Took my TA to the track

[GTSilver]

After getting my viper last month and after driving it for a while to get a hang of the car I took it to the track. To be honest although with the gen v high track capabilities i was still skeptical maybe because of my experience with the gen 3 previously and also with the cars reputation. Usually a track day here is a number of 30 mins sessions throughout the day, usually 6 sessions. So at the first session i took it out on track and tried it out. The car was all over the place everywhere when accelerating, braking, cornering etc and traction control was engaging all the time (it was full on), it didn't inspire any confidence to push it so I was really frustrated with the car and said to myself I should just use the car on the street and keep tracking my other car.

However I realized that I did the dumbest thing that you should always do before heading out on track, I didn't check or even set the tire pressures, they were 40 something in the front and 50 something in the rear. So I reduced the pressures to 28 psi at front and 30 psi rear hot and kept them t these pressure throughout the day. The second session i took it out it was another car thats how important tire pressures is. The car felt neutral on track everywhere except under hard braking which i knew from other members experience and some understeer in some corners but every car understeers in these corners as they are downhill and off camber corners.

During the rest of the day i kept pushing and pushing the car and it never surprised me at all it, I cant remember ever driving a car this balanced before on track and i liked the pirelli pzero corsa tires but aren't that great if you are going to push the car on track. At the end of the day I was able to beat my personal time by a 2 tenths compared to my 997 gt2 on hoosiers and full suspension !! And I have been tracking my gt2 for about 5-6 years so i know the car inside out. My appreciation of the viper gen v is huge after this track day and I know hopefully with time i'll beat my personal best time on the gt2 with michelin slicks. I'm really happy and surprised although i shouldn't as Dodge build one hell of a car and we are really lucky to have them. I think that every viper owner should take their viper to a road course at least once to appreciate the kind of car they have.

So now I'll be looking for an aggressive set of pads (pads are gone and some hairline cracks on rotors) to run them on my ta to improve braking and maybe the rear end wiggle on hard braking, acr front brake cooling ducts and also either hoosier r6/r7 or pirelli slicks.

Last but definitely not least is the power. Although i have the h/c from arrow/viper exchange i never got on it on the streets as its unsafe and i wouldn't be comfortable pushing the car on the streets so i kept it until i took to the track. The power was amazing and the linearity of the power band it kept on going and going even in the early sessions where i short shifted until i get used to the power it kept on going. The combo of BBG shorty headers and a corsa exhaust sound was unbeilevable !! I wish I can compare it with a stock gen v but i never had the chance to. Oil and water temps were in check and the car never skipped a beat. I'm really glad that I went the NA route as its much more fun and responsive on a road course.

Yousif


p.s. Traction was always on but I have a theory that if you are driving on the correct line on the race track traction shouldn't engage it only engages to save you for something you did wrong.

I forgot my go pro so I don't have any in car footage but a friend of mine took these fly by videos on track

https://youtu.be/vJCTX0lSUL4

https://youtu.be/QFmT3AbZsKM

https://www.instagram.com/p/BB92mKQwCi4/?taken-by=bah_int_circuit

[ViperPete]

Great writeup man. I know when I eventually take mine to the track I definitely wont run stock tires. I want slicks and proper brake pads.

Glad you had fun!

[GTSilver]

Great writeup man. I know when I eventually take mine to the track I definitely wont run stock tires. I want slicks and proper brake pads.

Glad you had fun!

Thanks and whenever you do you'll love and appreciate your car way more than you do now. IMO I think FCA should market the viper as a track car as there are a lot of people into track/road course and I personally switched back to the viper from years of porsche due to the TA and ACR track capabilities and bought the car to take it to the track.

[Boba Fett]

great write up man, car sounds awesome!

[TheKosherStogie]

Glad you enjoyed it. Like u said the car is very balanced and predictable.

Just my 2 cents no insult intended but nobody should be running slicks if you can't drive the car confidently without traction control on. Sure u can run it in race mode for a safety net but someone should be confident in their driving before going to a race tire. The Corsa tire is pretty decent and shows you ran good times compared to your Gt2. Would seem crazy for anyone who hasn't tracked the car either to Just go on Hoosiers, not saying u but the one comment and I see so many guys roll up on slicks who can't drive and it doesn't help either (again not saying u can't).

[TrackAire]

Yousif,

Holy crap, that is by far the best sounding Viper I think I've ever heard. Congrats on the combo, the car is obviously working great for you.

