I've been thinking of instead of spending the cash on a car, maybe I should just combine it with the money i'm saving for a downpayment on a condo and get a 2-3plex and live in one unit and rent out the others. Down the road I'll be in a better cash position. Then again...down the road I could be dead and none of it matters.
There's a lot of fun things to do with money, and making it multiply is one of the best. Choose wisely: I just got screwed out of my starter-house equity by the market correction. But you're young, single, and free! Carpe Diem - get a Vicious Viper and lay some rubber before you marry some sweet hottie who uses her charms to persuade you into buying the comfiest minivan on the dealer's lot... Hey for ~30K don't forget Zee Germans: you can get a well-used E46 M3... or a top-notch 928 S4 that will make you want to take the long way to your relative's house by a few hundred extra miles...
I don't have a false sense of entitlment, but I would be lying if I don't feel like doing something a little crazy. I've studied, worked hard, and just got out of two back to back long term relationships. Maybe I'm in a rut, who knows. I have always gone down the conservative path. Contribute to my 401k, put money each month away towards investments, put money each month away towards a downpayment on a mortgage. I have a good social life, a great family, and love my hobbies - but spend an awful lot of time at home by myself during the weeknights and on the weekend. If in 5 years I was given 6 months to live, the downpayment, the 401k, the investments would all be pretty meaningless. I would look back and regret not spending a few of those weekends behind the wheel of a fun car, doing one of the few things in life that truly relaxes me and that I enjoy. I dunno - I feel like I'm either finally understanding life better, or am on the path to insanity!!! Starting to lean towards the latter...but at least it will be a good ride to that destination.
You need to do the right things FOR YOU! They may not be the right things for me or ANYONE ELSE. Only you (and maybe those who are closest to you) will know what is right or most right for you. I love and enjoy everyday figuring that it could be my last (you never know about car wrecks or heart attacks, or anything else...) so while I too save in my 401k and many other ways for the future I am always mindful of the present. I try to keep as much joy and happiness in my life as I can! You live near/in Chicago, you have a GREAT motorsports club/track just about 90 miles out of town from you to the west. I have never been there...only seen pics, but it looks AWESOME! Get you a hot car and head that way on weekends and have a BLAST! Best, James Austin, TX
Sounds like you should 100% get the car. Maybe you can rent each of them for a weekend and really get some seat time ?
I can hardly wait to wake up 65 years old, single bald and impotent, with ten million in the bank and go to the local Ferrari dealer in my Members Only Michael Jackson canvas jacket and pick out a 2023 Ferrari 897 Spyder! V18, 0-60 in .33 seconds! The chicks in the retirement home will be chasing me down the halls in their walkers! GO BUY THE CAR AND ENJOY IT! PS That should win post of the year.
I respect your opinion, but in my opinion the Lotus is more exotic as it is a handbuilt sportscar from a legendary old-school foreign sportscar maker, sold in limited quantities by relatively few dealerships in America. The Viper? Most every Dodge dealership in a town of any size has sold one or two. Maybe the streets of your locale display a lot more Elises than Vipers at this point in time, thus your perceptions are different than mine. Here in Michigan Vipers prowl at night, and the Loti are seen rarely. Heck, some places in the midwest a beat-up '84 Corvette is considered an exotic. Bounty is in Chi-town - lots of exotic machinery running around.
You have my vote for now, but the year is still young. I really do hope Bounty buys something fookin' wild so I can live vicariously thru him. Travis! GO BUY THE CAR AND ENJOY IT!
Still a ways off but just wanted to get some perspective on the various models. It helps to get a goal in mind and how much this will cost me to help keep myself focused.
Back in the day I looked at and drove them all. Took two years to sort it all out. Value, fun, resale, reliability, exclusivity, cost of ownership, insurance, trackability, Etc. What can I say ? I actually enjoy the hunt as much as the prize. My choice, and I will always have one, is the fantastic rule breaking.... NSX.
