Gotta love comments from people with no experience in owning both vehicles. I've had my C6 and now the Viper, but I'll say other than the paint, brakes, and seats on the Viper, the Corvette is a nicer and better built car. All C5s and C6s are hand built, not just the Z06. They roll on an assembly line together (been there three times) and are assembled by workers at each station. The Z06 doesn't get special treatment, it is assembled just like the rest of them. Being in Bowling Green, KY, the majority of the workers aren't illegal immigrants either. They have a lot of pride in that plant, and local people wait for years to get the union jobs in the Corvette plant.
Back to the ZR-1. Don't get silly with comparing peak HP numbers, because that supercharged 6.2L has tons more area under the torque and HP curves. It
will humiliate an '08 Viper from a dig or a roll, count on it. Peak HP bench racing is dumb, compare the curves below and figure it out for yourselves.
But, I also agree that I'm a little disappointed with the visuals on the ZR-1. As soon as the base/Z06 owners get their hands on the GM parts numbers for those splitters, hood, wheels etc... you will see 1000s of carbon-copies of this car rolling around. It offers pretty much zero exclusivity or WOW factor. They really should have changed a few things to set this car apart from the Z06, perhaps with stuff that wasn't easily (or cheaply) copied for the lower models.
-Should have had some pricey forged billet wheels on it. That makes people cough up big bucks to copy them, instead of cast wheels which will be copied in China for $700/set.
-Should have changed the tail panel, integrated the spoiler into it and maybe changed the shape of the tail lights to a more rectangular shape (like the C4 ZR-1) to set it apart.
-Change the shape of the headlights and nose cover, to make swapping more expensive and a hassle to do for the base model cars.