[The Voice of Doom]

That pic of Gilles standing in front of the car grinning like a fool pretty much sums it up, doesn't it?

Now that the shock of the new has worn off a bit, a few observations:

-if it were my call I'd round off the upper tips of the headlights and put in a body-colored gunsight grille (the two vertical strakes in the existing one kinda separate towards the top and have a whiff of Alfa Romeo). I'd also make the double bubble roof more, uh, bubbly as opposed to creased. Yes, that would make it nearly identical to the 1997 GTS. And yes, I'm really stretching for something to grouse about styling-wise-the thing looks awesome.

-the rear blackout panel, on the other hand, looks better and better every time I see it. Nice tie-in with the Hemi 'Cudas of yore.

-the rear tires are redonculous. 355s? Yowza.

-side exhaust. Way cool. The V10 will always sound a bit weird but hopefully the guys have tuned the exhaust to appropriate levels of sound and fury. Certainly seemed like it in the video, especially with the racer.

-like the Lamborghini Aventador, I'd like to have seen the V10 get Direct Injection. Also I would have preferred to see a new frame rather than a refresh of the previous one. I'm guessing that engineering money was still pretty tight at the time of the car's development. The engine situation will likely be resolved (maybe with Hemi heads as well?). The chassis may be a bit more problematic, but given the gung-ho nature of Viper owners they're not likely to care too much.

-the Cd is around .36 so it's not particularly slippery going through the air. It will be interesting to see how much of this is due to the overall shape of the car and how much of it is due to high-speed downforce.

[REVolution]

I was told it was completely overhauled front to back. They kept a few things like the brakes (for excellent reasons) but most of the car is completely different. Its 50% stiffer than the outgoing model. I actually like just the way it is.

[MOPAR74]

I love the little "hidden" in plain sight race track designs

[DougDrivesDodge]

the CD being .36 has less to do with the aerodynamics than overall frontal area. The Ram has a coeffecient of .36, which one do you think goes through the air much better?

[The Voice of Doom]

Actually, the coefficient of drag is a unitless number. A large frontal surface area with a small Cd could easily slip through the air with less drag than a smaller frontal surface area with a large one. The Viper's Cd is not bad if it generates its drag as a result of generating downforce. If it doesn't produce signifigant downforce with that Cd then there could be high-speed stability issues, to say nothing of an unnecessarily reduced top speed.

[Gixser995]

ALUX;194440 Wrote:

?;194389 Wrote:

ALUX;194305 Wrote:Thanks for the pic Rev.





:WINK:

Which arse are you looking at?

Looking at both! ::

OH! There is a car in this pic. :2thumbsup:

[MOPAR74]

[DougDrivesDodge]

[?]

Perverts!

[MOPAR74]

So?