Rivals: Ford Mustang GT350R vs. Dodge Viper ACR vs. Porsche GT3 RS

[MUSIC] Behind us we have the Dodge Viper ACR, the Ford Mustang GT350R And the Porsche 911 GT3 RS. That's enough Rs for a pirate convention, but today we're going to find out which one is best on the track. I'll start with a viper. It has an 8.4 liter v10 putting out 645 horsepower and 600 pound feet of torque, a package that weighs just 3300 pounds. That frankly is insane. That is insane. But I have myself a slice of Germany with this Porsche 911 GT3RS. Porsche's very own road legal track monster thing. It's pushing out 493 horse power and 339 pounds and seat. And it weighs just 3,130 pounds. And slotting in quite nicely between the two is the Ford Mustang GT350R. It's pretty much the most macho Mustang that you can buy today. A 5.2 liter V8 is kicking out 562 horse power, 429 pounds speed of torque and for those of you paying attention that is more power than the Porsche. But of course it's a Mustang so I got a bit a weight penalty. Now we'll hit the track in anger with all three of these cars. But first let's dig and show them the details. [MUSIC] [SOUND] [MUSIC] [SOUND] Now truth be told, we're all just a little petrified of this Dodge Viper ACR, and really, can you blame us? My voice is a little higher than it was before, you can blame the six point harness with is not the most comfortable thing in the world, but when you are driving on the street, you can just use the normal three point harness if you want to. First things first, it's noisy. This doesn't feel like a sensible car. [SOUND] This is exactly It's so loud and it's so fast, and it grips so hard. It makes pretty much half it's body weight in downforce thanks to the enormous wing on the back. And there's all kinds of crazy aero bits in this thing to keep it planted and to keep you from Turning back assward on the track right. So I've got a front splitter a rear splitter. I've got some [UNKNOWN] over the wheels. Along with these crazy dive planes in the front. And all of that is just to give you more aero. And we're not even talking about the tires. I mean these tires are massive. [SOUND] It's the wind it's 60 Four. That's as big as a person. I could have a nap on that, and still have room to stretch. This 8.4 liter engine has got ten screaming cylinders, which is going to bring this guy to 60 in a scant 3.3 seconds, and a top speed of 177 miles an hour. The interior is Spartan, to say the least. This is not exactly the most road friendly car in the world. In fact, just going from third to second requires basically winning an arm wrestling match. It's not a forgiving car at all. You have to work with it. You have to know what you're doing. There are traction settings that will let you play with it until your hearts content. But really you have to know these things. You gentle in, and then you can power out, cuz the air bubble dual rocket fires out. [NOISE] And it'll grip, and grip, and grip. And you gotta a big grin on your face. But by the end of it you are absolutely exhausted. [SOUND] When it comes to driving modes there aren't any. All of your adjustability is done with the suspension and the aero. So if you don't like how it rides, if you don't like what the steering is, too bad. And when you do get into third gear the shift ball actually blocks half of the controls here in the Center console, so that's a little bit of an unfortunate layout. We've got Chrysler's Uconnect system, which is a passable infotainment system. It's got navigation, it's got connectivity for apps, no Android Auto or CarPlay unfortunately. And the speaker system in this car is Frankly, it's one of the worst that I have ever heard in any car ever but that's okay because we got something that makes it a little better noise under the hood. The R test model here comes in a little bit more than the base price, $135,000 and that includes a fancy paint job,a gas guzzler tax, as well as the carbon fiber Hyper breathing. [MUSIC] It's a viper, man. Treat it with respect and you'll love it. Mess around with it, underestimate its abilities [MUSIC] Well [INAUDIBLE]. [SOUND] Stepping out of the Viper and into the Porsche, and it's a pretty big leap forward in terms of fit and finish. The materials are miles better. Here we've got a lot Nice [INAUDIBLE] and leather, and carbon fiber everywhere. Although there are a whole lot of buttons. This is Porsche's last generation infotainment system. So we've got toggles and switches and buttons all over the place for everything. Which means you can control everything with a physical control, but Sometimes finding it can be a little bit of a challenge. The infotainment system itself is again a little bit dated. it's functional but not that exciting. Now this the GP3RS which you get for 493 brake horsepower. Now that's 500 horsepower to those of us here in America and 339 pound feet of torque. This is a Motorsports inspired car. It's built by magicians at Porsche. This is 50 years of work, Motorsports Heritage all boiled in to one road car, the most hardcore Porsche you can buy. Now this guy is the lightest of our three rivals 60 miles an hour in 3.1 seconds, with a top speed of 193 miles an hour. [MUSIC] It's fast. It's light. It's powerful. It has no rear seats. It's all lightweight everything, everywhere, which BEfore you even get into the car it makes you feel like a bit of a hero to say mine's the lightweight one with the big wing. The germans have made a lot of concessions for weight and that includes a carbon fiber reinforced hood, deck plated spoiler and wing. And it's got a bit of aero goodies too with some vents here on the front as well as side vents which is gonna scoop the air in. And keep the whole thing cool. The big wing actually does put down a ton of down force, too. Which means that the quicker you go, the [UNKNOWN] it gets. Which I rather like.