New Viper guarantees Blue Devil's arrival
When word of a 600-hp Dodge Viper first crossed our desks, we immediately figured that the on-again, off-again super Corvette "Blue Devil" project would immediately get a green light for production. The current Z06 produces a stout 505 hp, about 5 hp shy of the current Viper's 8.3-liter V10. We knew, however, that General Motors would never let a 95-hp deficit stand. Thus, it's not much of a surprise that the Detroit Free Press is reporting none other than Bob Lutz has indicated that Blue Devil/SS/Stingray/whatever is definitely a go. Lutz's exact words were, "the Corvette vehicle line executive will not take that lying down." His comments were made at a meeting yesterday with analysts, at which he also stated, "It is very important for Corvette to be the most powerful, most capable, best handling sports car in the United States." Them sounds like fightin' words to us. Rumors about the Blue Devil peg its power at well above the 600-hp mark, which means not long after the 2008 Viper's steam-rolling rear tires hit the street, a new top-dog will arrive sometime in 2009.[Source: Detroit Free Press]
Related posts:
Corvette Blue Devil back on!
Dave Hill - no Blue Devil Corvette on the way
VetteGate: Spy photographers respond to fake Blue Devil pics
"Blue Devil" Corvette spotted at Nurburgring
Get a WordPress.com Blog
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ironman52 4:03PM (2/04/2008)
I bought a nissan 350 z after my daughter wrecked my 2001 trans am....It sucked...for something so exspensive.I hated it...I lost about $3000 but traded and bought a corvette...I love it ...wouldnt trade it for anythig...keep your japenese crap!
Reply
Jenallay Bazkials 2:29PM (1/12/2007)
I have never desired owning an American Car. 600hp vette may be the exception. 200 mph to the masses!!!
Reply
D MAn 2:34PM (1/12/2007)
Still think the GT-R will leave both these guys in the DUST!
Reply
mkbruin 2:38PM (1/12/2007)
A couple things to remember here:
1) This viper is the (existing) ZB platform with a revised engine.
2) The ZB will be retired at the end of the 2008 (extended) model year.
3) The ZB is being replaced with the ZC for model year '09
4) The ZC will have between 650-750 N/A HP and 600+ lbft of twist, depending on which rumors you believe. Either way, the engine will be more potent than the '08.
5) The ZC will be using a platform with extensive use of alloy technologies, such as newly developed carbon forming technologies, allowing the ZC to be drastically ligher and provide more chassis strength.
6) The new platform is reportedly going to spawn as many as three models... and is flexible enough to allow multiple engine configurations (FR, MR) and multiple drivelines (RWD, AWD)
6) The ZC Viper will reportedly use a rear mounted transaxle.
SRT knows the Blue devil is coming, and they have their plans to render the Blue Devel as nothing more than a $40,000 coupe with a big engine and a bigger price tag.
Reply
retsel 2:57PM (1/12/2007)
i thought the blue devil was a winding road hoax...
Reply
Araemo 3:59PM (1/12/2007)
D Man:
"Still think the GT-R will leave both these guys in the DUST!"
Unlikely. I'm a huge Nissan fan, but even a well blown VQ3xHRTT(TT?) would not get above 600-700HP(and a factory warranty), and the car is going to be heavier w/ its AWD drivetrain and supposedly 'luxury' features in excess of the corvette.
If they sell a stripped-down lightweight GT-R V-Spec or something, that might pull it off, but the base GT-R will match these at BEST. :(
Reply
Corvette videos 3:46PM (1/12/2007)
Chevy will not need 600Hp Vette to beat the new 600Hp Viper. The Z06 is a much lighter car and will only need 50-60 more horsepower to edge the big bad Viper.
http://www.dpccars.com
DPCcars
Reply
amp 3:42PM (1/12/2007)
Does anyone else think that this is too much? At what point do the limits of a car become so great that it ceases to be fun? Even if price wasn't an issue, I'm thinking that I'm going to have a lot more fun in my RX-8 than I would in one of these teen-wet-dream subjects. At least I can probe the limits of my car more often and with less dire consequences if my talent runs out.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand the appeal of a track-day car, but I have a sneaking suspicion that the vast majority of these future Viper and Blue Devil owners will never take their cars on the track. Would you rather have a car that you can push day in and day out, or one who's ultimate capabilities you'll never see until it's too late?
Don't mind me, but I'll stay out of this pissing contest thank you very much.
Reply
mkbruin 4:16PM (1/12/2007)
DCP, you missed the memo... the '08 viper lost ~400lb of fat in the process of gaining all that muscle.
Reply
Cheezedog 4:40PM (1/12/2007)
I personaly have a hard time believing the extra 100 Hp out of eather car will be useable... Not that I have driven one, but I can remember hearing that even though the viper always has a power advantage over the Corvette, the corvette could still maintain a better track time because its so much easier of a car to drive.. this makes sence since the viper in effect is a acceleration brick, the corvette was a finaly tuned handling machine...
