I'm going to have a nice little write up when I'm done with this.
I think it may have been either the first or the second time I ever played GT when I first saw these beauties. The year was probably 2002, and my brother and I had just gotten Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec. We immediately dove headfirst into the two-player battles, going for the S-Class racers, with my brother immediately going for the big red Oreca Viper. I slowly skimmed the list until I stumbled upon the yellow beauty that was the C5-R. We duked it out, over the first few tracks the game had to offer, time and time again with those cars for around a month or two, with a fairly evenly matched round record. That is actually the story of how I began playing Gran Turismo over 13 years ago: a rivalry within a rivalry over a game.
I'd love to get him to do this review with me, as he was still pretty decent at Forza a year ago and even though he never gamed the way I did, he always loved a purpose-built race car. But I must return to the here and the now: They might be (close to if not the) same cars that they were, but I have evolved plenty since those humble days. And I must know: if I had picked the Viper on day one, would I still be able to boast about whooping my older brother? I really think I'm going to like this thread.
I'll drop the whimsical tone and get to the facts and figures on this one because I'm sure you all are tired of hearing about my nameless brother. Just like last week, I have a bit of personal bias, but I always try to leave that as an aside.
2000 Chevrolet Corvette C5 R
Displacement: 6,997 cc
Peak Power: 609 HP (in garage) @ 6,500 rpm
Peak Torque: 494.8 ft-lbs. (in garage) @ 5,000 rpm
Weight: 1,139 kg
Drive/Aspiration: FR/NA
2000 ("SRT") Viper GTS-R Team Oreca (#91)
Displacement: 7,986 cc
Peak Power: 587 HP (in garage) @ 6,500 rpm
Peak Torque: 519.3 ft-lbs. (in garage) @ 3,500 rpm
Weight: 1,150 kg
Drive/Aspiration: FR/NA
You likely know the stakes and the history: both race cars were designed with LM in mind. I'll spare you the details and inch towards testing them. The 3 tracks I will be using are Laguna Seca, Daytona, and of course, the Circuit de la Sarthe, because these are Le Mans GT cars, after all, right? I'll be taking them out to see how they fare in efficiency (across all three tracks), then going for a flying lap on each. And since they are largely adjustable machines, I will try to get them tweaked for each course where I can, though it won't be an exhaustive job.
I would first put the C5R out on the track to get a sense of where the base setup was and also test the endurance of the tires and fuel. After just 5 laps, I could already feel a large sense of understeer in the chassis, which could be offset through extensive means of power, but not enough to get rid of all that push. It felt very buttoned down the entire time, and I could tell that loosening up the car would do wonders. It was already quite quick, and I hoped to extract more out of the car after some tuning. After a quick spruce up, I found the car to still exhibit some understeer, but it was much less, and more easy to counteract with the throttle (though not super easy to kick out).
The Viper just felt so much more... right, despite my prejudices. The chassis had a much more considered character to it, and though it had the ever-slightest touch of understeer, it was no trouble at all to will the 600 horses to bring around the back end, though breaking it loose was also a bit easy. I can understand why ORECA was untouchable way back when, as this machine seems undeniably well-balanced. Tweaking the setup got it to feel even better, with great turn in and an eagerness to be steered by the throttle.
However, I would also find that it was not as well equipped for high-speed as the C5R, suffering from a little more drag, with a horsepower deficit to make matters worse. After my initial testing at Laguna, where I was ready to say that the C5R had practically nothing on the Viper, I came to Daytona and found that the C5R was doing much better, more stable at high speed and under braking, and capable of even higher speeds than the Viper.
Endurance Testing:
5 Laps of Laguna on VF wear.
Corvette C5R
Tires (LF/RF/LR/RR): 8/7/9/9
Fuel: 51 liters remaining
Viper GTS-R
Tires (LF/RF/LR/RR): 9/8/9/8
Fuel: 52 liters remaining
5 Laps of Daytona Road on VF wear.
Corvette C5R
Tires (LF/RF/LR/RR): 8/7/9/9
Fuel: 31 liters remaining
Viper GTS-R
Tires (LF/RF/LR/RR): 8/8/9/8
Fuel: 31 liters remaining
3 Laps of La Sarthe 2005 on VF wear.
Corvette C5R
Tires (LF/RF/LR/RR): 7/8/9/9
Fuel: 5 liters remaining
Viper GTS-R
Tires (LF/RF/LR/RR): 8/8/8/8
Fuel: 6 liters remaining
Lap Times:
Laguna
C5R: 1:20.248
GTS-R: 1:20.087
Daytona
C5R: 1:41.602
GTS-R: 1:42.806
La Sarthe
C5R: 3:51.600
GTS-R: 3:51.046
At the end of the day, you have two very venerable racecars from venerable marquees and I love them both. I've had a great pleasure working with these two this week, and I think if you get the opportunity to go with either, you'll be quite satisfied.
I absolutely am enamored with the C5R. It was one of my first hands on steps into racing games, racecars, a big milestone for me in my personal GT Life. It performed admirably across the week, being able to overcome its own limitations and show me how strong of a performer it is and always has been (though now I can appreciate it more). The whole way through, the Vette was never far behind at all. I had a blast with it, especially after learning its strengths and weaknesses. As I got to the final tests, its higher top speed (which was invisible at Laguna Seca) proved useful in netting valuable time, and its inherent understeer characteristic truly aided its general stability down the road in braking zones. I would be hard pressed not to choose the Corvette.
But I'd be even more hard pressed to put aside the Viper after all its shown me today, not mentioning its incredible aesthetic (I mean look at it!). Even though I noted it being a bit more prone to drag, (I'm lead to believe that) it actually has more effective aero that gives it more downforce and grip even at the bare minimum level of downforce (despite the settings sheet claiming their numbers to be the same). It has only just as much wear and fuel burn as the lighter, smaller engined, lower coefficient-of-drag C5R, sometimes even less, with just as much speed on track, being particularly excellent when the going gets technical (which you don't hear everyday about a Viper). It could be a little bit skittish at times with its rear end, but its very easy to dial that out of the setup, or better yet to just let it teach you to be gentle. It WILL reward you. I was a bit slower at Daytona, and I believe that had a lot to do with the speed difference on the oval, with not enough actual road course to split the difference (I may re-run that one and come back with an update). Nevertheless, the pedigree, the look, the speed, relative efficiency, and especially the badass (though I could say the same of the Vette on that last one) make this a winner. Which it historically was. Many times. And still is today. In my book at least, and also many of your guys' as well.
TLDR: The Viper edges it out with outright SPEED. I highly recommend both for a drive.
