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Have to say with the withdraw from SRT pulling the plug on the racing program and the Guys at Viper exchange now keeping the flag flying, I am wondering why we are not seeing more teams taking interest in the Gen V Viper. There seem to be many Ferraris and Porsches but only one Viper running? Is it down to factory back up or out and out price for the car as opposed to other brands?
It's all about support. Take Porsche for example, plenty of factory support (at all levels of racing), for Viper it seems like just Riley Technologies. I was at a NASA regional event at Laguna Seca last weekend. Ton's of Porsche Challenge cars there, including Flying Lizard (I ran into Darren Law in the garage area) and GMG teams. No vipers racing. For the guys racing there that want to go to the next level, the natural would be to stay w/Porsche.
As for price, Viper GT3-R list price $460k Porsche 911 GT3-R $487k
Have to say I would love to see more Vipers out there but it's a shame there are less than a handful worldwide :(
I fondly remember the late 90's into 2000, THE GLORY DAYS OF VIPER RACING!!!!
Then Dodge decided to spend their Motorsports $$$'s to go into NASCAR. Result, Corvette vaults to the top in GT racing, worldwide!
I've asked this exact question many times to as many people as I could in the industry since 2013 and no one has ever been able to definitively explain why it didn't catch on. It certainly isn't the most expensive gt3 package car, it's definitely had success in both GT3 classes, I believe Riley support was part of the package......and yet I know of only three outside of the Riley/SRT camp that have been campaigned.
They have won the GTLM season championship, the endurance portion of the championship in GTD, the Rolex 24 in GTD and a few unique events like the Grassroots TCOTY and events in Europe but customers flock to Porsche, Ferrari and Audi.
Good post, this is exactly what I mean.Quote:
Originally Posted by str5010
I just don't understand why?
As cool as a race Viper GT3-R would be, wouldn't the lack of both factory support and aftermarket support push somebody willing to spend half a million on a car towards a Porsche? I'm sure Riley is good at what they do, but how many "Riley" type companies are out there for the Porsche platform? I can see why the Cup cars get all the track numbers and glory.....and now with the Viper going away that is just more reason for somebody to not even consider the Viper because for sure there will be no factory support or contingencies.Quote:
Originally Posted by acrvprc
As popular as the Cup cars are there are probably companies offering arrive and drive rentals for those that don't want the hassle of dealing with the car, setup, transportation, etc. Too bad there are not enough Viper race cars to support something like this.
Overall, it really is sad to see a legend like the Viper not grow and stay a player in this arena. I guess now the question is when are the Gen 2 race cars eligible for vintage racing and how cool would that be to compete in?
Trackaire - at this point I'm sure the gt3-r is a hard sell for the reason you mentioned, but think back to 2014 when the factory hadn't dropped the bombshell that they were pulling support and the cars were running at Le Mans and be competitive in both GTLM and GTD - what was the hang up then?
And yes the gen II race cars are eligible and raced in vintage events. Check out Art and Revs owner Florent Moulin (apologize for possible spelling mistake). He has owned and raced a bunch of the original Oreca cars.
The Gen 2 GTS-Rs have been eligible for vintage racing for a few years now, and have been competing in historic races at Daytona and Sebring. As str5010 mentioned, Florent Moulin owns an impressive collection in France that includes several GTS-Rs. He ships them to the U.S for historic races and drives them himself. These photos are from the Daytona historics in 2014 and 2015.Quote:
Originally Posted by TrackAire
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