Auburn Hills, Mich. -- Call it America's Ultimate Sports Car versus America's most agile jet fighter. Or Viper versus Viper. Either way, it was a breathtaking contest of 500 horsepower against high-flying afterburner thrust, as the new 2003 Dodge Viper SRT-10 challenged the United States Air Force's Lockheed Martin F-16 "Viper" in acceleration trials at Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Ariz.
Coverage of the event, held this past spring as part of the annual Luke Days air show, aired on TBS Superstation's "Ripley's Believe It Or Not!" on Saturday, July 13th at 9 am.
The challenge pitted the all-new Dodge Viper against an F-16 jet in a side-by-side, standing-start, half-mile drag race on parallel air base runways, accelerating to the speed at which the jet became airborne: approximately 150 mph. The Dodge Viper covered the course in around 15 seconds.
The event featured two battles with pre-production versions of the 2003 Dodge Viper SRT-10 convertible challenging the Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon, and two more with a prototype 2003 Dodge Viper Competition Coupe against another F-16 Viper. For the latter, DaimlerChrysler's PVO team tapped more horsepower and clad their Viper in racing slicks, while the USAF countered with takeoff runs at full afterburner.
"Driving the new Dodge Viper against the Air Force's finest was really an incredible experience," said Herb Helbig, Senior Manager, Vehicle Synthesis, Performance Vehicle Operations (PVO) at DaimlerChrysler Corp. "We're proud of the Dodge Viper's performance capabilities, and this was a chance to race for bragging rights against one of the few things capable of matching the Viper's acceleration," said Helbig.
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