New Viper Owner

[IXI96]

I posted a couple months back about being in the market for a Viper...
This has been my dream car for years and here lately I've been searching diligently.
Well, it finally came to fruition! At the ripe old age of 22, I couldn't be happier.
I just purchased a 2013 GTS. 28k miles and I paid just under $75k. It's black with dark gray painted stripes. Has a carbon fiber trunk lip spoiler (big plus for me).

R28 and 29 recalls taken care of and it has the power train warranty from Dodge until 2023. The real question is do I leave it stock or modify? I would love a H/C kit...

The car is completely stock and the paint is immaculate. It has been ceramic coated and PPF applied to the front bumper, hood, and door sills (probably other places as well, but I haven't paid much attention, honestly).

I've since given her a bath and have noticed slight swirls that weren't present before (it was like glass). I'm no detailer, but I was very meticulous in washing it. Rinse, foam, 2 bucket method wash, and dried with a leaf blower. I admittedly dried some spots with a microfiber towel, but still. Is the black on these cars just that high maintenance? lol

I live in SC, near Columbia, so if there's any other Viper owners nearby I'd love to connect!

[chris_lee]

Car looks great man! Total batmobile!
The paint on these cars are incredible but I have noticed they tend to swirl/mar easily. I've had no trouble using claybars with my other cars, but on this one I had to immediately polish after as the brand new clay itself was leaving noticeable marring. Maybe that's just the black and I've just never noticed it on the others... Honestly, I think it's all just part of the Black car "fun". It's a pain, but the car just looks soooooo damn good in black. I would just expect to do a very light polish every year or so. Enjoy it man!

*don't turn traction control off ;-)*
*seriously*

[eseery]

Awesome spec! Congrats! Enjoy it!

[Murpowa]

Congrats!

[GTS21]

Congratulations, gorgeous Viper!

[IHOP]

Welcome and Congrats! It's cool to see young people still getting into Vipers, I was 21 when I bought my first also. As previously stated keep it straight and the TC on when getting on the go pedal until you have a decent amount of seat time!

[Russ Oasis]

What Chris_Lee said. Don't turn traction control off unless you're a very experienced racer. (as in ON A TRACK)

[Vegaskid]

Congrats on the new ride.

Gamecock here, but now live in TX.

Drive safe

[Scott_in_fl]

Beautiful and classy spec (as I believe the windows look untinted or very lightly tinted --- I love blacked out cars, but not a fan of the theme being carried over to the windows). I had a black/silver '06 and was able to keep the paint looking really good with some TLC (washed after every drive).

Definitely mod that beast!!! H/C for sure, but you could also look into 9L or TT. Generally speaking, the pricing looks to be $15k/$27.5k/$40k+ for each step. The TT mod is awesome and there are some terrific vendors on this site for that.

There is a guy here in FL that can get you 900whp with a TT setup for reasonable money. Anything more than that will require tearing into the engine and strengthening things. At that point, pricing goes up pretty quickly but the hp ceiling can be very high if you want (i.e. 1,600-1,800 whp is not a problem).

As they say.... speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?

[IXI96]

Thanks all! I find a lot of people my age don't even know what a viper really is and it's a shame. But I love the rare factor and talking to people about it is one of my favorite parts of ownership.

The black on this car is like nothing else I've ever seen so it's worth the sacrifice for sure!

Truth be told, I have no intentions of taking TC off at this point, or being too crazy with it. Its limits are high but my skills aren't there yet lol. I have a strong urge to preserve the car and not hoon on it too much. But damn if it's not a highway missile

Thanks for the info Scott. Yep, the tint is pretty mild, 35% all around with 50% on the windshield (done by the previous owner).

I'm still a student (lol) so my budget is on the lower end. $15k towards mods and keeping it pretty reliable is ideal for me. If I could swing a TT set up I almost certainly would.

Are there any shops on the east coast that do H/C builds? If I'm not mistaken, it seems like most of them are on/near the west coast.

[IHOP]

Thanks all! I find a lot of people my age don't even know what a viper really is and it's a shame. But I love the rare factor and talking to people about it is one of my favorite parts of ownership.

The black on this car is like nothing else I've ever seen so it's worth the sacrifice for sure!

Truth be told, I have no intentions of taking TC off at this point, or being too crazy with it. Its limits are high but my skills aren't there yet lol. I have a strong urge to preserve the car and not hoon on it too much. But damn if it's not a highway missile

Thanks for the info Scott. Yep, the tint is pretty mild, 35% all around with 50% on the windshield (done by the previous owner).

I'm still a student (lol) so my budget is on the lower end. $15k towards mods and keeping it pretty reliable is ideal for me. If I could swing a TT set up I almost certainly would.

Are there any shops on the east coast that do H/C builds? If I'm not mistaken, it seems like most of them are on/near the west coast.

First it's important to choose your mods based on what you will use the car for and budget. Are you just looking for street car fun or drag race, road course fun then look into which shop will best fit your desired use. Arrow/Prefix who built the factory engines for Dodge makes a very dependable H/C package and a 9.0L package they are in Detroit, Cavlo has been building H/C packages, fully built motors and TT setup for some time now and he is in Texas, Nth Moto is in Minnesota and they also build H/C packages as well as fully built motor packages and TT setups. Those would be my 3 choices on your side of the US!

