2016 Dodge Viper ACR Has More Wing, More Adjustability than You Can Rattle a Snake At
Taking the fairness out of your next open track day.
OFFICIAL PHOTOS AND INFO
Did you know that Porsche’s 911 GT3, from the factory, offers precisely zero adjustability for its aerodynamic addenda? Same goes for the newFord Mustang Shelby GT350R. The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 is nearly as limited, although it offers buyers a package where the central portion of the rear spoiler can be manually raised or lowered to taste. Dodge thinks that’s just air-headed, and for its track-destroying Viper ACR revival, it has made fully 10 different aero components either adjustable or removable.
The Air Beware
Keeping in mind that the 2016 Viper ACR is, like its forebears, still street-legal, that level of fine-tuning is almost unheard of. And yet, if the measure of a true track animal takes adjustability into account, consider the ACR hands-downforce the wickedest beast extant. The ACR’s optional Extreme Aero package comes with a removable front splitter extension, an adjustable dual-element rear wing, four dive planes, six removable diffuser strakes, removable brake ducts, and hood louvers that can be popped out to decrease air pressure in the wheel wells.
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Looking for all the world like the automotive equivalent of a woman’s skirt blowing up in the wind, the ACR’s huge rear wing is likewise a little bit inappropriate and yet holds a vice grip on our attention. Meanwhile, all of the louvers, slats, and spears poking into or out of the ACR’s body are like so many piercings and tattoos. Mothers will shield their children, the police may be called, and the air—oh, the air. It will be employed, Dodge says, to produce nearly one ton (2000 pounds!) of downforce at 177 mph with the aero package. That figure is more than three times greater than Dodge’s number for the Viper TA. That’s TA as in “Time Attack.”
Sticky, in a Good Way
Air isn’t the ACR’s only collateral damage—the ground isn’t going to enjoy seeing one of these Vipers coming, either. Massive 19-inch Kumho Ecsta V720 (street) tires measuring 295/25 up front and 355/30 in back work in concert with the aerodynamics to deliver “sustainable 1.5-g cornering,” according to Dodge. Remember that that figure doesn’t necessarily preview the Viper’s skidpad performance as we test it—our test uses a 300-foot-diameter circle, and its tightness likely will keep the car’s aero bits from contributing too much grip. Even so, we look forward to running an ACR around our skidpad to see if it can approach the epic Corvette Z06’s 1.19-g reading; we expect a figure well over 1.00 g.
Mechanically, the ACR benefits from carbon-ceramic Brembo brakes and adjustable Bilstein coil-overs. The brake rotors measure 15.4 inches up front and are squeezed by six-piston calipers, while the rears measure 14.2 inches and are clamped by four-piston calipers. The coil-overs have 10 settings for rebound and compression tuning and can allow up to three inches of ride-height adjustment so that racers can corner-weight the ACR (this is the practice of balancing the suspension to account for weight variability in the chassis such as fluctuating fuel levels, driver weight, etc.). The front springs were swapped for superstiff units rated at 600 pounds per inch, and the rears are rock-hard 1300-pounds-per-inch pieces—the springs are more than twice as stiff as those in the Viper TA.
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The Same Heart Beats Within
Dodge didn’t alter the Viper’s 8.4-liter V-10 beyond reducing the exhaust’s backpressure slightly by using different exhaust tips; the V-10 routes 645 horsepower and 600 lb-ft of torque through the Viper’s robust Tremec TR6060 six-speed manual transmission to the rear axle. The interior is wrapped in faux suede and features an “ACR” badge on the dashboard, a unique steering wheel, and lightweight carpeting. The sound system has been reduced to three speakers, which is neat but not as focused as, say, the Chevrolet Camaro Z/28’s single speaker. C’mon, Dodge, cut down on the decadence! In fact, given how extreme the ACR appears on the outside, the interior is remarkably well-finished—Chrysler’s Uconnect infotainment system is present, as is carpeting in the trunk; we wouldn’t have been shocked or disappointed if the Viper had neither.
The last Viper ACR—sold between 2008 and 2010—offered a Hard Core package that saved about 40 pounds by ditching the radio, carpeting, and sound insulation, so maybe there’s room yet to remove still more sanity from the 2016 ACR. That previous ACR also birthed the non-street-legal ACR-X for 2010, which literally was a race car aimed at grassroots enthusiasts. Are these possibilities for this ACR? We say why not—after all, a little adjustability never hurt, right?
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