2002 Corvette Z06 vs. 2002 Viper GTS

"A test of last year's Corvette Z06 has all the allure of last month's rotten produce. It's been done already. It's old news." So ended my harsh voicemail message to Corvette brand manager Robert Tripolsky. I was frosted, big-time. Our Z06 tester had just been dropped off at our Saddle Brook office by GM's northeast press fleet-it was as filthy as a New York taxi cab, but the big problem was that it was last year's model. We had planned to bring you a drag test of Chevy's best Corvette ever-the 2002 Z06 with 405 horsepower-along with the cover blurb "New Z06 Goes 11s!" That plan was now painfully obsolete.

After washing down a handful of Prozac with some Maalox, the ol' blood pressure came down and cooler heads prevailed. In taking stock of the situation, we realized that none of the big-time wine-and-cheese mags had ever drag tested last year's Z06 to our satisfaction. Adding insult to injury, our new co-workers at Motor Trend recently hailed the BMW M3 as their top pick among three cars (the M3, Z06 and Porsche Boxter S) in spite of the Corvette flat-out flogging the others like a red-headed stepchild.

Sometimes there is no justice.

I wiped the froth from the corner of my mouth and delivered the bad news to the staff. Our favorite test venue (Englishtown Raceway Park) was rented for the following day and the ambulance was booked, so we were obligated to follow through. Fortunately, road test editor Evan Smith was friendly with some Viper-packing locals and suggested that we do a shootout between the Z06 and a stock Viper. We reasoned at least we now had something semi-palatable to blurb on the cover. Just hours before our test session, Smitty hooked up with junk-mail king Joe Houss, president of Data Base, Inc. Houss courageously lent us his $80,000 Viper GTS without wincing, and thanks to him we now had something bankable for the newsstand.

We'll never think bad thoughts about junk mail again.

Here's the part where you groan. The Viper GTS is not only a Mopar, it's faster than a Z06. A lot faster. It's also thirty grand more than a Z06, so there's some comfort in knowing you have enough left over to buy a double-wide mobile home to go with your new Vette. Yet there are some similarities (with the Viper, not the mobile home): Both are their respective company's top-performing models and both compete not-so-side-by-side in the American Le Mans Series GTS class and at the big race itself across the pond. They also share the same bulletproof T-56 transmission, albeit mounted in different locations and with different gearing.

Our test day was shaping up to be a real scorcher. By the time all parties were assembled at 10 am, the mercury was already topping 90. Thankfully, the Raceway Park crew had glued the right lane top to bottom. For the time being at least, there would be no shortage of bite-our biggest problem would be a shortage of atmospheric oxygen.

First thing, we raided the Raceway Park concession stand and relieved them of 50 lbs. of bagged ice. We used this to cool both powerplants-in the case of the Z06 a 5.7-liter V8, and for the Viper an 8-liter V10. Ice has long been known to improve performance, yet for some mysterious reason, maximum straight-line per-formance is not sought after by other periodicals. Go figure.

Our other secret weapon is known as the Evan J. Smith driver mod. Forget about short belts, removed filters, ice bags, or headers-this mod is better than all of them. It's also free, if you know where to find him. In short, Smitty is the "horse whisperer" of cars. When he talks to them, they listen.

First up was the Z06. With the traction control switched off, Smitty did a brief dry burnout to clean the tires and to get some heat in them. A shallow stage at the tree and a delicate slipping of the clutch and the bright red Corvette was off. The smooth-as-silk run was anti-climactic and the timers froze at 12.42/112.7. On the first run of the day and in heat that would send other crews packing, Smith bested the best published quarter-mile ET by two full tenths.