7:01 - The Story of Viper's Return to the Green Hell FULL DOCUMENTARY (2018)

the Nurburgring is an iconic track and manufacturers come here to prove the mettle of their cars BMW is constantly here Mercedes is here each manufacturer wants to have the trophy of the fastest production car and the world standard is basically a lap at the Nurburgring this is not the normal lap time effort this is not the normal flying wagon powered by PR and an underwritten by marketing height this is just like guys wanting a good lap for a car that they believe is one of the best cars in the world this is about automotive passion at the very very very highest level this is about the passion that created the greatest industry on earth and that's the auto industry the significance of being here is we get to say goodbye to a iconic car that was built in the United States of America at a plant that it was hand-built because the cars are still hand-built up till today when Viper captured that lap in 2011 the entire Viper nation exploded with excitement and I wanted that one more time before the car went out this is a very important one because the car is going to cease production shortly and you know I guess a little more than a month [Music] come in as an alien as an outsider as somebody who comes here once every 7 years or something and to expect to do a lap time is kind of like ambitious at best bordering on lunatic at worse the Viper is probably as close as that you can get to a race car and street you know clothing if you will but at the end of the day it's still streetcar and this place is is really tough so from it's like a driver standpoint they want a racecar for this place they want something that's super controlled that's a very predictable that has high amounts of grip and and at the end of the day you know you're you're kind of paying that trade-off between you know something that's meant for the street and something that really needs to be a race car to do well here the Viper has lots of potential loss of downforce Road car it's not what I expected but then I watched a bit like the floor was designed and the weighing in the splitter and it's really nicely done and you can really feel it in the high speed stuff which we have a lot on an arch life you can really feel like that the air is putting you on the ground and it's really a loss of grip in high speed [Music] it's an amazing amazing place I mean the settings the scenery the streets it is absolutely the most complex and difficult trek on earth the nerburn like any other track in the world I think the surface is super smooth it's a it's a great track but it's just got so many different elements it really tests the car and the driver from an endurance standpoint the weather here plays a big role especially on the go condition of the asphalt just stays on the surface and it's very difficult to keep the car under control under those conditions well we have a major challenge ahead of us the weather continues to be questionable and that affects every element of the car it's almost impossible to have too much time for setup I mean you know when you're doing something like this you want to keep running the car and running the car and then you tweak from there we are fortunate in that we have a car that our driver understands and we have a driver that understands our car Dominic's a really good setup driver I mean you can come back and he give you a lot of good feedback that was very helpful with the car maybe we did hit it right off the bat in the beginning but he could tell you what he needed from the car we were trying to give it to him to get like a little private time for yourself on the racetrack it's not like an easy task I mean you have to ask probably half a year before you attempt and you never know how the weather is gonna be in that time so if you booked that track time it's yours and if it rains you can Raindance monday we had the track from 12:00 to 1:00 unfortunately mother nature did not cooperate the plans had been in place for quite some time we took the opportunity to get some good shots my first impression of the car was basically holy and I was screaming back to myself as I accelerated through 3rd gear looking at the speed though thinking this is about 30 kilometers now faster at this point than I've ever gone in any car there is nothing like a bike it's a driver's car no it's not cushy and it's not comfortable and it doesn't have all the safeties and controls at other cars and that's exactly why those owners buy them we like the fact that you have to drive is raw power about a CV advance and you better respect the power of the car or it will bite you I think for many people the car creates relationships and that's probably the reason that I'm here helping these guys out and being part of this team on one hand it's it's the car in the history you have but on the other hand it's it's all the friendships and the relationships that you've made through the years it's a big family that the Viper community [Music] this track being 12.8 miles you can start at one place and a mile down the road it can be pouring rain and another mile it could be snowing and another mile it could be sunny and brights but that's what has made this track the most challenging track in the world we're very very fortunate to be able to be here for a couple more days and so we have some more opportunities with that tracks dry and the tires are warm and we're ready to go you know we'll be on our feet waiting to see what that that number is coming across the line the first two weeks the weather failed to cooperate most of the sessions we were able to get on the track now since a single attempt takes at least 25 minutes because of the warm-up and cool down laps wrestling time away from groups that had already booked the track was close to impossible we pleaded with everyone that had track time fortunately the track management seemed to respect what we were trying to accomplish and to mercy on us they sold us 30 minutes of time they had allocated for their own track maintenance [Music] [Music] [Music] at the ring the finish line is before the start line so after flying start we all moved back to the finish line [Music] [Music] hey that's that's hot that's that's awesome [Music] in spite of all the obstacles dominic turned to 703 on his first solo lap spirits were high it seemed that the sixes were a foregone conclusion with our time in Germany quickly slipping away we had to find another slot the cars capable of doing more they're still up to learn about the tire the car if I can make like a little more squeeze little more of this baby then might have a successful run here we had another record attempt this morning something the track has never done before they offered us track time this morning before the industry pool we had to be there at 7:45 we arrived at 7:45 and got the car set up the car went out on a hot lap did its first warm-up lap it came for the flyer lap now we begin the longest six minutes and 50 seconds of there's a gentleman at the track by the name of the organ he works the track and Jurgen came up to me and said this is one of the fastest times I've ever seen our heart started pounding everybody was getting excited unfortunately the industry pool radio that had to be in the car by the industry pool ended up coming loose from where it was secured and ended up underneath Dominic's pedals and so it it killed the run [Music] [Music] like see something in the pedal room I could not break or become this emotional to put it in the glove compartment I don't want to lose that in my pedal to him yes such a weird feeling when you can break what we have to work with and what we've worked with is amazing you know this track is one of the most daunting tracks to drive and so it stays completely booked and for us to get track time is is one of the the biggest challenges we've had that's the hurdle we had been there two weeks in that two weeks we had come so far but still needed additional track time upon our return the car was ready to go but in other ways it was like starting from scratch [Music] we've lost our drivers to their other racing obligations Burnie had returned to the US because of Hurricane Harvey and his fate would have it the only day we could get additional track time was a day that neither Mario or Dominick were available finding a new driver quickly was going to be difficult he had to understand the Viper and be an absolute expert on the Nurburgring Luca suggested Lance David Arnold Lance had never been in the Viper before but had a huge reputation for knowing the track with both cars on track Luca experienced a tire failure on the final straight this was a harbinger of things to come what we didn't know was that the drain plug in the differential of Lance's car was loose and all the fluid leaked out overheating the differential and sidelines in the car we now had one car and two drivers Luca a true team player thought that land should drive the one remaining car [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] okay we don't know what's inside sorry guys I'm okay but the left front tire was gone I had no chance to turn to the right the cars going just straight into the barrier flak in front us further vibration Isis as I started to turn I felt ok left front it's already gone no turning directly into the very unhide it was a big one [Music] poor food sake huh our spirits had gone from an unbelievable high to an unbelievable low everybody felt responsible why hadn't we change the tires after each lap well because time wouldn't allow it it was our last day we had used the 30-minute slot allocated to us one car was erected and the other one needed a differential which was 20 miles away it appeared that our attempt was over and that a7o 1.3 was gonna be the time we lived with like it or not well we didn't quite do what we all wanted to do and that would have been to set the fastest production lap record on the ring we came mighty close if a few things were different I think we certainly could have done it certainly nothing to hang our heads about it's it's a great time a very respectable time I have to think the car will go down as one of the most capable production track cars ever built the Viper will always be that crude rude car that we all have grown to love you know to see fiat-chrysler say we can't do it without money we're out of time we're out of interest whatever they were out of they were obviously out of it and then to see Bernie and ruse and all the guys point together in the crowdfunding just to bring a couple of cars here and push hard for a lap time that was something I've never reported on that's like one of the fastest cars ever and it's definitely the fastest car that's rolled off the showroom floor and driven to the Nurburgring gone round the Nurburgring and driven away again it's not big factories it's not big corporations it's you know a group of enthusiasts that really have a passion in their heart it's some small companies that could see you know a vision and wanted to really support the effort and everything came together to to really put down on it you know a time that very little I've ever approached there's a lot of people I think deserved to be recognized Michael Menken he has a lot of experience with wipers and was a great help to us all of the guys in his shop that worked with us boo-bear Frank Chico and Mateus were all fantastic guys to work with some of the best I think I've ever worked with [Music] I love the car and I know what else to say and just wanted us he'd go out well and did what I could to see you go out well and we cut 11 seconds off the last generation vipers time which is pretty respectable the 701 is certainly nothing to be ashamed of but the car is certainly capable of more only a couple of cars in the world that could say they're better but none of them with two-wheel drive rear wheel drive manually shifted cars and I don't think there'll ever be another car quite like the Viper so I suspect we'll hold on to that record for a long time [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]

