My sister's new boyfriend has an '02 GTS coupe, and we had some time to kill before Easter dinner so we went out for a spin.
My first impression was, "How can they sell this to the general public?" I know some of you are used to even faster cars, and I have driven a few "quick" cars, but I was not prepared for the torque just off idle and how little I had to use the throttle to drive somewhat normally. After I adjusted to that and hit the throttle in a straight line, it was pretty amazing. It was an american car and I had to double check that the big numbers on the speedo were MPH and not KPH as getting to 60-70 mph felt like getting to 60 kph, just a little throttle blip in 2nd...
He had some fairly new pilot sports on, but I think with a 60F day and older worn pavement, they would not stick in 1st or 2nd, so I did roll in 3rd from maybe 45mph(~2800rpm) and not even quite full throttle and it kept the back end squirming at the edge of traction as long as I stayed on the gas...
I tried a couple hard corners but the lack of TC or stability control and option of instant wheel spin made me pretty wary of pushing it much at all.
He drives the car almost daily in the summer so I don't know how he keeps his license or keeps it on the road in the wet.
I have a hard time believing that the car only has 460hp while a new Viper has 600 and what that must be like to drive... I think it would take me alot of track time before I would need more HP than this one! It was a great experience that I won't soon forget.
It was funny driving home in the Tracker too, it felt like it had a lawn mower engine in a sound proof box...
My first impression was, "How can they sell this to the general public?" I know some of you are used to even faster cars, and I have driven a few "quick" cars, but I was not prepared for the torque just off idle and how little I had to use the throttle to drive somewhat normally. After I adjusted to that and hit the throttle in a straight line, it was pretty amazing. It was an american car and I had to double check that the big numbers on the speedo were MPH and not KPH as getting to 60-70 mph felt like getting to 60 kph, just a little throttle blip in 2nd...
He had some fairly new pilot sports on, but I think with a 60F day and older worn pavement, they would not stick in 1st or 2nd, so I did roll in 3rd from maybe 45mph(~2800rpm) and not even quite full throttle and it kept the back end squirming at the edge of traction as long as I stayed on the gas...
I tried a couple hard corners but the lack of TC or stability control and option of instant wheel spin made me pretty wary of pushing it much at all.
He drives the car almost daily in the summer so I don't know how he keeps his license or keeps it on the road in the wet.
I have a hard time believing that the car only has 460hp while a new Viper has 600 and what that must be like to drive... I think it would take me alot of track time before I would need more HP than this one! It was a great experience that I won't soon forget.
It was funny driving home in the Tracker too, it felt like it had a lawn mower engine in a sound proof box...
