BOLD RIDE
The rumors surrounding the death of the Dodge Viper are true; the supercar isn’t long for this world. However, that doesn’t mean it’s going to go quietly into the night. In fact, it set out to do the exact opposite. To give the demonic snake a proper send off, Dodge took its latest and greatest Viper ACR to racetracks around the country to show what American engineering can accomplish. And in the understatement of the century, it performed better than anticipated.
Before the Viper ACR’s unveiling this spring, Dodge took the street-legal racecar to racetracks all across the country to not only dial the car in, but also see what records it could demolish. In the process, the Viper ACR set a staggering 13 production car lap records at racetracks ranging from Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Road Atlanta, to Virginia International Raceway. The Viper ACR also ended up beating records set by both the McLaren P1 and the Porsche 918 Spyder.
The two hybrid hypercars set lap times at only one track on the Viper ACR’s list, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. And both were set by MotorTrend’s own Randy Pobst. On the day of MotorTrend’s test, the McLaren went first and set a blisteringly fast lap of 1:30.71. The 918 Spyder then beat the McLaren, setting a lap time of 1:29.89. Everyone believed those records would stand for quite some time. That is until the Viper ACR descended on the track.
With the optional Extreme Aero Package, which includes a six-foot adjustable rear wing, revised front splitter, and additional dive planes, Randy Pobst once again set a psychotically fast lap time. The track record now stands at 1:28.65. That’s a full second off the Porsche 918 Spyder’s time, a feat truly staggering when considering the Viper ACR at $118,795 is an eighth of the Porsche’s $845,000 price tag, and has only three-quarters of the Porsche’s 889 horsepower.
The gap between the Viper ACR and the McLaren P1 is even further with the Viper ACR’s price representing only a tenth of the $1.15 million it took to purchase a P1, and having only two-thirds of P1′s 903-horsepower . It’s additionally bewildering when the Viper ACR is also limited by its rear-wheel drive and a manual gearbox.
With these records set, the Viper ACR has only one last track to tackle, the infamous Nurburgring. With speed limits soon to be removed on the ‘Ring, you had better believe that this born and bred American racer has the potential to humble the track known as the Green Hell. We can’t wait.
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