Above is the scatter plot of the Prive versus Engine Type (Valve Size). Notice that there are only 4 distinct levels of engine size-- those cars with a V-6 (or other type of 6-valve engine, i.e. Straight-6 or In-Line 6), V-8, V-10, and/or V-12. We can see that the Dodge Viperhas a V-10 Engine in a price range that should, according to the trend lines provided, cost just over $400,000. It is interesting to note, however, that most of the cars are not on the trend-line, for example, the Lamborghini Diablo SE30 is also a good buy, while the Acura NSX-T and the Porsche 911 Turbo appear to be rather expensive for their engine sizes. This conclusion is not valid, however, because other factors must be taken into account, including car size and weight that the engine must propel. But any way you look at it, the 1997 Dodge Viper Hennessey Venom 600 GTS is an amazing buy for a V-10 engine!

Again the Dodge Viper breaks the trend-line for the Price versus Top Speed graph depicted above. We can comparatively see that a car with a top speed of 205 mph should cost close to $600,000. Most of the cars in our data follow the trend-lines of least-fit and least-squares fit pretty well, with the exception of the Lamborghini again with a higher-than-expected mark, and the Nissan GTR which has a noteably lower top speed than the competition-- this is an invalid outlier because the Nissan GTR's top speed index is digitally limited by the government's request.

Leaps in acceleration from 0-60 miles per hour (in seconds) are seen by the Porsche 911 Turbo, the Dodge Viper, and the Lamborghini. Porsche appears to be the "winner" in this category (with respect to Price), however, the Dodge Viper still contends with a definite presence.

The 1997 Dodge Viper Hennessey Venom 600 GTS again pulls the lowess curve to a low level, exemplifying its ability over the other cars in our study. A complete comment on this graph is available at the top of this page (or on the index.html page).

It appears that the quarter-mile acceleration is where the Dodge Viper shines! With respect to all other cars on the graph, the Viper should be the most expensive-- but its price is only an eigth of that of the McLaren F-1 Supercar! Dodge has created a car with enough torque and power to propel it into the lead among quarter-mile accelerators.

Sure the Viper can accelerate and has an amazing top speed, but can its 4-vented disc breaks stop the ton-and-a-half beast in a comparable breaking distance as the reast of the field? The answer according the the graph above is a definite yes! The only car to out-break it is the tiny Porsche 911 Turbo.

The Dodge Viper stands high above the rest in horsepower. The mark of a powerful car that would make even Tim Allen hoot is the "number of horses under the hood". The Viper contends only with the $830,000 McLaren F-1 Supercar in this division, but even surpasses its ability for a fraction of the cost.

The undisputed champion of all sports cars in the Torque division is the Dodge Viper. The amount of torque that the Venom V-10 Engine puts out is comparable only to racing edition supercars, and even beats NASCAR levels. It is by far the most dangerous car on the road-- and for a mere $150,000 it is a steal.

With all these features mentioned above, the Viper still remains centered in the field with an average weight for its price. We can see that the more a car costs, the lighter it becomes.

So, with all this power and the Viper's unmatched Engine, what kind of mileage will this infernal rocket get on a gallon or regular high-octane fuel? Quite surprisingly, a relatively high 12 miles to the gallon! The more "exotic" and expensive an automobile gets, there seems to be an unwritten rule which says its gas consumption increases at a comparable rate, but the 1997 Dodge Viper Hennessey Venom 600 GTS has a high Fuel Economy rating relative to its mates in Speed, Power, and Acceleration.

Probably the most descriptive of all the S-Plus graphical analyses we have discovered in this project, was the symbolic graph of the two most popular components-- Top Speed and Horsepower. In the graph below, a scatter-type plot of Top Speed verses Horsepower is depicted, with the area (size) of the circles representing the prices of the vehicles. An identify feature was included to label the automobiles.

From this graph, several interesting relations can be implicitly derived. As a conclusion to this project, we have chose the 1997 Dodge Viper Hennessey Venom 600 GTS to be the overall champion for the money. To understand why we have made this decision, note the area (size) of the circle representing the Viper in comparison to other vehicles in its neighborhood (for example, it is much smaller than that of the McLaren F-1, which costs $830,000 compared to the Viper's cost of $150,000). We can conclude that for the amount of Horsepower and the level of the Top Speed, that the 1997 Dodge Viper Hennessey Venom 600 GTS is a best buy.

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Draftsman's Plots
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For an easy comparision of all the data included in this project, we have included a generalized "draftsman's plot" below. This graph will allow you to look at any specification versus any other specification (i.e. Top Speed versus Torque or Braking versus Weight). For your convenience, we have also included a special feature which has circled all the data points for the 1997 Dodge Viper Hennessey Venom 600 GTS so you can more easily compare the Viper with the overall trend of high-performance cars we have analyzed.

From this graph we can see the many ways that the Viper exercises superiority over the other cars included in our analysis of the world's best high-performance vehicles. At the bottom, I have also included the command line in S-Plus for the construction of this generalized draftsman's display so future S-Plus programmers can try this out for themselves. Again, special features were added on Paint Shop Pro for ease of understanding.

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