Slowstang305
Registered
As some of you may know it was a lifelong dream for me to own a Dodge Viper! As a kid I grew up fantasizing about the car and told myself ONE DAY I will own one. Years later... many many years later I had made the dream a reality. When I was 21 years old my GF at the time picked up a Dodge Viper license plate for me that said "Porsches for breakfast, ferraris for lunch" with two VIPER logos on the top corners. I said one day I will have a car to put them on! I kept the license plate and still have it with me today.
I had the Viper for a total of 7 months and put 10k miles in that time. I drove it to GA and all around FL. I met the local Viper club who were absolutely amazing! Really passionate people who love their cars and know everything about them. I think they are a lot like this forum, a lot of people here are what I call TRUE Hayabusa enthusiasts.
Why did I sell the Viper?
To be 100% honest with everyone, I used to own a 640WHP Corvette. That car was a ROCKET! Then I purchased a Hayabusa and I realized the Hayabusa is a ROCKET (Gen 2 only, we don't care about gen 1's hehehehehehe). The viper while fairly light comes with 500hp/500tq and is pretty well balanced. For some reason, it no longer felt fast to me because like all things speed is relative. The inside cabin of the car would get insanely hot even with aftermarket exhaust. I would have to run the air conditioner at full blast to keep up with the exhaust heat from just cruising on the highway. I felt claustrophobic because interior space was very limited for someone who is 6'3. I had the lowering seat kit installed as well which helped, but did not help with the feeling that you were inside of a Miata. Tires were VERY expensive because only two tires exist for the rear of this car ($2000). The power window regulators are a known failure in these cars and mine had always made a creaking noise so I knew one day it will break, $1000. The scarcity for parts was really troublesome. For the older gen Vipers ac condensers are no longer produced and used working examples are hard to comeby unless you spend $2500 or so. The T56 transmission was of older design and very clunky and so was the rear diff. You can tell the car was not built in this decade but maybe its what made it so special. I also did not have garage space to keep the car inside. I thought about all of those things and made the move to sell the car. It was picked up by a dealership and resold shortly after for a marginal profit. It was a short 7 months but I feel like I got it out of my system. It was a really cool car and attracted a lot of attention and would make a great weekend toy that comes out once a month but for a daily driver it was not entirely livable. I will miss it sure, but I miss every car I have ever owned.
The Corvette world gets a lot of hate from Dodge Viper owners because many believe that the V10 is superior in every way. I think both the GM and Dodge powerplants are impressive motors. The LS3 stuffed into the Corvettes (C6) is an absolute monster. It loves forced induction and is just begging to be unleashed. If I could describe the difference between the Viper and the Corvette I would say it like this. The Viper was a put together kit car with misaligned body panels from the factory and borrowed parts from other models while the Corvette is just "engineered" correctly. The build quality is better, interior is much nicer etc.
I did replace the Viper with a new car but not a sports car this time. I went back to Jeep.
I had the Viper for a total of 7 months and put 10k miles in that time. I drove it to GA and all around FL. I met the local Viper club who were absolutely amazing! Really passionate people who love their cars and know everything about them. I think they are a lot like this forum, a lot of people here are what I call TRUE Hayabusa enthusiasts.
Why did I sell the Viper?
To be 100% honest with everyone, I used to own a 640WHP Corvette. That car was a ROCKET! Then I purchased a Hayabusa and I realized the Hayabusa is a ROCKET (Gen 2 only, we don't care about gen 1's hehehehehehe). The viper while fairly light comes with 500hp/500tq and is pretty well balanced. For some reason, it no longer felt fast to me because like all things speed is relative. The inside cabin of the car would get insanely hot even with aftermarket exhaust. I would have to run the air conditioner at full blast to keep up with the exhaust heat from just cruising on the highway. I felt claustrophobic because interior space was very limited for someone who is 6'3. I had the lowering seat kit installed as well which helped, but did not help with the feeling that you were inside of a Miata. Tires were VERY expensive because only two tires exist for the rear of this car ($2000). The power window regulators are a known failure in these cars and mine had always made a creaking noise so I knew one day it will break, $1000. The scarcity for parts was really troublesome. For the older gen Vipers ac condensers are no longer produced and used working examples are hard to comeby unless you spend $2500 or so. The T56 transmission was of older design and very clunky and so was the rear diff. You can tell the car was not built in this decade but maybe its what made it so special. I also did not have garage space to keep the car inside. I thought about all of those things and made the move to sell the car. It was picked up by a dealership and resold shortly after for a marginal profit. It was a short 7 months but I feel like I got it out of my system. It was a really cool car and attracted a lot of attention and would make a great weekend toy that comes out once a month but for a daily driver it was not entirely livable. I will miss it sure, but I miss every car I have ever owned.
The Corvette world gets a lot of hate from Dodge Viper owners because many believe that the V10 is superior in every way. I think both the GM and Dodge powerplants are impressive motors. The LS3 stuffed into the Corvettes (C6) is an absolute monster. It loves forced induction and is just begging to be unleashed. If I could describe the difference between the Viper and the Corvette I would say it like this. The Viper was a put together kit car with misaligned body panels from the factory and borrowed parts from other models while the Corvette is just "engineered" correctly. The build quality is better, interior is much nicer etc.
I did replace the Viper with a new car but not a sports car this time. I went back to Jeep.
