All the replies given so far are valid and most of them reflect my opinion as well. Let me add some more ...............................

I've owned 2 Vettes and a Viper. These are all DIFFERENT cars for different purposes and for different owner experiences. You are looking at this from a very narrow focus. Expand your horizons. I think that's what most of these responses are trying to do.
I loved them all but for different reasons. I currently have a S/Cd S with "gears". I love this car, too and have absolutely no desire to go back to a Vette or a Viper (even the current editions).

 

it's a valid point you make. people ought to buy cars for what they are, not what they hope them to be. buying a S requires one appreciates what it does well bone stock. it does get pretty crazy when you see people with 500 hp accords. but seeing that people can SC one for far less than a corvette and many other cars and make a screaming rush of a car, well, screw the vette.

 

...ah, is that why your screen name is xviper? It does sound better than xvette.

 

I guess how people with an S that go FI makes no sense to you, kind of like how your question makes no sense to me. I will shortly being going turbo with my S and I have no desire whatsoever to buy a vette. I am not saying that it isn't a great car, but its not the car for me. These are two totally different cars and the vette doesn't appeal to me no matter how much power it comes with out of the box. Just my opinion though.

 

really?


i think its more the drivers that suck. the viper actually handles pretty good.

 

Because the cost to get into a vette is higher than the cost to get a FI S2k to begin with. Same old question like why spend $20-30k on a car and then mod the hell out of it for an additional $5k-20k when you could have just bought a $50k car to start off with? Because you can't (odds are thats why you purchased a $20-30k car to begin with [in most cases]).

 

 

The S is also about 300 lbs lighter than a vette. Adding power to a lighter car makes for a fun driving experience, no?

 

I've ridden on track in a viper driven by a good driver on Hoosier slicks. "Pretty good" is one of the understatements of the year. That guy could put that car anywhere he wanted on the track, make it stay there, and then shoot away with at least double the acceleration of my S.

 

The person who said they handle badly has no idea what it going on. A family member of mine has an 04 viper, and it's a truly amazing car.