Originally Posted by adoni
I don't know about others, but driving down the road in 1/4 mile sections to get somewhere isn't how I judge a car's performance, nor is it how I drive to get from point A to point B. I have a friend that owns a Viper, one of the first... it's fast, it's dangerous ...
... but ...
Can it take going 135 MPH for long periods of time? I had a 1966 MGB, it was a dog off the line, but on the road it handled every curve the engineers could throw at it and it ran and ran and ran and ... well ... ran at high speeds for long periods of time.
To me, a cars performance should be rated on the long run. The 1/4 mile segments ... those are just peeing contests - IMO.
I think my XF takes the long runs better than my friends Viper ... and when people see his Viper they know what it is ... when the see my XF ... I get asked what it is.
Adoni, If your friends Viper is one of the first, that means it's a roadster. I've got a '96 GTS. The coupe has it all over the roadsters in nearly every way except "wind in your hair, sun on your bald spot" driving.
Trust me, at 135 mph my Viper is idling at around 3,000 rpm of its 6,000 rpm red line. It will do 135 all day. I've had it to 140 on one occasion, and I honestly didn't realize I was going that fast until I noticed the traffic a half mile ahead of me (that was doing 75) looked as though it had stopped.
I can't give you an honest opinion on how it compares to my Crossfire at those high speeds because I've only had the Crossfire up to around 110. But I've read where it's rock steady at autobahn speeds and I wouldn't doubt it.
As for the Viper being scary and dangerous, the answer is yes, if you get a little crazy with it, it will come back and bite you. But what else would you expect from a 450 hp SNAKE?
In the real world, day in day out driving, I totally agree with ya, give me the Crossfire. Maybe that's why I haven't taken the Viper out of the garage even once since the Crossfire showed up.