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Much like the pony car rivalry between the Mustang and the Camaro, the battle for supremacy between the biggest and baddest iterations of America’s sports cars is one that we hope never comes to an end.
From the Mopar corner, the current contender for the crown is the Viper TA, sporting a naturally aspirated 8.4 V10 motor making 640 horsepower and 600 pound-feet of torque, which is hooked to a six speed manual gearbox.
The Viper goes back to the Dodge brand for 2015 after a two year stint with the SRT Group.
On Chevrolet’s side, the newest top-spec offering of the Corvette comes in the form of the Z06, which boasts a supercharged 6.2-liter V8 making 650 horsepower and 650 pound-feet of torque, and configured with either seven speed manual gearbox or an optional eight speed automatic. Earlier this month, a showroom stock example of each car headed out to Palm Beach International Raceway to lock horns at the drag strip.
Although the new Z06 weights a bit more than the Viper, it also makes more power. But is it enough?
While the mission of both cars is more centered around high speed stability and tearing up a road courses than it is cutting fast drag strip passes, with nearly identical power-to-weight ratios and all the best hardware each manufacturer has at their disposal, finding out who would be top dog at the stop light is still something just about every gearhead would be curious to see. Although neither driver really gets a clean launch, and the times appear to tell a different story that the video does (the timer doesn’t start until a car leaves the line), it’s still thrilling to see and hear these two American supercars do their thing.
