2016 DODGE VIPER ACR
This car will send the Z07 back to the garage for upgrades.
SRT has come back with guns blazing.
The new ACR Extreme Aero package flaunts the most enormous
wing. Mounted high in the airstream, it splits into dual elements on the
outsides. Beneath it is one serious diffuser, designed with six strakes
intended to rub the asphalt. Balancing that load is a detachable front splitter
extension. Dodge’s mad speed scientists claim more than 1,700 pounds of
downforce.
Brakes, now carbon-ceramic 15.4-inch front rotors with two
more pistons in the Brembo calipers at six than the 14.2-inch rear rotors with
four pistons. Seems carbon setups sink the heat into the pads much more than
the iron, which soaks the rotors. The Corvette and Z/28 brakes are among the
world’s best, and they now have a new domestic challenger. Bite is very strong,
and fade not evident. The Viper’s tendency to wander under deceleration is still
there, exacerbated a bit by the vivid stopping force.
The handling. It’s a Viper, known to challenge even the
greatest of drivers. Same chassis, same drivetrain, same beast? Russ Ruedisueli
and Jeff Reece, of SRT and Viper engineering, have created, in their words, a
new paradigm. The ACR works. With two-way 10-click adjustable competition
coilover Bilsteins, and twice the spring rates of the TA, this beast has become
a beauty on the track. Enormously rewarding tossable grip in fast transitions.
The Viper had no problem getting its 600 lb-ft of torque to
the pavement, including a couple sweet little drifts out of increasing-radius
second-gear corners, a tough dance move for the cars of the past. The car’s
naturally aspirated 8.4-liter V-10 is good for 645 hp.
Stir in the asking price of $ 122,490, and this street-legal
track killer is an absolute grand slam. For the highways of this great country,
that wing is outrageous. The splitter is nuts. Vipers have always been outrageous,
and now the ACR version measures up to the hype and beyond. The beast has got a
leash, and with no loss of ferocity.
