Stealth
05-30-2015, 12:27 AM
Yesterday I went to see the 2015 Gumball 3000 Rally cars in Los Angeles, including of course the 3 Guess-wrapped Vipers (and another Viper as well). OK, I will admit that I did like to seek the Koenigsegg One, Pagani Huayra, Porsche 918, McLaren P1, etc. I am sure there will be photos on the Gumball ("GB") website. I have a lot of marginal phone pics and do not know how to post them.
The cars were on display at the LA Ritz Carleton and the Gumballers were in the Lobby and then the DJ DeadMau5 was supposed to play. I saw him get out of the Mercedes AMG GT (there were 2 of them) and one of his peeps were carrying out a Mousehead.
The Vipers looked great but it was hard for them to standout since there were so many other cars and most all of them were also wrapped. If you did not know, the Gumball cars were flown over from Norway (or somewhere) to Reno, went to San Francisco, then drove to Button Willow Raceway in Bakersfield (“BW”) for about 2 hours of fun, and then on to LA. I was curious what happened at the track so I spoke to some GB participants who were from Europe and driving a Ferrari 458 (two guys, collectively, “FG”). I also spoke to some of the GB Crew (“GBC”) who were at the car display area. The results were laughable and consistent with the Viper story. Here is a brief recap:
Me to GBC: Were you at BW?
GBC: Yes.
M: Did all of the GB cars (100 cars) go on and around the track?
GBC: Yes.
M: Did they drive easy parade laps or drive hard?
GBC: They drove hard. [I stopped listening here as it was clear he had no clue; 100 cars would have trouble cycling through the track in 1.50 hrs. and would lack training, etc. The GB is a cruise—not like Cannonball Run the movie]
M to FG: Were you at BW?
FG: Yes.
M: Did you get some good laps?
FG: Yes. One Ferrari guy [likely the non-owner] said that they also drove one of the Vipers. He described it as “not really a car built for the track”, it was “wobbly” and “the transmission was terrible”.
M: Have you heard of the Nurburgring?
FG: Yes. [I reminded them that the Ring was generally the litmus test for sportscars just in case they did not understand].
M: Did you know that until recently the Gen IV ACR [I said last version of the Viper with the wing] held the Ring record for all production cars?
FG: No!
M: This means it was/is faster than all of the Ferraris tested (including yours), save the new La Ferrarri. The Viper is actually designed to perform on the track.
FG: :0 !!!!!
M: There is a new Viper ACR coming which will likely have an even better Ring time than the last Viper ACR, although it will not likely beat the hypercars (P1, 918, La Ferrari, Koenigsegg One, etc.). Perhaps someone had damaged the Viper you drove—drunk curb smashes, etc. to throw off the handling? Or maybe you are just used to your DCT gearbox?
FG: Yes, we like DCT.
______________
So, the GB was a nice group of rich guys (and a very few girls) having fun. They had some great cars! The few I spoke to who were not from the US, had pretty limited knowledge of the Viper and tended (understandably) toward European marques.
The bottom line, the more good press—especially overseas—the Viper can get, the better!
The cars were on display at the LA Ritz Carleton and the Gumballers were in the Lobby and then the DJ DeadMau5 was supposed to play. I saw him get out of the Mercedes AMG GT (there were 2 of them) and one of his peeps were carrying out a Mousehead.
The Vipers looked great but it was hard for them to standout since there were so many other cars and most all of them were also wrapped. If you did not know, the Gumball cars were flown over from Norway (or somewhere) to Reno, went to San Francisco, then drove to Button Willow Raceway in Bakersfield (“BW”) for about 2 hours of fun, and then on to LA. I was curious what happened at the track so I spoke to some GB participants who were from Europe and driving a Ferrari 458 (two guys, collectively, “FG”). I also spoke to some of the GB Crew (“GBC”) who were at the car display area. The results were laughable and consistent with the Viper story. Here is a brief recap:
Me to GBC: Were you at BW?
GBC: Yes.
M: Did all of the GB cars (100 cars) go on and around the track?
GBC: Yes.
M: Did they drive easy parade laps or drive hard?
GBC: They drove hard. [I stopped listening here as it was clear he had no clue; 100 cars would have trouble cycling through the track in 1.50 hrs. and would lack training, etc. The GB is a cruise—not like Cannonball Run the movie]
M to FG: Were you at BW?
FG: Yes.
M: Did you get some good laps?
FG: Yes. One Ferrari guy [likely the non-owner] said that they also drove one of the Vipers. He described it as “not really a car built for the track”, it was “wobbly” and “the transmission was terrible”.
M: Have you heard of the Nurburgring?
FG: Yes. [I reminded them that the Ring was generally the litmus test for sportscars just in case they did not understand].
M: Did you know that until recently the Gen IV ACR [I said last version of the Viper with the wing] held the Ring record for all production cars?
FG: No!
M: This means it was/is faster than all of the Ferraris tested (including yours), save the new La Ferrarri. The Viper is actually designed to perform on the track.
FG: :0 !!!!!
M: There is a new Viper ACR coming which will likely have an even better Ring time than the last Viper ACR, although it will not likely beat the hypercars (P1, 918, La Ferrari, Koenigsegg One, etc.). Perhaps someone had damaged the Viper you drove—drunk curb smashes, etc. to throw off the handling? Or maybe you are just used to your DCT gearbox?
FG: Yes, we like DCT.
______________
So, the GB was a nice group of rich guys (and a very few girls) having fun. They had some great cars! The few I spoke to who were not from the US, had pretty limited knowledge of the Viper and tended (understandably) toward European marques.
The bottom line, the more good press—especially overseas—the Viper can get, the better!