had my truck out last night down a local two lane road ,turned off to turn around and heres a red viper convertible siting in the parking lot just waiting for someone. so i cirled him did a burn out like lets go. he pulled out of the lot and we got to the light. we had to wait for trafic to get ahead of us. once we got the room we both hit it i lost a little bit of traction and he bit in ppulled ahead of me by half acar length then i caught him then we had to stop for trafic ,.my lane was open but his was backed up. so i let him get in front of me then he hit it and so did i i stayed 5 ft off his bumper and he could not pull away all of this while my wife is grabing the dash yelling at me to slow down. but i hung in there with him and that was good for me !!!!

 

I thought Vipers did 115+ in the 1/4 mile.
Wouldn't that take most of our Lightnings out?

 

Nice job.

That sounds like me and my wife. I get blower whine from under the hood and in the passengers seat when I drag.

 

Pretty impressive for a 99L, I'm curious as to what your mods are could you give us a run down.

 

6lb pulley 4 program chip filter boost by pass no spare no hitch jlp bars drag radials on race gas psp dyno tunned 406rwhp 512 tq at rear wheels, best 1/4 12.7 106.8 and this guy was not ctting me any slack he had the hammer down!

 

Pretty impressive for a 99L, I'm curious as to what your mods are could you give us a run down.

 

The older Vipers were slower than the newer ones. I can't see a modestly modified Lightning hanging with a new one. In 1996 they were only turning 13.0 second 1/4 mile times stock. It's still nice to run with one in a pickup truck though.

 

Thats good stuff. Not all of them are blistering fast. Last time I was at an 1/8th mile track I went 8.6 on a vipers 8.7. I have pretty much the same mods as you. It was really hot out and this was on a crappy 2.0 60ft. I hadnt raced on F1's in awhile so I just featherd out the hole. Always good to know are 4700 pound trucks can hang with a car of this caliber.

 

So he was braking when you caught up?

 

thats why i dont like to post!!!!!!!!!!

 

To get a good indication of how you would run against him you need to be out in the clean air. Drafting can make you seem faster than you really are.

Years ago when I had my massaged Shelby Dakota a guy in a 5.0 GT was impressed how he could pull on me while drafting on a two lane road. When we went around a sharp 90 degree turn he made his move around the outside. I slowed enough to pull my auto into 1st gear for about 500 RPM's before I had to shift. He was dead even with me. I smacked it and barked 2nd gear pulling about a 1/2 car length on him. We stay that way up to 90 MPH where he let off and fell in behind me. I think he learned a valuable lesson that day about how strong the draft is and how deceaving.

 

Here is a couple of vids of us New Mexico guys beating Vipers at the strip

http://www.swlightnings.com/forum/in...?showtopic=446

http://www.swspeed.com/hosted/ryan/HDvViper.WMV

 

A pickup behind a Viper is a little different than a 5.0 behind a pickup...

 

The early model Dakota's were small. The width was as narrow as a fox body and mine sat low. It weighed 3660 pounds with me in it.

It's still drafting anyway you look at it.

 

Even a small pickup can punch a large hole in the air. Much larger than most cars. The aero on pickups sucks.

Any drafting can help acceleration particularly at highway speeds. These guys were in stop and go traffic so I'm guessing it only had minor effects.