Dodge Viper Nurburgring Record: Now on video

Dodge Viper Nurburgring Record Video

We all love Nurburgring record videos; whether you like the car on offer or not, the skills and thrills on view make the ten or so minutes invested well worthwile. And the video of the Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR setting a Nurburgring time of 7:12.13 a few weeks ago is one of the best.

GT driver Dominik Farnbacher drove a cracking lap to take the SRT10 on a lap that eclipsed the Viper’s efforts from 2008 by almost ten seconds. Much of that improvement has come from the changes made to the production car in the interim period – although the SRT10 that did the run is actually a 2010 car as the Viper is no longer being built.

Those changes include a shorter fifth gear, which has improved high-speed acceleration and also speed on the straights. That allowed the 2010 SRT10 to pick up those extra 10 seconds by getting down the straight bits of the Nurburgring - Döttinger Höhe and past the Antonius Bridge.

But even though the video of the Viper blitzing the Nurburgring is a great watch, we do have a few issues with the claim and the car.

Apart from safety equipment, we really don’t think that any changes should be allowed to a production car before a record lap. Not tyres, not suspension and not power. That’s not aimed at the Viper in particular, just a general feeling that there is no point in declaring a record for a production car when the car that got the record has been changed from the one anyone can drive out of the showroom.

The other gripe is aimed at the Viper, though. Their press release for this record again makes the claim that the Viper has set a production car record at the Nurburgring. But by our reckoning even this new time still leaves the SRT10 in fourth place – behind a pair of Radicals and a Gumpert.

Or maybe its just an example of Americans only being interested in America. Because the SRT10 is certainly the quickest car round the Nurburgring and made in the former colonies.

By far.

By Cars UK