>> But make no mistake. This is not just a straight line drag Boxter right? This is a Porsche. It's a corner carver. It's got this really cool rear wheel steering system. So the rear tiers, which are wrapping these massive, massive like 325, 40 tires. When you're at speeds of under 50 miles per hour. Those are going to steer in the opposite direction to kind of get you in-between tighter lines. But, when you're at speeds of over 50 miles an hour, they're going to steer in the same direction to kind of crab walk you along. You know exactly where the car's pointed. You could feel the tarmac beneath the front wheels. So you have every confidence in what the car can do. so you can be going around at 70 miles an hour, [UNKNOWN] a brake, here we go. Think you're going too hot, nope. Not going in too hot. You're just going really fast around the corner. It's also the last generation TCM here, which means the navigation is a little bit clunky to use. The voice recognition is not great. But it is overall functional. And it's connected to what is far and away what is the best sound system in these three cars. Now a lot of people, what they don't like about the GT 3RS and the current GC3 is gear box. They don't like the fact that it's a PDK. They think, you should have a driver's car. It should be a manual. It should be proper. That while yes, not changing my own gears does remove a little bit from the experience, it's a smooth, slick gear box that [SOUND] [UNKNOWN] well, Porsche does make the best automatic gearbox, hands down, it's brilliant. [SOUND] [MUSIC]. [SOUND]. The held, the [UNKNOWN], then drop it down and it'll revs some 9,000. [SOUND] It sounds so good. [LAUGH] It does sound pretty all right. Who needs a sound system anyway? [MUSIC] [INAUDIBLE] Brake as hard you can. This one's fitted with a carbon composite brake. And then you can turn in with all of the grip and fire yourself down the straight. With the good company of happiness and joy. These seats also really comfortable. This seat absolutely bolt up right and they do not adjust for recline. You can go forwards, backwards, up and down a little bit. So not much. However, you can be comforted knowing that these seats came straight out of the 918 hypercar. Now when it comes to price this baby starts at $175,000. That's right. But no, we here at Road Show, we give you the best. So let's see a fancy paint job, better brakes, a front axle lift system and this awesome orange interior That goes up to $204,000 for this guy. And you know what? I want it. [SOUND] [INAUDIBLE] Isn't just some. It's an absolute joy. It's a beast. It's a weapon. On the road, yeah, it might be a bit noisy. But man And on the track. [BLANK_AUDIO] I just want to stay in it. I want to stay in it to drive around all day cuz I'll get told off by the producers. So I've got to go in now and drive something else. What a shame. [MUSIC] [UNKNOWN], you are the cheapest, you have the second largest power output, you have the second largest engine, and you have easily the [UNKNOWN] paint job here. You fund well. Let's find out. It's certainly quick. That's for sure. [LAUGH]. And very, very noisy. Being the least expensive option by far, you'd expect it to feel a little bit low rent in here. And there certainly are some cheap touches. These plastic toggle switches for one thing are very, very plasticky feeling. And they actually only toggle one way. Which is a little bit of a disappointment, some of the materials are a little bit cheap feeling as well, but overall, this is actually a really nice place to be. Don't people Name. The Ford Shelby Mustang GT 350R really has nothing to do with Shelbys. But it's still a pretty impressive car in its own right. A 5.2 liter V8 flat plane crank engine means that this baby is fast. And this This baby is loud. That's that great V8 sound. Amazing, it's not a proper at all muscle car it's, it sounds like something out of Italy. [MUSIC] [NOISE] Zinc 3 is the best entertainment system of the three by far. It's got the most features. It doesn't have android auto which as an android user for me is a little bit of a bummer. But overall the app integration is nice and everything is much more responsive and much more intuitive. Then in the other systems. [BLANK_AUDIO] Now at 3600 pounds, this is the heaviest car in our rival. So Ford has done quite a bit of weight saving. It comes standard with no air conditioning Conditioning, no rear seat, no backup camera. There's not even carpet in the trunk. And with carbon fiber wheels that's saving 13 pounds at all four corners. It's quite heavy in this company but it hides it beautifully. Because steering even in track mode. Super light. The suspension manages to hide any [UNKNOWN] so it feels pretty damn flat when you're going around a bend. That means you can go around bends very, very quickly. Not to be outdone by the competition the GT 350R does have carbon fiber wing as well as bits of arrow in the front cuz form is definitely following function Push it on this car. The gear box, you can only have this with a manual. Which means it's a proper car for proper driving. If you wanna call