Regarding tires, I recommend going with whatever is the most predictable in hot conditions for the length of the sessions you run. In my opinion, going 1 second faster per lap is not as important to me as a tire I can trust to not go away when I least expect it. Consistency and predictability mean fast lap times.

Regarding the Corsa tire, I would think starting with a new shaved set would give you better performance, be more predictable and maybe even last longer.....maybe coming close to the Hoosier R7's in performance.

[AZTVR]

Holy crap, that is by far the best sounding Viper I think I've ever heard. Congrats on the combo, the car is obviously working great for you.
Sure doesn't sound like a UPS truck, like the internet pundits claim, does it? :dude3:

[Policy Limits]

Looks and sounds really mean! I tracked my GTS last season and it felt made for it. Went full on as well, similar PSI as adjusted and was a blast. Can't wait to see videos of extreme ACR cars out there. I'm sure they're coming

[darbgnik]

Great writeup man. I know when I eventually take mine to the track I definitely wont run stock tires. I want slicks and proper brake pads.

Glad you had fun!

Absolutely, a more track focused brake pad would be a god idea, Even if only upgrading the fronts to improve the bias a bit.

But if this will be your first time tracking, best not to use slicks. Their outright grip is obviously superior, but they wont let you know where the edge of traction is like the Corsa. If you've tracked lots in other cars, and this is only the first time in the Viper, please feel free to ignore the above. ;)


And OP, you're exactly right, every owner needs to try the Viper on a track at least once! It's home!

[darbgnik]

Glad you enjoyed it. Like u said the car is very balanced and predictable.

Just my 2 cents no insult intended but nobody should be running slicks if you can't drive the car confidently without traction control on. Sure u can run it in race mode for a safety net but someone should be confident in their driving before going to a race tire. The Corsa tire is pretty decent and shows you ran good times compared to your Gt2. Would seem crazy for anyone who hasn't tracked the car either to Just go on Hoosiers, not saying u but the one comment and I see so many guys roll up on slicks who can't drive and it doesn't help either (again not saying u can't).

On this note, have you noticed any major difference running Stability on or off? Reason I ask, is I have left the pits and forgot to turn the it off, and never really much of a difference. Albeit, I try to follow the line as opposed to impersonating a drift champion. Same with dinkin' around in town, I've found the Stability pretty loose, allowing me to do smokey burnouts, and bounce off the rev limiter all while the front tires are barely moving. Although, I only have on, off, and rain with the SRT.

[7TH_SIGN]

Thank you for sharing man. Awesome review.

[TheKosherStogie]

On this note, have you noticed any major difference running Stability on or off? Reason I ask, is I have left the pits and forgot to turn the it off, and never really much of a difference. Albeit, I try to follow the line as opposed to impersonating a drift champion. Same with dinkin' around in town, I've found the Stability pretty loose, allowing me to do smokey burnouts, and bounce off the rev limiter all while the front tires are barely moving. Although, I only have on, off, and rain with the SRT.


I've never even tried leaving regular stability on at the track. Either off Or track mode. Not sure how it works with dodge but the Bmw TC even in sport mode does apply brakes here and there without the driver EVER knowing. People actually tested it hooking up a camera and watching it occur. Cause drivers said I never feel it kick in or see any TC lights flashing but it's still there working.

Again not sure with the viper...but if the above occurs at all it will wear pads much faster too.

You can do burn outs with stability fully on?

[darbgnik]

Haha, pretty sure! Never actually tried a rolling burnout per se, just getting on it from low speed, spinning up the rears and bouncing off the limiter, all while having never touched the stability control(default is on). To be honest, with my last Viper not having it, it never comes into my mind. I remember seeing an interview, maybe it was Ralph Gilles on Jay Lenos Garage, where they talked about how the stability control wouldn't bother the traditional Viper owner, as they programmed it "quite loose". That's why I'm interested in others' experience.

Seems to me I noticed it once when the car kicked out quickly, bombing through a puddle, though.

Edit: Ralph says at 4:50 of the video, it's an "open system" so a good driver may never feel it, but it'll save a bad one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-bWLhDo91o

Seems like my experience....... but who knows? I know it doesn't kill any of the fun when the car is pointed mostly straight, this I know.

[GTSilver]

Glad you enjoyed it. Like u said the car is very balanced and predictable.

