NHTSA Says Viper Crashes Drivers Fault, Not Part failures.

[daveco]

http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20131215/AUTO0101/312150029/U-S-closes-Dodge-Viper-investigation
People always want to blame the car.

[ws23rt]

Viper crashes have been rather common. An old friend and viper owner knows this all too well. He even went into business salvaging wrecked vipers to help supply the need for rebuilding parts at a reasonable price.

He told me years ago that a lot of folks he knew with vipers had lost control and most admitted they pushed the car beyond their abilities.
The car is solid but is quirky in that it gives little notice that it's going to slip.

Experienced drivers know how to handle a high power car but many viper owners are not that.

Btw my friend called me one day with some bad news about his viper.  Yes he said he lost it and went into a ditch.  It was his doing and not the car.

This can happen in any car but attempting to find out what she will do can be lead to a surprise.   Hmm wasn't there a high power Porsche wrapped around a tree just recently?

As I recall the driver was not a novice and the speed was not all that high.

[Ghoste]

You mention something that arose in the Porsche discussion and its all true.  Many of these modern supercars give little to no warning when they reach the edge of their ability to stay under control.  Meant for racetracks, when faced with novice drivers or the vagaries of a street surface they just don't always work well together.

[John_Kunkel]

At one time there was a statistic that 50% of the Vipers ever built had been wrecked...not sure about now.

Typical example of high-performance car and low-performance driver.

[Mytur Binsdirti]

The problem lies with the nut that holds the wheel.

[Mopar440+6]

The guys that I crew for had a '97 GTS ACR Viper as the "shop truck" for a while a few years ago. I went for a ride in that car once. The driver is someone who is used to handling a 900hp car on a regular basis and is one of the most experienced drivers I know. When he took me for a ride, we ended up going agricultural racing. Didn't stuff the car but took it through a field that I wouldn't want to take my lifted truck through.

IMO, there are three problems with most of the modern high performance cars that all combine to cause most of the accidents.

1 - Inexperienced drivers: most people do not know how to react when the car does go beyond the limits of control. And even in the case of experienced drivers, sometimes things happen faster on the street than even a veteran driver can compensate for. Go hang around a racetrack sometime. You can easily tell the veterans from the newbies because one will blame the car, the other will blame themselves.

2 - Poor road surface: I would go as far as saying that there is not a public road, street or highway in the US that compares to the traction of the worst racetrack I've seen. Public roads just don't have the grip that a private track does. Add to this that a lot of these owners have stretched their last dime to get the car and now cannot afford to put quality tires on and you have a real problem keeping the car rubber side down.

3 - Vehicles that are engineered to perform right to the edge of the vehicle's limits - This is the big one. Most of these cars are slightly de-tuned race cars and that means that the vehicle will stay under control right up to the limit but once that limit is crossed there is a very steep slope for how fast the loss of control happens. Even prior to crossing the limitations of the car, a minor mistake can become very serious even with an experienced driver. Also, these cars are designed to feel very precise and controlled when they are within their limits. I think this lulls a lot of drivers into a false sense of security feeling like they have more control than they really do. As they near the limit of the car, everything feels fine. This goes back to what Ghoste said about having little to no warning...

[ws23rt]

This topic is a good reality check for those that want to have the best and most powerful stuff.  Hey you can buy a jet pack and fly. But can you?

Another aspect of this is those that have blinders on about the engine power.  It's fun to have a 500hp engine but if you have four wheel drums for example It becomes all go and no stop

My perspective is where I think most should be. It is fun to play with high power and performance but these machines are not our moms. They will let us do what we will. And we get what we ask for.

We are the ones with the hands and feet on the controls.