[eseery]

Thanks all! I find a lot of people my age don't even know what a viper really is and it's a shame. But I love the rare factor and talking to people about it is one of my favorite parts of ownership.

The black on this car is like nothing else I've ever seen so it's worth the sacrifice for sure!

Truth be told, I have no intentions of taking TC off at this point, or being too crazy with it. Its limits are high but my skills aren't there yet lol. I have a strong urge to preserve the car and not hoon on it too much. But damn if it's not a highway missile

Thanks for the info Scott. Yep, the tint is pretty mild, 35% all around with 50% on the windshield (done by the previous owner).

I'm still a student (lol) so my budget is on the lower end. $15k towards mods and keeping it pretty reliable is ideal for me. If I could swing a TT set up I almost certainly would.

Are there any shops on the east coast that do H/C builds? If I'm not mistaken, it seems like most of them are on/near the west coast.

Unfortunately, I've had the same experience...but I love talking about the car so any chance to teach someone new about it is awesome. Similarly, I bought my first viper a few years ago when I was 24. Enjoy it!

[texasram]

Beautiful and classy spec (as I believe the windows look untinted or very lightly tinted --- I love blacked out cars, but not a fan of the theme being carried over to the windows). I had a black/silver '06 and was able to keep the paint looking really good with some TLC (washed after every drive).

Definitely mod that beast!!! H/C for sure, but you could also look into 9L or TT. Generally speaking, the pricing looks to be $15k/$27.5k/$40k+ for each step. The TT mod is awesome and there are some terrific vendors on this site for that.

There is a guy here in FL that can get you 900whp with a TT setup for reasonable money. Anything more than that will require tearing into the engine and strengthening things. At that point, pricing goes up pretty quickly but the hp ceiling can be very high if you want (i.e. 1,600-1,800 whp is not a problem).

As they say.... speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?

Let me know who can do a reliable run-all-day no problems TT for ANYWHERE close to 40k

[Scott_in_fl]

Let me know who can do a reliable run-all-day no problems TT for ANYWHERE close to 40k

https://driveviper.com/forums/thread...GTS-Twin-Turbo!

I know the car and owner well. Several thousand miles, problem free, and he runs the car hard. In fact, his car is the one toasting the 720S in the Dragtimes.com video from a few months back. TT is not rocket science. The hardware is relatively inexpensive and the software can be tuned to do whatever you want it to. One thread here a while back priced out all of the hardware at $12k. The issue is the 900hp ceiling. If you stay below, you're fine and your costs on top of the above numbers are fab and install. If you wish to go over 900hp, then you need to get into the motor to strengthen things. Start at an extra $10k and go from there.

[Hamrhead]

Congrats! Looks Bad-Ass!

I just washed mine for the first time in 10 months. As you can imagine it was unbelievably dusty. Afterwards I did notice a couple of swirls/marks here and there. Nothing a little polish can't fix. I just chalk it up to owning a black car.

[ACRSNK]

Congrats! Beautiful car. I’m sure you will have lots of fun!

[Exhlr8n]

Black makes the car look Sinister. I love the look, but hate the maintenance of keeping it looking good.

It may have had one of those waxes or polishes that hides the swirl marks (fills them in temporarily), that is until you wash it off.

If it bothers you, and it would me. Get it paint corrected by a reputable shop, then Suntek or Xpel wrap that baby, the swirls won't come back. If that's not in the budget, then again get paint correction then get a good ceramic coat on it to protect the paint/clear from scratches and swirls. Makes it a whole lot easier to keep clean too.

Had the ACR-E paint corrected, Sunteked and the Opti coated. Couldn't be happier with the out come and protection.

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[ViperJon]

Had the ACR-E paint corrected, Sunteked and the Opti coated. Couldn't be happier with the out come and protection.

Holy thread hijack to put up pics of your car Batman.

[Murpowa]

holy thread hijack to put up pics of your car batman.

+1 lmao

[IHOP]

Black makes the car look Sinister. I love the look, but hate the maintenance of keeping it looking good.

It may have had one of those waxes or polishes that hides the swirl marks (fills them in temporarily), that is until you wash it off.

If it bothers you, and it would me. Get it paint corrected by a reputable shop, then Suntek or Xpel wrap that baby, the swirls won't come back. If that's not in the budget, then again get paint correction then get a good ceramic coat on it to protect the paint/clear from scratches and swirls. Makes it a whole lot easier to keep clean too.

Had the ACR-E paint corrected, Sunteked and the Opti coated. Couldn't be happier with the out come and protection.

I don't want to get off topic but Holy Shit is your car gorgeous!

[ViperNC]

Congrats! I'm just outside of Charlotte, NC and will plan a few mountain road spirited drives soon.

[Topplayer]

congrats! looks great!

[Exhlr8n]

People usually complain a thread is useless without pics.

It helps to show the man what the final product could look like and it does have black strips.

Conrats on a great looking car! Love the almost "Ghosted" strips too.

[ky13]

Gorgeous car. Congrats!

[512BB]

Congrats the car looks awesome. My personal recommendation would be to keep the car stock for some time and learn the car. As great as these cars are they are still old school design with high traction limits, which means that if something goes wrong it will really go wrong. Track the car and find out if, what you'd want to change.

On a side note, I love the fact that these cars are so rare and few folks know about them. The funniest thing was when this guy in a gas station was trying to convince me that it was the new Vette and after a while I just played along and was cracking up the whole time.

Have fun!