Channel: FoxProFilms

Views: 265,945

Rating: 4.9265733 out of 5

Keywords: Fox Pro Films, Colin Fox, FoxProFilms, Fox Production Films, KnightVision, ViperRingKing, Viper, Nurburg, Nurburgring, Dodge, SRT, SRT8, v10, Race, Race Track, Racing, World Record, Record, Lap Record, Lap Time, Lap, Fast Lap, Fastest, Fast, America, Germany, Kumho, Prefix, BJ Motors, Viper Exchange, Tires, Farnbacher, Arnold, Stolz, Movie, Official, Film, Documentary, Green Hell, Victory, ACR, GTSR, ACR Extreme

Id: nu_LYke16DE

Length: 24min 7sec (1447 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 09 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

Heartbreaking how they were let down so many times.

From the weather, to the Kumho tires giving up, to the wheel bearing that they scrambled to source.

I would've loved to see this break into the 6's.

[u/4thAndLong]

The fact that this was all put together by enthusiasts makes it so much better even though they didn't reach their goal. They did this without support from FCA AFAIK. Just a bunch of guys that love the Viper.

[u/notmuchgoingontoday]

great video! i'm sad it didn't go out with with a real bang (sub seven that is).

[u/redroverster]

The video talks about 7:03. Where did 7:01 come from?

[u/oumakavoula]

Very cool love to see documentary like these