Road Test: 2008 Dodge Viper - Top Speed Challenge Video - video Dailymotion

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Watch the 2008 Dodge Viper rocket around the Ford Proving Grounds

Transcript

00:00 [MUSIC PLAYING]

00:19 [CAR ENGINE]

00:45 [MUSIC PLAYING]

01:12 [CAR ENGINE]

01:37 This car going through the corners is the best.

01:39 It seems to jump over the bumps a little.

01:44 It seems like it hits the bump, and the grip level

01:47 doesn't recover quite as well as what it needs to.

01:51 It definitely doesn't feel as settled as the Corvette.

01:59 I just actually broke into the corner a little bit, and it

02:04 actually took it just fine.

02:06 I thought that the brakes didn't feel uncomfortable.

02:11 I can feel chattering through the front steering wheel, the

02:16 front tires, a little bit, over these bumps.

02:20 It's just not as good in the corners.

02:23 It's just rougher.

02:25 [CAR ENGINE]

02:35 It sounds good, and it feels like it's accelerating, but

02:39 it's really not really accelerating that well.

02:42 [MUSIC PLAYING]

03:03 Danica, the Dodge Viper, your first impressions?

03:08 Acceleration and the launch control, I think it's

03:11 pretty good.

03:12 Acceleration in the lower gears, you really had to be

03:14 hard on the throttle to feel the grunt.

03:18 But it accelerated OK.

03:20 You felt torque for sure.

03:23 But once you got up to speed, it was like you'd be coming

03:27 off the corner at a decent speed, and you'd be flat.

03:30 And it just sounded good.

03:32 It sounded like it was grunting, but it really wasn't

03:34 going that much faster.

03:35 It wasn't picking up speed like it sounded like.

03:38 It sounds good, but it's not going anywhere.

03:41 In the corners, the car went over the bump soft, but it

03:48 went over the bump, but it didn't recover.

03:50 So if it's going to take the bump soft, it needs to have

03:55 grip on the other end.

03:56 And this car didn't really have that.

03:58 So it was fairly unstable over the bumps.

04:01 I thought that if the track was smooth, the feeling of the

04:05 car might be all right.

04:06 I like the Corvette was, where you just kind of put the

04:09 power down and it sits the rear a little bit.

04:11 I didn't feel that attitude quite as much in this car as I

04:14 did the Corvette.

04:15 The Corvette was very definite.

04:17 But it just didn't take the bumps like it needed to be

04:20 able to carry speed through the corner to be able to get a

04:23 good top speed.

04:24 So a couple of things.

04:25 Even though it's got an 8 liter V10 under the hood, you're

04:28 not getting the torque that you were expecting.

04:30 I feel like in the lower gears it feels OK.

04:33 But I feel like you have to use the revs and you had to

04:37 use a lot of throttle.

04:39 But for some reason, in fifth gear, which--

04:42 I mean, sixth gear was like you drop a couple thousand

04:44 revs and you're just in cruise mode.

04:47 But fifth gear, like I said, it sounded good, but it didn't

04:50 pull.

04:51 It didn't pick up speed like I expected.

04:54 And the Corvette rode much nicer over the

04:56 bumps than this one.

04:57 Yeah, the Corvette took the bumps and had grip on the

05:00 other side of it.

05:01 So it was soft over the bumps, but it still maintained grip.

05:05 Where this car took the bumps soft, it rolled over them, but

05:09 it didn't recover afterwards.

05:11 So you were constantly waiting for the rear.

05:14 So the Porsche would go over the bump and skip a little

05:17 bit, and it was a bit nervous in the rear.

05:19 Where this one was, this one, it took the bumps off but

05:22 didn't have the grip.

05:23 So they both are a little bit similar.

05:26 The Porsche just rode a little bit more rough.

05:29 And this one just didn't have the grip that you needed.

05:32 That'd be good.

05:33 Thank you.

05:35 [CAR ENGINE]

05:39 [MUSIC PLAYING]

05:41 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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Road Test: 2008 Dodge Viper - Top Speed Challenge Video

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