Dodge Viper ACR: The Barely Legal Race Car For The Street - Yahoo Autos (blog)
Back when Lamborghini rolled out the Gallardo LP-560, they claimed that it had something like 200 pounds more downforce than the original Gallardo. I subsequently hit 200 mph in that caron a runway in Florida—World Class Driving’s 200 MPH Club—and at high speeds, the steering felt spooky, like the front end wanted to float off the road. When I asked a Lamborghini rep whether “more downforce” meant there actually was any downforce, or simply less lift, I learned it was the latter. In the realm of street cars, aerodynamic neutrality is considered an achievement, because at least the car is predisposed to remain earthbound. The Dodge Viper, for instance, makes a negligible 75 pounds of downforce at its 206 mph top speed. The Dodge Viper ACR, though—that’s another matter. ” So fitted, the Viper’s top speed drops from 206 mph to 177 mph. This is a downforce car, the real deal, a complete alien among raced-up street cars. To get the most out of a downforce car, you must embrace the idea that higher speeds equate to more grip, the counterintuitive notion that sometimes you’ll need to go faster to make a corner. And when Dodge introduced the ACR at Virginia. Source: www.yahoo.com
