corvettes, the C5 will look sharp even after the C6 appears. The Viper suffers from the same styling problem as the new Ram pickup. Somebody felt the old look was too raw and outrageous. So they toned down the bestial bulges and erotic edges. The Viper is still barbarian transport, but it's missing its cocky sneer.--J.K.
Viewpoint: Viper
Jack, the only thing I see here with a cocky sneer is you. Just because you're sitting in an air-conditioned plastic cocoon doesn't give you the right to wear that smirk. And why not, Oh Great Detroit Bureau Chiefness?
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Because I've got the e.t. slips that put you on the trailer. Check the charts and weep, dude.
You may be cool and comfy on this 108* day, but I'm driving the most powerful, ripple-chested sports car that can be bought for under $100 grand. And it'll kick bootie on a few that cost $200. Every time I shift, it spits a burst of testosterone out of those sidepipes, wiggles its tail, and says hasta, baby, to just about anything in its mirrors. What's the matter, Keebler? Can't hack a little sunshine, wind in your hair, and some bug guts in your teeth? You know, the stuff that real sports-car drivers are into?
Okay, enough barbing; let's shred. In truth, the Z06 is every bit as much a sports/musclecar, and clearly a better gran turismo, than the Viper. It's doubtful we've ever tested cars that are so much alike and so different at the same time.
I understand why Chevrolet offers the Z06 only in hardtop-coupe configuration: This body style represents the C5 platform at its structurally stiffest (more precise handling) and lightest (best power-to-weight ratio). Yet being able to go topless in the Viper adds so much to the driving experience: Not only do you get the rays, breeze, and insect leftovers, but the big view of the road and scenery, plus a surround-sound rendition of Ludvig von Dodge's "Maniacal Gurgle in V-10 Major."
Agreed: Both powertrains are outstanding. The Z06 idles like a Rolex, yet pulls like crazy and sounds simply wonderful. I like the metallic rasp issued up by its thin-walled titanium exhaust system. But the Viper engine is the ultimate big block, with a torque curve as flat as the deck of the U.S.S. Enterprise. And it bites the Corvette from zero to 60 by a half second, not inconsiderable in drag-racing parlance. We're happy with either transmission. Both feel like a genuine shifter attached to real metal gears--none of this semiautopaddlemanumatic stuff--and the driver involvement that comes from using both feet and both hands to go fast is still satisfying
Jack, you're right by saying the Z06's ride/handling demeanor is relaxing--soothing even--compared to the Viper's. The SRT-10 demands your attention at all times. Its fast, communicative steering works like a scalpel in helping you dissect a curve on a smooth road. But on crowned surfaces, constant maintenance is required. Braking capability is a wash: Both cars serve up immense stopping power, good pedal feel and modulation, and the likelihood of dependable fade resistance. As with recent ice-skating contests, 104-ft versus 108-ft 60-0 stopping distances is a virtual tie among gold-medal performances.
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There's a ride/handling tradeoff here, too. The Viper is so much edgier and more direct. There's more compliance in the Corvette's suspension, and it relies on electronic nannies to keep you safe; the SRT-10 gives you more feedback and makes you exert more car control in the process. On mottled surfaces, the Corvette insulates without becoming harsh. The Viper punishes you for being stupid enough to drive it on bad roads in the first place, but rewards you more for being a capable pilot. That said, it's a much more progressive and easier-to-drive-fast piece than was the old RT/10. The new one is far less likely to step out under a quick transition from steady-state cornering to violent oversteer, and it's kinder about communicating the fact that the limit is indeed near.
Neither interior is going to win a fit/finish/materials contest with an Audi, but the Viper's is miles better than it used to be. The longer wheelbase makes for a more comfortable cabin, and the front wheelhouses no longer offset the pedals or otherwise intrude into the footboxes. Splashes of metal and metal-look plastic brighten things up a bit, and the 500-watt, speed-sensitive stereo is still crisp even at 100 mph. A sports car could ask for no better seats than the new chairs found in the SRT-10: firm, supportive, lots of side bolstering to keep you pinned in during hard cornering work, and stitched in luscious leather. The Corvette's seats feel flat and vinylesque by comparison.
The SRT-10's new instrument panel layout is superb, too. It gives you a big tach, front and center and, according to Viper Program Manager and performance flame-keeper Herb Helbig, "keeps unnecessary stuff--like the speedometer--off to the side." One of the original Viper's traits that remains in the new one is its ability to oven-bake its occupants. Heat broils up through the shifter, rocker panels, foot boxes, even from under the car when driving. Dodge has got to fix this. We've already picked on the Corvette's switchgear and plastics; we're just glad GM put the money into the powertrain and suspension, and we'll leave it at that.
All sorts of value judgments can be made about the Viper's higher cost and less practical packaging. But for the man or woman--there are a bunch of Viper-owning-and-driving red-blooded American females out there--who value image and the performance to back it up, the Viper continues to deliver. In spite of the fact that the new car is a more sophisticated piece, it remains in character as a rude, crude, and lewd dude.
Just the way we like it, thank you.--M.S.
Conclusion
It's possible that the person who covets a Viper SRT-10 wouldn't be interested in a Corvette, however competent it is. And there are Vette Faithful who wouldn't give a Dodge a second look, however fast it is. So for real buyers, this decision may be based upon brand loyalty alone.
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Corvette Z06
WHAT'S HOT
Monster power levels
Super handling
Interior comfort
WHAT'S NOT
Aging exterior styling
Poorly molded interior plastics
Road noise from open trunk area
There's a bit of Jekyll and Hyde in both these machines. The Viper is wilder, faster, and rarer. It's also a lot more expensive. If a few tenths-worth of bragging rights is worth $30 grand extra to you, and you want to be a member of a more exclusive club (Dodge will sell perhaps 2000 Vipers next year, while Chevy will peddle more like 10,000 Z06s), the Viper is the wilder child. It's a better car, in every way, than the one it replaces and delivers performance that exceeds the driving talents of many who'll buy it. If you judge a car by its 0-60 and quarter-mile times, the Viper is the winner here.
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2008 C6 M6 Z51 NPP /2008 CTS AWD 3.6 DI FE2
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I saw that in Car and Driver or Automobile..still it was a preproduction prototype that the rag claimed DC would fix before production..
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