Car and Driver Tested: The 12 Quickest Cars of the 1990s

The supercar was in full swing by the 1990s. A bevy of incredibly consistent blue Dodge Vipers that we tested all posted 4.0-second runs are set off nicely by some extremely exotic metal from around the world. The Viper times also dictated that our list of the 10 quickest 0-to-60-mph cars become a list of 12.

Be sure to also take a spin through the quickest cars we tested in the 1950s, ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, and in the 21st century so far.

October 1997

What We Said: “Upgrades and modifications have steadily improved the Viper over the years. Structural improvements and suspension modifications to the 1998 RT/10 came mainly by way of the GTS development program . . . [The roadster] gets the coupe’s engine, too, with new tubular exhaust manifolds and a revised camshaft for better economy and emissions. Horsepower is up from 415 to 450 at 5200 rpm, and torque increases from 488 pound-feet to 490. The Viper was never short of tractive effort; the improvements just add to its bounty. . . . Power is so prodigious in the Viper that if you get directly into another moderately powerful car afterward, it feels like you’re driving in deep sand. . . . In full-shout mode, the Viper cries, roars, and thunders at a very convincing 90 decibels. In roadster form, you are treated to a loud mixture of engine sound, tire roar . . ., and wind rush. You can cruise comfortably with the top up and the air conditioning on, but you won’t hear the 200-watt, five-speaker Alpine stereo clearly unless it’s cranked up.”

September 1997

What We Said: “In choosing our contestants, we selected the best-handling cars we could think of that cost more than $30,000 and represent a broad array of driveline configurations. We arrived at eight contenders. . . . The Viper’s steering is fairly linear but extremely responsive. The Viper achieves 0.90 g with just a quarter-turn of its steering wheel. . . . The 450-horsepower Viper GTS was fastest around the track with an average speed of 93.1 mph, but power couldn’t take all the credit. At each of the three corners we analyzed, the Viper was among the top-three finishers in average lateral acceleration, too. This car felt brutish at Nelson Ledges, with seemingly bottomless reservoirs of power, braking, and grip with which to experiment. . . . Dodge introduced the Viper GTS coupe last year as a ‘touring’ version of the Viper roadster. Don’t be misled. This is a brash, brutal sports car to the core, with the raciest handling this side of a Reynard Indy car.”

July 1997

What We Said: “This is the 16-pound-sledge approach to g forces. At idle, the V-10 shakes and shudders like a Maytag trying to spin dry Mrs. Murphy’s rock collection. Sitting in traffic, the transmission input-shaft bearings are loud enough to compete with the radio. At creep-along speeds, even the gentlest motions of your throttle foot produce enough torque to make huge clanking noises as massive gears lash back and forth between the drive and coast sides of their teeth. The Viper’s outrageous act is all carefully contrived to make one simple statement-‘mine’s bigger than yours’-and no Ferrari has yet to match this Yankee’s shameless leer. . . . Its acceleration flattens eyeballs and leaves in the dust cars that are merely fast. . . . Generally, its behavior is that of the classic front-engine, rear-drive roadster, albeit with Godzilla g forces you’d hardly expect of a road car.”

December 1996

What We Said: “Coaxing the best from the Viper is simple. Rev the engine to precisely 2400 rpm-any lower and you’re slow, any higher and the wheelspin never stops-and drop the clutch. Shift as quickly as you can a tad before the 6000-rpm redline, and you’ll be running through the traps just after catching fourth gear. No bleach burnouts. No power shifting required. . . . The Viper steered beautifully with excellent stability on the fast sections, combined with an eagerness to hurl into corners fast and slow.”

May 1993

On February 12 in France, Porsche unveiled the highest-performance regular-production car ever to be offered for sale in America: the 1994 911 Turbo 3.6. Still rear engined, still rear drive, it develops an astounding 355 horsepower and 384 pound-feet of torque. READ MORE >>

August 1998

In the past four years, we've tested more than 70 production cars that could top 150 mph. So when we cooked up this brutal test, we invited back seven of them. Our entrants were chosen to cover a variety of price classes and body styles. The Acura NSX, the Chevy Corvette, the Dodge Viper GTS, and the Porsche 911 Carrera represented variations on the purpose-built sports-car theme. It should come as no surprise that the Viper won the stock class outright. READ MORE >>

