To say that SRT boss Ralph Gilles was
unhappy with the results of our comparison test between the Chevrolet Corvette
ZR1 and the SRT Viper GTS would be like saying Michael Corleone was a little
disappointed in his brother Fredo. Ralph was understandably livid. After all,
the largest automotive publication in the land had just said that his new
baby-the only product in his brand’s stable and the car that somehow survived
the executioner’s axe during Chrysler’s bankruptcy largely thanks to his force
of will-was not as good as a four-year-old Chevy mere weeks away from going out
of production. Rubbing salt in that wound, with racing great Randy Pobst at the
wheel, the ZR1 set the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca production car lap record with
a time of 1:33:70, beating the old record held by a Viper ACR of 1:33:92 in the
process. I’d be upset, too.
What
is the SRT Viper TA? Think of it as a Porsche GTS variant, be it a 911,
Cayenne, or Panamera
So, yeah, Ralph was pissed. He tweeted,
“There is a lot more left in the car. Randy has always struggled with the
Viper”. I asked Randy about this, and he said, “Well, yeah, I’ve always had a
hard time with cars that don’t handle well!” Then Mr. Gilles accused GM of
sending us a ringer ’Vette with a juiced-up engine. When we pointed out that
the two cars were basically identical in power, weight, and straight-line
performance, Ralph brought up tires. Corvette was cheating-the Michelin Pilot
Sport Cups gave the ZR1 an unfair advantage over the Pirelli P Zero Corsas on
the Viper GTS. For our part, we never thought it was the tires. Having actually
driven the two cars, we (meaning us and Pobst) thought the 2-second gap in lap
times (1:33.70 vs. 1:35.77, see “Monsters’ Brawl Redux,” March 2013) came down
to the Corvette’s better brakes, and especially its superior magnetic
suspension.
Here’s the important part. People like
Ralph Gilles get where they are (president and CEO of SRT and vice president of
Design for Chrysler) because when the going gets tough, they roll up their
sleeves and do something.
In this case, Gilles pushed a new car out
of the gates in just nine weeks, including Christmas and New Year’s holidays.
Our ZR1/Viper story went live on December 17, 2012. We tested this new Viper on
February 27, 2013. I vividly recall Ralph tweeting MT editor-in-chef Edward Loh
and me, “You forced me to build this!”
Officially, SRT says it’s had this car
planned all along. But that’s only haft true, and according to some at SRT with
whom I’ve spoken, the new Viper’s second-place finish in our comparison test
sped up the new car’s development by at least six months. We surmise SRT was
going to debut it at the upcoming 2013 L.A. Auto Show. Emphasis on “was”. We
wish Ralph and the gang had called this Creamsicle orange beauty the Viper MTS,
or Motor Trend Special. Instead, SRT went with Viper TA. If you’re
wondering, that last part stands for Time Attack, though you old guys will no
doubt see it as homage to Trans-Am. As our wise technical director, Frank
Markus, so sagely noted, “This is how you monetize social media”.
One
difference between regular Vipers and the TA is that the X-brace is no longer
aluminum, but rather carbon fiber
What is the SRT Viper TA? Think of it as a
Porsche GTS variant, be it a 911, Cayenne, or Panamera. All the go-fast,
performance parts that are optional on other models are included as standard on
the Porsche GTS version for a “low price”, with one or two gotta-have extras
tossed in. For instance, the Panamera GTS can be yours for “only” $111,975. A
Panamera 4S with similar performance options stickers for more than $116,000,
yet would still be down on power and have less “sportive” suspension. Well,
that’s your Viper TA in a nutshell. It starts at (around) $120,500, nicely
splitting the difference between the regular Viper ($102,000) and the GT-esque
GTS ($125,000).
Standard on the TA is the $4,800 Carbon
Fiber Aero Package consisting of two fangs (a two-way front splitter) and a
functional rear wing that provides 300 pounds of down force at 150 mph. That
might sound ridiculous, but this particular snake whipped through Laguna’s
turns one at more than 140 mph.
The
TA has two track modes, smooth and rough. There is no street mode
You also get the most excellent-looking
tail-light carbon-fiber “applique”, part of the $5,100 Exterior Carbon Fiber
Package. The Viper TA comes standard with the $4,000 version of the Track
Package (it includes the $500 charge for matte wheels), which consists of
better and lighter brakes, wheels, and tires. There’s a twist: Instead of the two-piece
StopTech rotors, TAs get beefier (twice as thick, say the engineers!) Brembo
rotors up front that is 5mm larger in diameter and weighs 2 pounds more each.
The rear brakes are also Brembos, though the same size as before. The tires are
the same Pirelli P Zero Corsas we tested on the GTS. Also like the GTS, the
Viper TA gets two-mode, remote reservoir shocks. In the GTS, you have street
and track modes; in the TA, you also have two track modes, smooth and rough.
There’s no street mode. That’s not to say you can’t drive the TA on the street
(it’s totally legal to do so, unlike, say the old Viper ACR-X), it’s just that
the car has been optimized for the racetrack. Speaking of suspension, the
spring rates and anti-roll bar tuning are TA-specific.
