Vipers have always been nostalgia capsules on wheels, and the last of its kind, debuting in 2013, is no different. Except, instead of unwieldy death traps of the 60s, the 5th generation, "VX" Viper reminds me of some of my favourite sports cars of the fabled 90s era, like the RX-7 and S2000.
Quite an unexpected comparison I'm making here, isn't it? After all, Vipers, regardless of generation or trim, have always been characterised by being utterly horrifying to drive at the limit, and in spite of the begrudging inclusion of basic electronic nannies like ABS, TCS, and ASC, the 5th and final Viper will still require a set of carbon fibre balls the size of its enormous clamshell bonnet to properly tango with, owing to it being the lightest and most powerful base Viper yet: a bowtie ripping
640HP shoving around a mere 3,430lbs of venom (477kW, 1,553kg) in GTS trim without the SRT Track Pack, easily making it the quickest base Viper, which means the driver has to be even quicker to dodge any potential bite backs the car might fancy.
Of course, by 2013, technology has enabled the power wars of automakers to go well beyond the comprehension of mere mortals, and even the improved numbers of the VX Viper aren't especially outstanding in an era of 638HP Corvettes and 900HP hybrid hypercars. Instead, the Viper preserves its terrifying tendencies by being entirely traditional and mechanical in its suspension setup: the VX Viper doesn't have racecar–stiff springs nor the downforce to crush it into powder, instead letting the car lean in naturally on its gargantuan 295–355 tyres to get grip. The problem with this traditional approach, of course, is that it puts the idiotic, fleshy bit somewhere aft the middle of the car in control, and if mistreated, the Viper isn't shy about snap oversteering completely and going after its own tail like a nostalgic game of Snake. This is especially problematic because there's
something about the Viper's Pirelli P Zero Sport Hard tyres that make the rear end let go rather arbitrarily with little warning on power, leading to a near–unrecoverable fishtailing session thanks to the soft suspension. The brakes are insultingly and dangerously weak for a car of its power and mass, too, taking a good 30 to 50% longer to stop than would be intuitive, while barely activating ABS in the process. A freaking 2 tonne Challenger Demon would comfortably out–brake this Viper into a corner! Despite the spec sheet claiming that the VX Viper has a perfect 50:50 weight distribution, the Viper feels laboriously front heavy when trail braking into corners, requiring braking and turning to be almost entirely separate affairs. All told, there's probably a very good reason why other cars with the Viper's power aren't set up like the Viper, and it's only things with half to a third of the Viper's power and mass that let the driver have full control over the car.
And so, at this point, you might be thinking as you read this, "so, Viper terrible car, then? Why do you compare it to some of the best handling cars in this industry?" Yes, the Viper GTS is a terrible car for outright pace, but what it offers in exchange is a blast from the past in the form of an extremely raw, mechanical, involving, and engaging drive. There is almost no such thing as a casual drive in a Viper; the driver has to be awake, cognisant, and deliberate in everything that they ask of a Viper GTS, and can't rely on computer wizardry or crippling understeer to bail them out of trouble. I never get the impression driving a Viper that its makers were setting up the car to protect themselves against lawsuits from inexperienced punks. Its makers know that the Viper is a car whose reputation precedes it, and no one would go into it not knowing what to expect, and they made us a car that
LETS responsible adults be kids again, and that I think is an ailing niche in a vilified industry. The reason why I say that the VX Viper reminds me of some of the best handling sports cars in history like the RX-7 and S2000 is
precisely because those revered handling benchmarks were never easy to drive, either; they all had minimal electronic aids, lacked any downforce, emphasised cognisant and skilful weight shifting with soft suspension setups, demanded the driver to intuit mechanical feedback to be driven to their full potential, and made sure to have their drivers' full attention, unhesitating to snap off on inexperienced drivers. All that results in an intensely intimate and raw driving experience, just like the Viper. And for as much as the soft springs of the Viper let it move around that much more under cornering loads, they still somehow feel proportionate to the car's power and mass. Sudden tail happiness on power aside, it never once felt unfair or unpredictable, and the naturally aspirated 8.4L V10 finally feels like a proper sports car engine, wanting to be revved high in spite of its abundant mid range torque, shedding that lazy feeling that had defined Viper V10s up to this point. And it only comes with a 6–speed manual gearbox! Aren't those descriptions apt for some of the best drivers' cars out there? Why shouldn't the Viper be considered a great drivers' car, if it fits all those descriptions?
The VX Viper GTS then, feels almost like a comical exaggeration, the logical evolution, the next step, or the "hard mode" of raw, pure drivers' cars of the 90s, and at the 640HP range, I daresay it is entirely unique in being able to offer that combination of power and raw handling that comprise said "hard mode". Almost like a ridiculously difficult exam, you don't go into a VX Viper expecting to learn from the experience; you go into it putting yourself to the test to see if you have learned from past experiences, and any gratification that can be gained from doing well in it is entirely personal; no one but you is going to know what a big deal it is.
As such, even someone who loves Vipers as fervently as I do finds it extremely difficult to recommend it to others, even in a virtual setting. Just as I'm sure nobody flaunts their exam grades at a bar to pick up a partner, it's extremely difficult to say, "it's a good exam car" to recommend picking it over the swathes of other faster and easier cars to drive at this performance level, some of which include the R35 GT-R, a 458 Italia, and even the sonorous LFA. And while SPD may cite a Top Gear saying as the thing that stuck out to him the most about the VX Viper, what stuck with me the most was a different automotive media outlet with a much more sour opinion of the Viper's venom...
...and that would be Motor Trend's Head 2 Head Episode 24, pitting the (then) new VX Viper GTS against an outgoing C6 generation Corvette ZR1. In spite of both cars sharing very similar specs on paper, racing driver Randy Pobst not only set the faster time in the older Corvette, but he also said it was the better handling car. Quite a way to introduce the world to a brand new car, isn't it? Granted, it was a test that pit a "base" Viper GTS against the top–of–the–line ZR1 Corvette, but still.
In the game, this difference in performance is duly represented; the C6 ZR1 is some 10PP above the Viper's performance rating in spite of their extremely similar stats, and even Vic on a Hail Mary run struggled to close the gap to my Blue Devil around Suzuka. The ZR1 felt a lot more balanced, slightly more nimble, and didn't waddle around in the twisty bits as the Viper. As for whether the C6 ZR1 is more fun than the Viper to drive, though? That's... up for debate
I recognise that there isn't a lot going for the Viper in this game, but as a Viper fanboy, I still had a lot of fun with it, even with the limited seat time I've had with the car, and I really enjoyed the challenge it brought to the table of taming it, rarely ever feeling uncooperative or unfair. I think it's exceedingly rare nowadays for a car to be so self–assured in its identity, and it comes off as refreshingly honest to me. But its playful nature and the resultant loss in pace just highlights the sore omission of an ACR trim Viper in this game. I would've loved to see what Dodge did to fully extract the potential from this capable base of a car, and what it can stand up to in a much more focused trim. But for now, the VX Viper is, sadly, a beater.
But it is a beater I very badly need in my life.