Hey Lee, I challenged my buddy to a race. The one with the R6 that I was sure I would lose to. Ended up beating him, so a risk can pay off sometimes. You can never be sure who is going to win, thats why you run em. A stock C6 can beat a viper; the viper driver just has to be really crappy and the vette driver has to be god like.

 

Great. When I say I never take a race I know I'd lose I'm talking about something like: I turned down running against a Buick Grand National that I know does low 9s and has done an 8.96. I'd lose that: faster car with a seriously experienced driver.

I wouldn't be certain of losing a race in a stock Vette against a stock Viper -- I might take the race, depending something on the particular Viper, and it would depend on the driver. I often really try to get in the other driver's head. Older guys, serious and cool, are trouble. If the driver is hot headed or excitableetc., I'd take the race and then get him really pissed off ahead of tim: alkl he has to do is dump the clutch to show off at the start and I've won.

By the way, congrats on your win. It must have been fun.

 

If you got a Z06 accept, if ya don't walk away.

 

I always weigh it probabilistically -- out of 100 races how many would one car win against the other? Two even cars, its 50 out of 100 for each. In a Viper SRT-ZO6 match would be close. I'd expect the ZO6 to win about66-70 timesout of 100, but the Viper has a good chance: in most objective comparison tests the ZO6 has about a .2 to .3 second and 3 mph advantage in the quarter: at 120 mph trap speeds, .25 second is a 3 length advantage, good but not so good that a great versusbad launch or missed shift wouldn't lose the day.

The driver and his attitude has a lot to do with it, too: I know several idiots who would loose probably95 times out of 100 in a Viper against a standard C6. But I know a few who can make up the 20% difference in that Viper-ZO6 match, winning in the Viper against that ZO6 half the time. So I'm always a bit careful, particularly since I don't rate myself as too good of a driver any more-- a bit old with slower relfexes, plus I love the car too much to really "manhandle" it. That's why my son is always .2-.3 seconds quicker in the quarter than I am: he's done a 10.0 inmy vette and a non-sanctioned 9 second run. I've never done better than 10.2s.