Back in January I bought my 2002 Viper GTS Final Edition from a dealership in Montreal. Faced with the problem of how to get it from Quebec to my home in British Columbia I had the choice of shipping it (boring) or driving it (fun). So the plan was hatched to wait for Canada to unthaw (this takes longer in some parts than others), and then to fly out to Montreal Quebec and drive it home to BC on a cross Canada road trip/adventure.

Waiting five and a half months till I was sure we wouldn’t get fluke snow was tedious, but ultimately well worth the wait. May 18th My Wife and I flew out of our little Fort St. John airport, transferred through Vancouver and landed in Montreal around midnight. After checking in to our Holiday Inn the Wifey was hungry, room service had ended, and because it was a long weekend/holiday pratically everything in Montreal was closed. So we jumped in a cab and directed the driver to find the closest 24hour Mcdonalds (you can always count on McDonalds). What ensued was a two hour guided tour of Montreal at night. My wife and I had never been to Montreal before and our cabbie showed us some of the highlights; Notre Dame cathedral, Old Montreal, St. Josephs cathedral, shopping districts, parliament buildings, the list goes on…and all while noming on McDonalds which we eventually found somewhere in Old Montreal. Considering our tight schedule and plans to be in Toronto the next day it was really a great fluke that we such a great cab driver who killed his meter and showed us all over the place for $100 bucks…we really wouldn’t have seen much of Montreal if we hadn’t ventured out that night.

Anyways back to the car…after breakfast we caught a cab over to Clairview Motors (who were excellent to deal with by the way…ask for Albert). I could see my Viper parked out front before the cab even got there…it looked amazing! As I walked around it looking it over I was delighted with my purchase…the paint was perfect, the wheels were almost perfect (a little bit of rash on the passenger rear), the interior was spotless and everything else (exhaust, stereo, engine bay) was all super clean and looking pretty much brand new.
At this point the car had 12,200 miles on it 19,500 kilometres for those on metric system (the cars odometer reads in miles because it was imported from the States in 2003). Everything at the dealer had already been taken car of so I just took it for a quick test drive to make sure it ran good and we threw our duffel bags in the trunk, shook some hands and hit the road.

Over the next 10 days (we spent 3 day in Toronto) we drove from Montreal to Toronto, and from there we stopped over in Sault Ste. Marie, Thunder bay, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary and our last night was spent in Jasper National Park before making the final push home. We covered between 550 to 800 kilometres per day, saw a lot of Canada and had a great time…here are some pics from our journey. (for some reason the pics we took in Montréal didn’t save in the camera properly so they start from northern Ontario)
A few pics by Lake Superior…this is in between Sault Ste. Marie and Thunder bay.


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I added some Canadian flags to the car for the trip...although I now think there a permanent fixture because they got a lot of positive comments

Me looking smug

We found a great view at a rest stop…still Lake Superior






This little town who’s name escapes me on the way to Thunder bay had these HUGE geese every were, so a pic was in order


Cool old rusted out tractor in the same little town

A boarded up old building I took some pics in front of


Wifey and I at the Terry Fox Memorial outside Thunder Bay


Getting further north between Thunder Bay and Winnipeg


@ the parliament buildings in Winnipeg




You can see the flood waters haven’t receded completely yet (Manitoba had huge flooding this spring)



Wifey huggin one of Winnipegs painted bears…Hey! I think that bears coppin a feel!

Bears checking out the ride

 

Entering prairie country

Nomin on ice cream

Regina

Heading for Calgary
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Pics on the plains







Heading into the Rockies (Banff and onto Jasper)

Wifey looking pretty



I was surprised the water is still frozen in places


Some shots @ the Columbia Ice Fields (a big glacier that famous in these parts)



This monster rig is used to take tours out onto the glacier

This big horned mountain sheep didn’t even care we were rumbling by



On the back deck of the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge were we spent our last night of the trip

Parked out front of the Fairmont…no valet drivers for my baby

Starting to head out of the mountains around Grand Cache

Arriving in my driveway 3450 miles later…the end of our trip



I quick review on the Viper...Its fantastic! No problems the whole trip, great on the highways (21mpg), good in the rain…I was actually surprised by its poise in the wet, I could break my NSX loose with ease, but the huge Michelins on the Viper needed a lot of left foot to break traction (not OEM they are one year old). The seats were comfy and supportive even on the longer 8 hour days. The car has full BB headers and exhaust and it makes a great noise…way better than stock. It drones a bit but it is easy to avoid by keeping the revs in the right range. Clutch travel is a little long, but not heavy at all…even getting stuck in bumper to bumper rush hour traffic downtown Toronto was’nt much of a headache. It does like to hunt around for ruts in the road surface. This is my first time in a car with tires this large so I’m not sure if that’s normal or not, but its minor and I can still easily do everything with one hand or even my fingers…it just requires more attention than some cars when making lane changes and passing. I had it up to 160mph and it was rock solid, the steering is super direct and after the connected feeling of the viper other cars I jump in feel very vague. Lastly I’m pleased with how well dampened the ride is…I test drove a Corvette C6 Z06 a year ago and dear god…I went over a set of train tracks and thought the car was gunna break…comparatively the Viper is very smooth and handles imperfections and bumps quite well for a car that handles like it does. I think people who complain about Vipers being archaic are weird. Not the most sophisticated car by any means…but far from the beast many make it out to be.

From an attention point of view all I’ve gotten so far is positive, lots of people wondering what it is, lots of waves and thumbs up, we got randomly flashed by a girl on a sidewalk (that was a first)…no hater issues, no wanna be ricers trying to race, anyone I gave rides to thought it was awesome. A quote from a friend “the way it throws your head back at 100 km/hr is awesome”…I replied “uhh, that was 100 mph J”.

Its been lots of fun…So after having put more miles on in twenty days then some people put on there cars in three years, over 4000 miles and counting, I plan to just keep driving the hell out of it…I’m not into garage queens.


Falken

 

Great writeup and nice pix. What's that green building above the monster rig pic? Good choice doing the X-country thing.

 

Nice pics man. Looks like you had fun.

 

Very nice cant blame the bear Im looking at a SRT10 coupe here by the end of the year to keep the Z company.

R.

 

Sweet FE. Any plans on mods ie wheels/drop or um.........turbos lol.

 

now that's a road trip done in style

 

Beautiful pics. Looks like a great time.

 

Awesome pics and write up. I plan to eventually do the same thing but start in your neck of the woods and drive back to Toronto with a clean old school west coast car. I know a few people that have done it and they all say its a road trip of a life time.

 

Very nice story and pics. Your Viper looks great! Glad you are enjoying it. It's rare to see/hear about someone taking their car on such an epic journey. Good job!

 

Great job. Love the pics. We just got back from Kelowna in the turbos (3 of us) and Cali in the GT's (again 3 of us). Epic drives are SO much more fun than just cruising around the city. You planning on tracking her?

PS - I like the Canada flags, especially the Maple Leaf on the hood.

 

Thanks for the great replies guys...we had a great time. I do have some plans for light mods on the car...i'm not big into adding huge power...but a drop and maybe some wheels could be in the future (its already got headers/exhaust taken care of). I dont have serious track day plans for the car...but if the odd opportunity arose to get the car out on a track and really push it came up i wouldn't hesitate for a second.

I'm not sure if GTS stands for Grand Tourer Sport or not...but it did a great job of it either way. I plan to do more long drives in the future, i'm heading for kelowna and maybe on to Vancouver this summer and i wouldn't mind doing a late summer drive up to Alaska...i more miles i spend in that car that happier i am.