Demographics definitely play a part in what is or isn't considered "exotic" to each of us. Here in the SF Bay area a Lotus Elise is a pretty common sight where Vipers are rarely seen, on top of the rarity I hardly consider a Elise exotic with a piddly 1.8 liter fourbanger pumping out a whopping 180 BHP. The Viper has the performance of an Exotic car with its 8.3 liter V-10 putting out over 500 bhp! A Viper also runs around $90K new vs an Elise for $50K. Sorry but Dodge has never "hand-built" more than 1500 Vipers a year (25,000 since 1991) and if you were to pull up to a Hotel in Monaco in a Elise and me in a Viper SRT-10 your "exotic" Lotus would be parked in the basement and the Viper would get the front row. Anyway you slice it a Viper has the looks, the price and most importantly the performance of a true exotic car, the Elise is a dinky toy compared to the V-10 beast! Just the facts.
I recommended an Esprit. Lotus made other cars before the Elise, although the Elise is a pretty scarce and exotic car in its own right. But IIRC Lotus was selling fewer than 200 Esprits annually during the last run of that model. Dodge and Chevy sell that many cars during lunch. What he said. The Esprit is extremely rare and probably rates up there among the top 5 icons, just behind the Porsche 911 and Ferrari 308. I see the appeal of Corvettes and Vipers, but if the OP is thinking about a Ferrari he's probably more into rare foreign sports cars than American big blocks.
The SF Bay area isn't a good random sample of sports car ownership. Lots of money, and lots of education, which usually favors imports. This reminds me of the SoCal threads where guys up in LA complain that Ferrari 360s are everywhere.
Lol....360's are everywhere here too, acutally I see a Ferrari of some sort practically everyday in the bay area.
I actually don't see very many exotics, or sports cars up here at all. Sure they are out there, but in the city it seems like the expensive sedans are more plentiful. AMGs, 7 Series, S series Audis, tons of Jaguars, and Bentleys are EVERYWHERE here in Chicago. I can literally see 5-6 Bentleys a day and are so common that I don't even get excited seeing one anymore. And there are a fair share of Porsches around...but again not as many as one might think for such a large city. As for Vipers versus Lotus...I actually haven't seen one Viper since I have moved here in or around the city and I've been here a year and a half. Further, I've only seen maybe 2-3 Lotus Elises. I have seen a handful of exotic sports cars but in general I just don't see that many. My guess is that most of them are out in the suburbs and a lot of people are scared to drive them in the city with all the traffic...but that doesn't explain why I don't see that many even up in the Lake Forest and Barrington areas(which for those that aren't familiar are the big money areas of Chicago) where I go for drives at least 2 Sundays of the month pending bad weather. Have seen 1-2 360s, 2F430s, 2-3 Lotus Elises, 2 R8s, 1 Superlegerra, 2-3 Gallardos, 1 Carrera GT,1 F348, a few Murcielagos, and 4-5 Aston Martins...and folks that is about it in my entire year and a half up here. Granted I am only downtown and outside mon-friday during rush hour - which I suspect is a big reason for not seeing any - but still. I don't really even see many Corvettes. In fact I have honestly seen more exotics than I have Corvettes. I saw lots of Corvettes in the smaller city of Peoria. So to sum it up either car would be exotic in my city and a Viper...from what I've seen is even more exotic here than a new Lotus. A Lotus Espirt is probably rare anywhere...
