Vipe out! There's nothing unusual about two Vipers drag-racing - except when one of them is an F-16 fighter plane

摘要

That's right: we're racing a USD20 million fighter plane. The chosen weapon is a Dodge Viper Competition Coupe, the racing version of the V-10 supercar. Strapped in tight, open exhausts blaring, I'm waiting for the countdown from the Luke tower to race the fighter, which is going to blast off using its afterburner for added impetus. Me? I have 520 hp against 25,000 pounds of thrust. It's like sending out a peashooter against art Uzi. As the tower radios, "Viper two, read?" my pulse elevates and my breathing deepens. The Comp Coupe has a trick carbon-carbon oclutch, and it requires a deft touch to get the car off the line without lighting up die slick tires or bogging down. If I get this wrong, there's ridicule from the Dodge and USAF guys and humiliation in front of more than. 100,000 people at the Lake Days air show. I tell the tower that I'm ready, but they don't hear. A second, plaintive "Viper two, ready?" and I reply in the affirmative again. No response. The tower isn't hearing me. Luckily, Corey "Slick" Hermesch, the F-16 pilot, is, and he calls in that we're ready to race-Almost immediately, the tower starts the countdown. I dip the clutch, engage first gear, and plant the tach "needle" on the MoTec digital gauge cluster at four grand- On "Go!"