ONCE BITTEN; No one wants an antidote for the Viper's venom.(Auto File)(Product/Service Evaluation)

If you're lucky enough to own a Dodge Viper, you already know the car does something to you. It seems to make you want more-as in more than one. Every owner that responded to our AutoFile survey has plunked down cash for multiple copies of the now 11-year-old car, and most garage more than one. As one owner put it, "Once you've been bitten, no other snake will do.''

The Viper SRT-10 certainly makes a compelling argument to that end. With its much-vaunted 500 horsepower and 525 lb-ft of torque out of 505 cubic inches of displacement, no other car under $100K can get within spitting distance of the Viper's numbers, and you'll hardly need time at a track to learn how brutally the SRT-10 will perform. But for all its beastliness, what the track will tell you is how amazing the Viper comports itself.

Our tight, 490-foot, eight-cone slalom tends to punish cars of size. Smaller, more nimble cars tend to do as well as-or better than-larger, sporty cars. For example, the Ford SVT Focus turned in a fastest 47.3-mph run, bettering the 46.0-mph run of the BMW M3. So in most cases we stick to comparing cars of like size when looking at slalom numbers.

The Viper SRT-10 blows all of that thinking away. At 49.0 mph, the Viper has not only taken over the title of quickest through the slalom, but nothing we've tested even comes close. The now-relegated-to-second-best Porsche 911 Turbo only reached 48.1 mph (recently matched by the Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution).

Sure, its massive, super-sticky Michelin Pilot Sports can take some of the credit for its superb handling, but a car of the Viper's size and heft (75.2 inches wide, 175.6 inches long and 3357 pounds) must have the right mechanicals to keep that rubber firmly planted. And planted the Viper stays, its stiff four-wheel multilink independent suspension keeping the body almost flat around the cones. Consider, too, that the Viper pulled 0.97 gs on the skidpad, staying perfectly glued to the tarmac and producing negligible body roll. That's not just the tires at work, folks.

Believe it or not, it gets better: ...