"There is no substitute for the Dodge Viper TA 2.0
It burns so good.
Now it can be told: the Dodge Viper TA 2.0 was a relatively late addition to the PCOTY roster. Our experience with the TA 1.0—can we call it that now that there's a 2.0?—during the "Misfits" test earlier this year indicated that the latest iteration of Dodge's super snake is still very much an acquired taste. Like the "Glen Thunder" white corn whiskey they sell at the distillery down the street from Watkins Glen, the Viper comes on strong and unfiltered. Also, just like the Glen Thunder, the Viper will burn you every chance it gets.
Still, as the resident Viper fanatic at R&T, I begged for it to be included, because I wanted to see how it would do heads-up against European cars costing between half again and three times as much. The answer? Very well, thank you. As I've been pointing out since the lap times were posted, the Viper's actually the fastest car around the Motown Mile once you deduct the time it takes to—ahem—manfully wrest the trucky, truculent shifter through the gears. A PDK-equipped Viper would have wiped the concrete with the limp corpses of the megabuck Porsche and Ferrari contenders, to say nothing of the brilliant but rather inert NISMO GT-R.
Luckily for the competition, there's no such thing as a PDK Viper. And it's lucky for us, as well. In an era where more decisions are being taken away from the driver, the Viper's still in your face like Dominic Toretto in a grocery-store parking lot, demanding your full attention, your complete involvement. If you want to get the best lap time possible out of it, you'd better be able to snap off a no-lift shift at triple digits and over 1g of lateral load. You'd better be able to heel-and-toe the massive rotational forces of the 8.4-liter V10 and heavy-duty gearbox into sync while hauling down at the threshold of the ABS.
The 458 and the 911 and the GT-R each flatter the driver, but the Viper is different. To begin with, it has an actual name: Viper. What's cooler, some alphanumeric soup such as "911 GT3 PDK", or "Viper"? Did the original Battlestar Galactica take the fight to the Cylons using 911 PDK GT3 PASM fighter ships? You already know the answer to that question—and everybody standing trackside already knows whether you've got the piloting skills of a Starbuck or Apollo.
It's painfully obvious from the first corner that you need commitment to make this car move fast, and you need to be confident in your inputs. The revised-for-2015 aero package makes a real difference. If you carry extra speed, you get extra grip. Tell yourself that as you're holding the 645-horsepower throttle flat through that last turn, and see if you can get yourself to believe it.
Don't confuse this supremely accomplished, hugely capable 2015 Viper with the difficult and tricky first-gen cars. They were properly outrageous but they didn't have the moves to back up their looks. It wasn't until the variable-valve-timed third-gen cars that the Viper truly came into its stride as a driver's car. It was always tough to drive, but it didn't always deliver the lap times or the sheer joy that should have been standard from the start. As with the early 911, the looks and the legends were in full effect well before the vehicle bearing them justified the hype.
That was then; this is now. Today's Dodge Viper substitutes honest feedback and fine-tuned precision for the lairy "handling" of the early cars. Think of it like a Stradivarius: it can deliver a command performance of unmatched clarity but you can't be sloppy with it. There's a full suite of stability controls onboard, but this car is too fast and too heavy and has too much centralization of mass for them to save you if you really get it wrong.
Get it right, on the other hand, and you won't have to wonder if there's a secret electro-mechanical gnome buried on the other side of the firewall Photoshopping your performance. There are few experiences as rewarding as putting together a first-rate Viper lap. The car wants to help you, and it won't lead you astray, but neither will it cover for you. Which is the way it should be.
Still, you expect the Viper to make it happen on the track. What's surprising is how well this current generation takes to the back roads. It's still big and wide, but model bloat means the rest of the cars in the competitive set have caught up to it in that regard. The new Corvette, for example, doesn't feel any more nimble on tight hairpins than this Viper. Neither does the absurdly wide GT3. Only the Ferrari feels usefully smaller, primarily because although both the Dodge and the 458 have the driver and the engine behind the wheels, the Viper's arrangement puts a long hood between you and the horizon.
It's amazing how quickly that long hood disappears from your vision when the pace increases. That's what happens when you realize you can absolutely trust every report you get from the contact patches and know with absolute certainty that every command you issue will be obeyed with high fidelity. The nose isn't a problem because it isn't going to go anywhere you don't tell it to go. Among the fallen leaves and slick surfaces of PCOTY, the new-generation traction control is just splendid, stutter-stepping the torque and letting you focus your attention ahead instead of behind you.
There was probably a time where a good driver in a smaller, nominally slower car like an M3 or Cayman could keep a Viper in sight on a fast two-lane. No longer. Given even the shortest of open stretches, the V10 wedges a gap away from the junior league and the VVT breaks it wide apart. The ABS is just as good as anybody else's and the steady-state traction is just as stellar in the real world as it is on the track. The only real problem is behind the wheel; within a few seconds the speedometer winds into felony territory and it takes a strong effort of will to either dial it back to legality or let it run to the edge.
Of course, the Viper isn't perfect. No small-batch car ever is. The stereo won't impress anyone and even the GTS luxury variant can't match the fit and finish of cars that cost half as much. It's a hassle to park and it has the thirst of an F-15E Strike Eagle and if you drive one to work they're gonna talk about you. So what. During our discussions at the Motown Mile, Mr. Jason Cammisa claimed that the Volkswagen GTI was the PCOTY contender that he'd buy with his own money. I was okay with that. Then he said that it was the car that all of us would buy with our own money. And everybody nodded.
Everybody but me.
I'll take the Viper TA 2.0, in Stryker Green if you're feeling generous. Make the loan term too long to fit on the contract; I don't care. I ain't gonna sell it. The Viper isn't R&T's PCOTY, but it's mine." http://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a6455/theres-no-substitute-for-the-viper-ta-20/