November 1998

What We Said: “What does a car have to offer to justify a price of nearly $160,000? The car pictured here, the Mosler Raptor, is Warren Mosler’s vision of such a machine. . . . It holds promise: The power is breathtaking, and it can round corners deftly-smooth corners, at least. But a short drive begs questions. What’s with the obstinate shifter, the schizo throttle? Why is the interior so crude? How come the doors don’t fit? What’s with the minivan steering wheel? . . . When we shifted to second gear, still without touching the throttle, the car magically continued building speed until 2000 rpm was achieved, like some kind of inbred cruise control. Editor-in-chief Csere reported, ‘In traffic, you gotta be on your toes to avoid hitting the car in front of you.’ It felt as though the motor had some software built into the engine-management computer that says, ‘I will not stall!’ . . . Other cars that are just as swift as the Raptor are leagues ahead in polish and comfort.”

January 1997

What We Said: “There are two things you should know about the Ferrari F50. First, no one we know in all of the world has measured its performance. Second, it doesn’t matter if you’re richer than Ted and Jane; you can’t buy one. . . . [I]f there did exist some Oliver Stone–style conspiracy to keep us from measuring an F50, no one had explained its purpose. The lone theory ever posited, at least for publication, came from a dealer who would only speak anonymously. ‘Understand that Ferrari, the company, has a big ego,’ he said. ‘And the F50 probably isn’t as fast as the F40. I’m sure it would prefer this go unsaid.’ . . . The F50’s [194-mph] top speed is shy of an F40’s by 3 mph. It is 8 mph below the factory’s claim. It’s also 4 mph beyond the 8500-rpm redline-a cardinal sin, except when the test driver owns the supercar in question. . . . The computer spits out some amazing figures: A 60-mph dash in 3.8 seconds. The quarter-mile in 12.1 seconds at 123 mph. . . . [T]hese times are essentially identical to the F40’s, whose twin turbos made it more difficult to launch. In fact, once beyond the quarter-mile traps, the F40 surpasses the F50 at every speed we measured. By 170 mph, the older F40-despite spotting the F50 four cylinders, 28 valves, and 35 hp-would be a full half-second ahead. More than 100 feet ahead. . . . ‘Supercars, you know, there’s always another one that’s faster,’ says [owner Andy] Evans philosophically. ‘I could buy a McLaren [F1], spend twice the money, go more than 200 mph. But to me, that’s not the point. I think Ferraris are the greatest sports cars on earth-I wouldn’t race anything else.’ ”

May 1991

What We Said: “Although the W8’s styling is about fifteen years old, the car is still an ocular magnet. Its snout is higher and longer than the current fashion and the body creases are too sharp, but like the late Lamborghini Countach, the Vector has timeless visual appeal. . . . The 3680-pound Vector is quick, with the twin-turbocharged 6.0-liter V-8 building boost and thrust quickly. Above 4000 rpm, the push is strong enough to make Vector’s claim of 625 hp believable. . . . [Eventually, one of the Vectors] is running strong. Its temperature stays in the low 200s and there is no sign of detonation. After four runs, our best 0-to-60 time is 3.8 seconds, and we measure a standing quarter-mile in twelve seconds flat at 118 mph. Those times are good enough to edge out a Ferrari F40. There was room to go faster, but the car refused to upshift into third gear and the engine was hitting its rev limiter well short of its 7000-rpm redline. . . . Will the Vector satisfy the demanding supercar buyer? Perhaps.”

July 1997

What We Said: “Speed secrets aren’t the only thing Porsche has learned in its decades as a builder of high-performance cars. The company has also learned that some folks are just plain too rich to be satisfied with a sports car that costs only, say, $105,000. That’s the price of the 911 Turbo. So, for this especially needy group, in this last year of the old 911, Porsche has cooked up a ‘limited run’ of $163,000 models called 911 Turbo S. . . . In the higher gears, turbo lag is noticeable, but hardly a problem. A change down to fourth makes short work of semis out on the blacktop. More like no work at all, actually, as the needle swings from 60 past 100 while clearing a rolling 18-wheeler.”

July 1995

It's the kind of formula you'd concoct in high-school study hall. Take a chassis four inches shorter than a Jeep Wrangler's, then install a twin-turbo engine with, say, 400 horsepower hung way the hell behind the rear wheels. The result should be something akin to a golf cart powered by two General Electric turbines-the sort of car that would crash as you backed it out of your driveway. READ MORE >>