Motor Trend magazine recently took the 2009 Dodge Viper ACR out for a test-drive, and man, what a ride. Here’s an excerpt: “Are you muy macho? Sure? All right, then. Come on in. I just spent some serious wheel time piloting Dodge’s ultimate street racer around the hills and curves of Central California, and I’ve gotta off-load some adrenaline. Excuse me if I foam at the mouth. The Viper ACR will do that to you. Everything about the ACR leaves you breathless: the ultra-quick steering, the crushing acceleration, the suspension’s piano-string tautness, cornering transitions that make you feel like you’ve fallen into a pinball machine. The Corvette Z06 cannot duplicate the ACR’s electrifying race-car moves (we’ll see if the new ZR1 can defend its little brother’s honor). Nissan GT-R? Forget it: The Viper ACR will leave its solenoids and software bugged out by rubber dust. Porsche GT-2? Getting warmer, but Porsche’s masterpiece (at twice the Dodge’s $98,110 price) plays by Marquis of Queensberry rules. The ACR is strictly UFC. Dare to get in the ring with it, dude, and you’re going to get pummeled. I haven’t driven another car in recent memory that’s felt so utterly brutal yet so unfailingly honest. You want speed? The ACR delivers it like French roast coffee administered via syringe. True, with its adjustable KW shocks and tunable aero bits, the ACR really is a ringer, a thinly disguised race car. But, hey, the DOT says it can play in the street with everything else, so fair is fair. I’m keeping a record of my Viper ACR drive in my personal journal. It’ll be under the heading, ‘Cars I love that make me feel like five minutes ago I said something stupid to Mike Tyson.’”
