What you see above you is the new lap record holder for a lap of the Nurburgring by a production car. It is the 2010 Dodge Viper ACR, and it lapped the 13-mile "Green Hell" in just 7:12.1! It defeated the Lexus LF-A which ran a time of 7:14.6. This proves once again the the LF-A is the most overrated and most useless supercar ever. The LF-A that briefly held the recor was not even a stock one, but rather was a "Nurburgring Edition" a car that Lexus built solely "to be the fastest road legal car ever around the Nurburgring". Then the SRT division of Dodge takes a two year old, pushrod powered relic and blows it away, after less than a month (the LF-A set the record on August 31).
The LF-A has always been one of my least favorite cars. Not because of its nearly decade long development (good cars take time) not because only 500 were ever built and all were sold to preselected Lexus owners (Ferrari did the same with the Enzo), and not because it uses the outdated V10 their F1 team scrapped (V10s are awesome, and besides Toyota had to salvage something from the nearly 10 billion, yes billion, it suck into F1 without ever winning a race.)
No what bothered me about the LF-A was that it cost $375,000. OK, its a supercar, a super price is expected. Well it only has a top speed of 202mph, which an SRT-10 can do as well, and the Viper only cost $98,000. Huh? How does that work? Its also heavy and front engined, so it doesn't handle that well. And it has more gizmos on it than you can imagine, gizmos that can't be turned off. The 0-60 and 1/4 mile times for the LF-A can only be set with the traction and launch control on. Boo! But wait, the LF-A Nurburgring Edition, (which will cost nearly half a million BTW) will be worth something. It will set the record around the 'ring. That's pretty cool. Oh wait a two year old Dodge that costs 1/5th as much just smoked it. Damn.
But again it comes down to the price, would you pay $375,000 for a Toyota? Of course not. Hell honda couldn't sell the NSX and that was only $100,000 and change. Chrysler had this problem a few years ago if you remember. Chrysler built the 850bhp ME-412 in 2004 and it would have been faster than a Bugatti Veryon. Problem was this gorgous speed machine (I saw the prototype in person) would have cost $750,000 and focus groups everywhere laughed at paying that much for a Chrysler. It killed the project. At least Chrysler is a luxury carmaker. What's Toyota's excuse?
Anyway, it ain't all roses for the Viper. According to several sources the record is being protested by Toyota because the ACR variant of the Viper isn't street-leagl in Germany, so techincally, it isn't a road car. My problem with that is how the hell can a car be legal in California, where motorheads are still drawn and quartered, but not legal in Germany, which has no speed limits? (The front splitter is the reason, as the krauts claim it will sever legs of people who get run over. Right.......)
Anyway, in case you were wondering what the overall record for the 'ring is, its 6:47 secs by the Pagani Zonda R. Watch the video below, and turn it up!
No comments:
Post a Comment