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Originally Posted by Idaho2018GTPremium
Boise is awesome, but don't tell anyone as we've grown enough! Actually I like growth if done right (and I'm not a native).
Anyway, yes, I agree that the Viper changed the game, forcing GM to adapt w/ the Corvette but GM was even slow with that. After the C4 ZR1 went out of production in 1995, GM didn't really have anything to compete with the Viper until the C5 Z06 in 2002. And even then it was still behind the 1997 GTS in terms of power, but then came along the 500 hp 2003 Viper. I'd say GM didn't really catch up until the 505 hp C6 Z06 and of course the 638 hp C6 ZR1.
The Pony cars lagged behind pretty badly in the hp dept., though, until the Terminator Cobras in 2003 w/ an underrated 390 hp. Before that it was the 320 hp Cobra, 325 hp Camaro SS and WS6 (there was a Firehawk Trans Am that made 335 hp, I believe). While the big dog 'Vette of the era (4th gen Z06) was up to 405 hp by 2002 (but several hundred pounds lighter than the Cobra), and of course the Viper (GTS) was 450 hp by 1997, and 500 hp by 2003. Obviously when the Camaro was out of production the GT500 started to get serious hp numbers (500 hp) a few years later.
In hindsight, I doubt we'd have 650 hp ZL1s, 760 hp GT500s and 717 to 797 hp Hellcats if there was no Viper to push the American power vacuum in the 90s and early 2000s.
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Possibly.
The viper was an incon, no doubt. In reality it was a take-off of the Shelby Cobra, in then-modern, or even post-modern for the time, with an exotic V10. A V10 that, IMO, actually ended up being its down fall. I remember a C&D/ R&T/ MT, or something like that, series on the Viper that went into all kinds of facets relating to cost of ownership. The engines were junk & had a lot of problems that were extremely expensive to fix & maintain.
The Corvette always had the protection of GM, for the most part, of being the flagship performance car. There were, however, vehicles that made it under the radar that would absolutely smoke it in acceleration. Those included the 86/87 Turbo Regals, the 89 GTA Turbo Trans Am & around the time of this Viper/Vette battle, the Syclone &Typhoon would eat both their lunches in the 1/4. It took the LS vette era to meet the milestone of straight line acceleration of those trucks.
In actuality, the LS evolution in general was the milestone of the performance race we see now. The Terminator aside, Ford was way behind with the Mod-motors. Dodge was not even in the market until much later. The D & F camps had to step up their game big time to compete with the New SBC.
Another side of that was your average gear head. We were slapping superchargers & turbos on them & making never before seen amounts of power, for cheap. Gear heads, whether hands-on or not, buy performance cars. In order to attract that crowd to buy new manufacturers had to step up to the plate & deliver with increasingly more powerful engines. Engines we still take farther than they do. The LT5 is simply that next step from GM in this segment. It’s still nothing that hasn’t been done by the aftermarket engine builders & tuners. It really excels in its further complexity.
In an introspective contemplation I am starting to conclude the TCM lock-out is a move by GM to quell that aftermarket surge in newer vehicles. By controlling the limit, they become the limit, to a point. Maybe I’m off base here, but if it gets worse, that will be the reality. Now whether or not it’s outside forces, ie .gov, behind the shadows is yet to be determined.