Just my 2 cents no insult intended but nobody should be running slicks if you can't drive the car confidently without traction control on. Sure u can run it in race mode for a safety net but someone should be confident in their driving before going to a race tire. The Corsa tire is pretty decent and shows you ran good times compared to your Gt2. Would seem crazy for anyone who hasn't tracked the car either to Just go on Hoosiers, not saying u but the one comment and I see so many guys roll up on slicks who can't drive and it doesn't help either (again not saying u can't).

Thanks for you feedback especially regarding the pads (on instagram). And you are right regarding running a slick tire without traction control that someone should be confident driving and controlling a car without any traction and also that the corsa tire was somewhat decent. I'll have a go a couple of time on the corsa tires until i build my confidence in the car and as it was a brand new tire before the track day so its better to take advantage of the tire i have now before changing tires to slicks. The reason I mentioned going to slicks is that I compete in an annual time attack competition and have been using the gt2 for a couple of years and for this year i would like to run the viper based on the last track day and running on corsa tires sure wouldn't let me compete, but you may be right I shouldn't rush into it until i'm fully confident in the car.

Yousif

[GTSilver]

Yousif,

Holy crap, that is by far the best sounding Viper I think I've ever heard. Congrats on the combo, the car is obviously working great for you.

Regarding tires, I recommend going with whatever is the most predictable in hot conditions for the length of the sessions you run. In my opinion, going 1 second faster per lap is not as important to me as a tire I can trust to not go away when I least expect it. Consistency and predictability mean fast lap times.

Regarding the Corsa tire, I would think starting with a new shaved set would give you better performance, be more predictable and maybe even last longer.....maybe coming close to the Hoosier R7's in performance.

Thanks and yes the combo of BBG headers and a corsa exhaust sounds amazing. Regarding tires i was running a brand new corsa tire with a couple of normal street driving ( 300-500km) before taking it to the track but I dont think they were shaved. I'll consider it if i decided to give the pirellis another shot.

[FLATOUT]

Awesome Yousif! Glad you're finally enjoying the car it was a fun Heads and Cam build for us at ViperExchange. I would really suggest the DSC controlled Tractive dampers we sell for the car if you really want to take it to the next level.

Andy

[GTSilver]

Awesome Yousif! Glad you're finally enjoying the car it was a fun Heads and Cam build for us at ViperExchange. I would really suggest the DSC controlled Tractive dampers we sell for the car if you really want to take it to the next level.

Andy

Thanks Andy and yes with TheKosherStogie track footage and feedback i think i'm sold on the Tractive dampers but would like to try the aggressive pads at first as if I didn't feel any real benefits I want to get your BBK first then upgrade the suspension later.

Yousif

[TheKosherStogie]

Yousif I see what you're saying. That definitely makes sense. Hard to compete when the competition is running a stickier tire!!

Good luck, didn't realize we spoke on IG now I know who the screen name belongs too.
Let us know how it goes!

[SSGNRDZ_28]

Thanks for sharing the videos, Yousif! The car sounds awesome and looks at home on the track.

[GTSilver]

Thanks for sharing the videos, Yousif! The car sounds awesome and looks at home on the track.

Thanks Doug and hopefully more to come.

On another note I just checked my catch cans and as shown in the other thread the passenger side had a small amount of oil but the passenger side had significantly more and was a bit sludgy. I highly recommend getting the catch can for the viper and IAT was in check just a couple of degrees above ambient which is really great compared to the temps we have here in our part of the world. Thanks for the great products that you provide for us viper owners.

Yousif

[GTSilver]

Yousif I see what you're saying. That definitely makes sense. Hard to compete when the competition is running a stickier tire!!

Good luck, didn't realize we spoke on IG now I know who the screen name belongs too.
Let us know how it goes!


Thanks and yes the competition is in the middle of march next month so I need more seat time.

[SSGNRDZ_28]

Thanks Doug and hopefully more to come.

On another note I just checked my catch cans and as shown in the other thread the passenger side had a small amount of oil but the passenger side had significantly more and was a bit sludgy. I highly recommend getting the catch can for the viper and IAT was in check just a couple of degrees above ambient which is really great compared to the temps we have here in our part of the world. Thanks for the great products that you provide for us viper owners.

Yousif

No problem and thanks for the update on how everything is working for you. Glad these items continue to be track tested.

[G37Sam]

Mashallah that sound!!! What a beast!