Then came along the Z06 and I heared that was became a was a difficult to master machine... More HP ment it was easier to accelerate, but this came at the cost of road comfort, and/or track capabity.. (all depending on which auto reviewer you asked)
Its possible to tune a car to accelerate, handle, and comfortably drive in all three of these fields.. but your going to loose one of the three if you try to get more out of one of the other field..
Reply
RDL 4:06PM (1/12/2007)
"7. Does anyone else think that this is too much? At what point do the limits of a car become so great that it ceases to be fun? Even if price wasn't an issue, I'm thinking that I'm going to have a lot more fun in my RX-8 than I would in one of these teen-wet-dream subjects. At least I can probe the limits of my car more often and with less dire consequences if my talent runs out...
Posted at 3:42PM on Jan 12th 2007 by amp"
Bingo. Case in point, the Lotus Elise has "only" 190bhp BUT:
- It's featherweight
- Carves thru corners like nobody's business.
Now THAT is a fun car!
Reply
Mr_Oak 11:15AM (1/15/2007)
Bingo. Case in point, the Lotus Elise has "only" 190bhp BUT:
- It's featherweight
- Carves thru corners like nobody's business.
Now THAT is a fun car!
------------------------------------------------------
Yeah! we know, but can it cover 4 football fields per second?
Look these cars are excellent tools for removing idiots from the gene pool. That said, I'll take a Z06 because it is a way better balanced car.
Here a good acceleration test: Tape a 2 carat Diamond ring to the sun visor, and tell your girl that if she get the ring before you hit 150 mph, you'll marry her. Bet you can't do that in an Elise.
And hey, why does it have to be one of these or and Elise, why can't I have both?
Reply
Craig Cote 4:53PM (1/12/2007)
Perhaps it would be in the best interest of Chevrolet to not concern itself with what German owned Dodge is doing and concentrate on not getting crushed by Toyota. With their Korean Daewoo built Aveo, Mexican built Avalanche and HHR, Canadian built Monte Carlo and Impala, Isuzu built diesel M class trucks, some models of Suburban, Tahoe, and Silverado made in Mexico, and finally the Equinox being of such Chinese flavor, with ALL these vehicles described as "AN AMERICAN REVOLUTION" it may be the best thing to start at least telling the truth and not lies! While GM puts it's money into Mexico and now so much in China, thank you Toyota for providing jobs here. (love your resale values too that humble GM crap. Those Honda engines sound great in GM's Saturns. Can't you even build your own motors? And you want me to buy "American"?
Reply
uncle john 10:30AM (1/13/2007)
Craig, you do realize that with all those plants in other countries, and even with foreign expansion in the US, GM still employs more people in the US than Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, BMW, and VW COMBINED?
GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT, YA TWIT!!
Reply
Ben 5:09PM (1/12/2007)
Personally ... I think this is all a bit NUTS !!!
Like who needs 500 hp let alone 600 hp. Just for bragging rights !?!?! Give me a classy, quiet, well built fun to drive convertible with 300 - 400 hp max. 3-400 hp is already pushing the "need" envelope.
How many of these will they sell? Not many. Spend the $$$ in upgrading the products that do sell well so they will sell better.
Reply
Tom 5:11PM (1/12/2007)
I agree with mkbruin's first comment. SRT has this covered. According to the newest Motor Trend, (February 200), the new Corvette will be the SS with a hand built 600+ HP Supercharged V8. 2000 will be built with a price range of around $100,000. They say it will be out in 2008, or around then anyways. It's no big deal, the Gen IV Viper will own this thing for sure. And one more thing... how come foreign automakers like Bugatti and Ferrari can have 600 - 1000 HP Super Cars but when an American company tries something like that everyone says it's "Too Much"?
Reply
Paul 6:18PM (1/12/2007)
#3 i agree
why would anyone buy one of these rattle trap bucket of bolts. typical over hyped american made crap.
Reply
Ben 5:23PM (1/12/2007)
And one more thing... how come foreign automakers like Bugatti and Ferrari can have 600 - 1000 HP Super Cars but when an American company tries something like that everyone says it's "Too Much"?
Uhhhh ... Wake up Buddy!! It is not just to much for American Co's ... All that hp in a Ferrari or Bugatti is also NUTS!! It is a free country so if they can sell them ... go for it ... but it is still goofy!!
Reply
Tom 5:49PM (1/12/2007)
To each his own I guess. If there wasn't a market for Super Cars then they wouldn't make them but there is so they do. Speed Wars have been going on for almost 70 years since the days of prohibition. And it will never stop. Too bad Ford won't get in on the action. A Mustang is hot but it ain't no Viper or Vette.
Reply
Acre 6:15PM (1/12/2007)
Amp,
I think the purpose of these cars are so that you can explore YOUR limits versus exploring the car's limts. You can run into your RX-8's limits before you run outta balls but few people will be willing to drive these cars to their limits.
Granted, this certainly doesn't mean that people won't push them past their personal abilities which will result in more Enzo-like crashes - but they'll just come back to buy another one.
Reply