I saw an Elise in the Krypton Green this PM...DAMN if that thing didn't reach out and grab me from about a mile away! The look of that car just ROCKS! I don't care what it costs, or how many HP it has, I would take one of those over a big ol he-man, lets compensate for what we don't have, Viper any day. Vipers sound like CRAP too! I have heard a bunch of them in my years at the track and you can always tell when one fires up because it sounds like the UPS guys just drove in for a delivery. Even the tuned ones sound bad... Must be something about the firing order of the V10. Krypton Green would not be for everyone (or maybe ANYONE), but if you want to stand out in a crowd that one will do it. Those little cars just look AWESOME! They are so exotic looking and so tiny you just want to put it in your pocket and take it home w/ you! Well, I do anyway. Oh, to the poster talking about a Viper in Monaco (or wherever it was)... Yea, you would park front and center because they are rare, thats because they don't SELL THEM THERE! DUH! So is a Vette for the same reason. I was in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, and Slovenia back in 2000 and I saw ONE Vette! Not a single Viper. A few Ferrari's (but not many) and most of the Porsche models (thought not more than 1 or 2 of each) the month I was there, and we drove EVERYWHERE so we saw a bunch of cars. As for usable, affordable, streetable, enjoyable, reliable, fun to drive... ZO6 all the way! Like the Viper it does not have any Euro blood so to me it can't be exotic. Exotic are are not made HERE...and that means wherever HERE is for you. A Lotus (while desirable) does not qualify as "exotic" in GB, and Ferrari's and Lambo's in Italy....errr...scratch that... Ferrari and Lambo are exotic ANYWHERE! Hey, that reminds me... What about the Lambo Jalpa? I always liked those cars! Very cool and VERY rare. I think they can be had (if you can find them) for less than $50k now...maybe even less than $40k, but I have not followed them. Might be worth looking in to... Enjoying the back and forth here and reading about what all you other F-car fans think is exotic or not. Best to you all, James
ok, as a current owner of a Viper GTS and 2002 NSX, I like them both. They are Night and Day. It all depends on what you want. Raw American power and classic looks, or Exotic looks/refinement/reliability. Lets just say I drive my NSX more than my Viper. The NSX is much more usable than the Viper on a Daily basis. The Viper is TOO LOW and scrapes on everything. But when I have the Viper out, I know exactly what I am missing on the NSX, low end torque... ...another daily favorite of mine is a Porsche 993 C2S
Lotus Esprit wins HANDS DOWN.. NSX 2nd and Viper last... My friend's Viper has been in the shop MANY times. They are heavy cars that handle really terrible unless you are very trained in driving it. Get the Lotus and you'll be happy... I owned an NSX '03 for 2 years and it was also a blast to drive. Drove a Viper on Buttonwillow track and I just hated that LONGGGGG front end and the how easy the back end gets loose..
What is handling? It isn't something you put on paper per say. Just because a car has a very high lateral grip doesn't mean it handles that well. Many say that the old 70's Lotus Elan is one of the best handling sports cars ever. I can bet good money that it's lateral g "number" is no where near the Viper's but it is still said to handle better. Handling is the directional feedback from car to driver. Having never driven a Viper I can't give you my opinion, so yes it may be great,but I just want to share my 2 cents about handling being a subjective matter. From all that I have read though, it sounds like the Esprit and NSX are like scalpels where the Viper is more like a meat clever.
Lots of things people have said in this thread I would strongly disagree with. 1. Many people here have said Vipers are not rare enough. They make almost twice as many Ferrari 430s as they made Vipers a year. And you can they same for back in the day for Ferrari 360s and 355s. 2. Many people here have said Viper's can't handle. Bull SH#@! Vipers are great on a roadcourse (IF YOU KNOW HOW TO DRIVE) Here I am playing with a C6 Z06: http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Viper-VS-C6-Z06_142927.htm Playing with a Supercharged Elise, etc.: http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Last-HPT-Roadwarriors-2007_138844.htm Porsches, supercharged Elise, Corvettes and more: http://videos.streetfire.net/video/2007-early93viper-Track-days_144266.htm Evo, Camaro: http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Viper-VS-EVO-VS-Camaro_124304.htm With all do respect don't tell me they don't handle well. 3. One person here is saying that vipers are not hand built when there is not even one robot on the whole assembly line. Let's try and keep the facts straight please.
With just a simple cam and exhaust swap on these vipers it gets them sounding good. Go with a GTS you wont regreat it.
