American Exotics Comparison Test

Every so often, the planets align, the Los Angeles smog clears and somebody on the Edmunds.com editorial staff gets a good fortune cookie at the local Chinese place. The fortune reads, "Your minivans and econoboxes will go away, and you will be rewarded with cars that make big boffo horsepower."

It's a good fortune to have, and it recently came true, providing us with a comparison test between the Chevrolet Corvette Z06, the Dodge Viper GTS ACR and the Ford SVT Mustang Cobra R. We came up with the idea for this test after driving the Corvette Z06. New for 2001, the latest Corvette incarnation is arguably the best ever, better than any L88-powered Vette or the ZR1. We were impressed by the car in isolation but wondered how it would fare when put head-to-head against the competition.

While its performance allows the Z06 to scrum against stratospheric cars like the Ferrari 360 Modena and the Porsche 911 Turbo, we felt a more realistic test would be against the two vehicles most likely to serve as competitors in the marketplace: the Dodge Viper GTS ACR and the Ford SVT Mustang Cobra R. The Viper, despite its age and upcoming redesign, is still one of the fastest production cars ever built. From the Blue Oval comes the Mustang Cobra R, a hot rodder's wet dream if there ever was one. In collection, each vehicle is the fastest production vehicle from each of the Big Three. While not automotive exotics in the truest sense of the word, they are certainly American exotics, vehicles capable of getting a thumbs up and a smile in every big city and township from California to Rhode Island.

Despite the cars' exclusive natures, we compared these vehicles using the same testing regimen that we use for every other Edmunds.com comparison test. This means we evaluated the vehicles in terms of price, performance, feature content, functionality and subjective observations from our editors. In addition to our normal test loops on public roads, we also booked time at Willow Springs International Motorsports Park, a road course located about an hour drive north of Los Angeles. Using the smaller and more technical 1.5-mile Streets of Willow track, we were able to further evaluate the performance envelope of each vehicle in a safe, controlled environment.

Of course, this test was a load of fun to perform, and we hope that even if you don't have the financial wherewithal to buy any of these vehicles (Lord knows we don't) you'll enjoy reading the bits of HTML coding we've arranged. This is also the first comparison test to have supplementary video coverage, allowing you to get even closer to the action and see these sickeningly fast cars in action. We encourage you to check it out if you have broadband access. So without further ado, let the big smoky burnouts begin.