yourself a proper driver. But by far, the best part of being in this car. The seats, they are a great mix of comfort and support out here on the track. They're phenomenally supportive, but they're actually quite comfortable. My first experience in this car was Was a two-hour highway crawl and I didn't really feel uncomfortable at all. At that whole point, the suspension actually would go to a nice, soft setting and the exhaust even quiets down quite a bit on the road too. If you need to do a little bit of a long commute to get to the racetrack, this isn't a bad place to do it. It corners flat, it goes fast, and it sounds absolutely incredible. The only thing about it that detracts from the fun, the only thing. is the steering. It's, it's smooth, but it just feels too [INAUDIBLE]. At 3.5 seconds, the Mustang is the slowest to 60 of our rivals, but it is also the most affordable, coming in at just over $62,000. As the package, for the money, is, it's brilliant, but what you get, what you get is a serious, serious car. Mind-blowingly powerful. The noise. The sensation you get with it. It makes you feel so good. But compared to the others. All the others worth the extra money. [SOUND] [MUSIC] [SOUND] [MUSIC] [SOUND] [MUSIC] [SOUND] [MUSIC] [SOUND] [MUSIC] [SOUND] [MUSIC] Well, that was a little bit of fun, these three cars I think. What do you think? Just a tiny little bit. It was entertaining. It was, and it was a little bit scary at times, particularly in the left seat of this car. Alex, what did you think of the Viper? Okay, so I'm just gonna do the rundown. It's uncomfortable, you can't see out of it, it's hot, the stereo's rubbish, and it's kind of terrifying on the road. But. But, on the track, I was just Just screaming the whole way around. It's hilarious. It's just a wall of noise and sound, and you can bug it into a corner. Phew. It's a bit tasty. But you really need to get past the reputation of it. And look at it. It just looks so intimidating. But then once you do, and you realize that you can just dive into this corner, point it and accelerate out like a mad man, and it's I'd have a blast. And the brakes are absolutely phenomenal, but the best part of the Viper for me is, you know that if you get a clean lap in this thing, if you really get everything right, it's you who got everything right, because there are traction control and a few other assists in there, but ultimately, it's up to you to really get the most out of that car. It takes a strong right arm on that shifter and a strong left leg on that clutch, and it's a beast, but on the road, as you mentioned, Maybe a little too compromised to take the crown today which takes us to the Mustang. Which I think is a bit more of all a rounder no? Yeah I mean for 60 grand this thing is a bargain. The amount of power you get with this. It's comfortable on the road. It's a beast in a straight line. And it's not so bad in the turns. It is Were really fun. That engine. Come on. Yeah, it's the noise. The flat plain train? It sounds like it should come from Italy. It sounds like something you'd get in a Ferrari, and the acceleration is maddening. The only letdown? Steering. It's just not good enough. Yeah, it is a little big. But, if you're used to a normal Mustang, this feels night and day difference. And it is absolutely incredibly good value. I mean, I don't wanna harp on the value too much, but This is almost a quarter of the cost of some of the other cars here. It's actually pretty close to being the overall winner. But I don't think it is quite the best car here, not quite. It's that. Yeah, the orange one. Yeah. Yeah. It's a Porsche 911 GT3 RS. What an amazing car. Mm-hm. I mean, I got into this. And I was a little intimidated just because of the name. But then when you get out there, it's actually quite easy to drive. And that rear steering saved my **** so many times. [LAUGH] [LAUGH] It is so rewarding. The steering is weak in that. It's amazing in that. Complain all you want about electromechanical nonsense, but That's it. And so you know what's interesting, is that we have manual transmission, manual transmission PBK. And we've been harping about how much we love manuals, and then we love this one more than the manuals. Well, it showed itself in the drag race. Right. Because I was expecting the Porsche to lose Against the Viper because it's got more than twice the engine and it's monstrously fast. Down on torque, down on power, everything. But because Tim had to work it himself, and I had launch control and he had to change gear and I didn't, and it just flew. I could keep up with him. If it was a rolling start though, I don't think the outcome would have been the same. It was pretty remarkable to go race after race after race to try to find a winner. And it was just neck and neck every time. Whoever got the cleanest launch won every single time. It was remarkable how close these two were. But yeah, absolutely. I was working pretty hard to get that thing off the line in a clean way. When you're on the track in that thing you can focus so much on driving clean lines and really focus on improving yourself. Whereas this is like a full body workout, basically. You've gotta get everything right mentally, physically, everything else, to really get a good lap out of that. So, amazing car, amazing car, amazing-est car. [LAUGH] [INAUDIBLE] You gotta say. Yeah. You gotta say. The winner, Road Show Rivals is the Porsche 911 GT3 RS. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]