[Rob Channell]

This information is now ten years old so take it for what it is worth(nothing, except I did actually drive one on a track). I instructed at a Viper event several years ago and my student asked me to drive his a few laps one session. The event was at Putnam Park. This was my first event at this track. I was driving my lowly 911SC.

The Viper had a nice balance to it and was easy to rotate with just a little extra throttle. It did have a fairly heavy feel to it. On the front straight in my SC with worn tires if I went pretty wide close to the wall to get a good front straight run I could hit 125mph if I waited until really late to brake for turn 1. In my student's car I went slower through the entry to the straight and stayed well away from the wall. I never went full throttle and I let off the throttle waaaaaay early a little after half the straight because I was already at 125mph. I also hit the brakes way early. They were decent brakes but I was not pushing them or the rest of the car. There was lots of torque in every gear. I really enjoyed it but still prefer a 911. Iwouldn't mind having both given I had the extra cash and garage space.

Later in the event I rode with an advanced student in his ACR version. Wow. That was a fun ride. I could not find a single place around the track where I thought he could go faster so he was driving the track at least as well as I knew how to drive it. His laptimes were around the 1:17-1:18 time if if I remember right. My SC was closer to 1:25. I was on some old BFG R1's and had corded them by the end of the weekend. Lots of fun and I'd like one of those ACR things if I had the cash to blow and already had several 911 variants in the garage.

Now for the other side, several cars were having trouble overheating in grid or after several hard laps. So they would drive hard and then let it cool off a few laps and then drive hard some more. Maybe they just needed more oil cooling like the 911's.

There was a throttle problem in that each side of the engine had its own linkage and they would lose synchronization if the throttle pedal was ever pushed to the floor. There may have been a design fix for this later but one fellow took his car to the dealer twice and spent $1000+ each time before he finally got a diagnosis.

There were plenty of stories of dealer maintainence costs. Start at $1000 and round up to the next thousand for almost anything. Lots of stories of going in to the dealer and ending up with a $4000-5000 bill for a tune up, oil change, and brake job or some such.....not a lot of details left in my brain on this part except for the deep impression of the overall expense.