24 cars blue sky: New York 2012: Live Viper Shots And Impressions

The scrum of journalists and wanna-bes around the Viper has been consistently packed for two hours now. We have some impressions from Byron Hurd and NASA instructor Jeff Stutler for your consumption; later on in the show I will wander over, sit in the thing, and try to correlate it with my experiences of the previous Vipers.

Byron sez:

"640hp. 600lb-ft. Reduced weight. An interior completely re-done with help from Ferrari's low-volume suppliers.

Drop. Dead. Gorgeous.

This is it folks. You can go outside now. Chrysler has stolen the show with the new SRT Viper. Pity Nissan for having to follow an act like this. New Altima? To hell with that. The line for Viper press kits is hundreds deep. Nobody's coming.

Some notes: Despite rumors of a displacement bump, the new car retains the 8.4L V10 from the 2010, but gains 40hp and 40lb-ft. The clamshell hood is back, but carbon fiber replaces previous composite materials in the exterior panels. New features include mandated ESP, cruise and launch control and the Dart's fancy gauge cluster.

And yes, The ALMS rumors are true. "

Quoth Jeff:

"The reveal was great, and the surprise of the alms race car was even greater. The car itself looks fantastic on paper and in the flesh. With a "dry" power tow eight ratio greater than the lamborghini aventador it ought get plenty of people in a lot of trouble. Im not 100% sold on the carbon taillight surround yet but it will grow.

Head of srt says the car will do at least 206mph amd that the goal is not only to be fast but to handle as well, he says you fought with the old car but you plug yourself into this one. 'its like a miata on steroids.'"