The 2013 Viper GTS: Possibly My New Favorite N-Class...?
It's loud, it's wasteful, it's suicide on four wheels, but I can't help but love it!
Ah yes, the Viper. As I've said before on this thread and in this group, American cars aren't really my thing. Granted, I can respect them for what they are, and if you stuck me in a Ford GT and told me to drive, I could probably churn out a respectable lap time. But they just don't excite me, I'm not exactly drawn to them. Now, I'll admit that mindset has changed somewhat in the last few months. The ZL1 1LE was absolutely incredible to drive, I loved it, but now we have another contender worthy of my liking. The 2013 GTS Viper.
Like most American cars, the Viper has sort of just flown under the radar personally. I drove the older ones in the older games and they were alright, but as I said they just didn't click with me personally. Even this model, the 2013 GTS. Back in GT6 I had the launch edition, but it just didn't make me want to drive it again and again for sheer joy.
(On a side note, did you know that the Viper marquee has been in every single GT game ever, with the exclusion of GT HD Concept? It feels like one of those little trivial bits I should have known, but still came as a surprise to me.
)
However, this week I searched through my garage and behold, there was a lone Viper sitting there, no doubt from a daily marathon many months ago. So then, let's dive into why I now love this car...
Reason 1: It looks incredible!!!
I'm not sure if it's the car itself, or this simple but attractive
livery by Sugar_501, but I like the look of this car! It's got a great shape, it looks clean, fast and very threatening all while standing still! Even the little details, like the scoops, the side exit exhausts, the way the headlights sort of angle themselves together in a menacing scowl. It all comes together for a fiercely intimidating look! And of course the ACR stripes just add to it all! 👍
Reason 2: ALL THAT PERFORMANCE!!!!
Under that hood is the biggest production engine in the world today. With an 8.4 V10 delivering 640bhp directly to the rear wheels, it's not the most powerful car in it's class, but with 814Nm of torque you'll have more than you know what to do with!
On the Tuesday night, I raced without TCS at all. It's not something I normally do, but after the first few test drives, I felt pretty comfortable using my G29 and shifter, on the sport medium tyres and no TCS. And I was really happy with the speed of the Viper. I figured out how to get off the line relatively quick by riding the clutch, which kept the revs up and left a few skids, but seemed to give me a slight jump on everyone else.
It felt really good with the H pattern shifter, like it was a real, honest car. Sounds silly I know, but when I use it on some cars it feels a bit fake, like it's almost too smooth or too effortless. In the Viper, I was banging through the gears, feeling like it was really the car itself, driving it to the limit!
(Maybe one day I'll set up a pedal cam / shifter cam so y'all can see how hard I drive. Not to blow my own trumpet but I shift pretty damn quick. )
Reason 3: Handles like a dream!!!
Despite being a big, heavy, powerful brute of a muscle car, it clings to corners really well! The brakes are good but not overly powerful, which is what I like (my pet peeve is race cars and road cars that brake like LMP cars), and when I did overestimate my marks I could pull it up without too much hassle, even chuck it sideways and scrub off speed via an impromptu drift.
It also, funnily enough, drifts really well! Even on SM tyres with no tuning at all, I beat a few of my scores in various drift trials. The mid range torque and the quick steering makes for a great out-of-the-box drift car, if that appeals to you.
It didn't take much practice to get a good feeling for the Viper, again despite being a big scary snake, you can wrangle it pretty well. It's when you start to try asking for 10/10ths or more, that's when it starts to bite you.
So, the Viper GTS is in my opinion, a strong contender for Car Of The Year. It's a big sleeper for me, mainly because we always knew it would be quick in a straight line, but it has handling to match! 👍 👍 👍 👍
The rest of my vids from this week: