After months of attempts to convince almost anybody within earshot to purchase the Viper brand from the fiscally challenged automaker; Chrysler has finally found a partner, although the deal had to work its way around a number of issues before coming to fruition.
The aforementioned issues included government intervention, restraining orders, and Supreme Court rulings - regarding the sale of Chrysler to Fiat, the two manufacturers have finally made hurdled all obstacles. As a result of this deal Chrysler now turns over to Fiat a number of its businesses, one of which is the Dodge Viper.
This, of course, comes a few weeks after Chrysler put the Viper on the market and much to their dismay, found out that it wasn’t so much of a bullish market as it was ‘no market at all’. The general tepid reaction towards the Viper’s sale reached a point where only one company –Devon Motorworks – made an attempted bid of…wait for it…$5.5 million!
Fortunately for Chrysler, Fiat swooped down and saved them and the Viper from a rather embarrassing fall from grace. Remember, it wasn’t that long ago when the Viper celebrated the production of its 25,000th car after a successful 17-year run as one of the most sought after sports cars in America.
Bad news everybody, this current economic situation has already taken a toll on the American automobile industry, dreams of a comeback for the GTO are gone, now there will never be another Firebird, but now you can chalk up a loss for Mopar fans as well, because the most powerful drift machine that was supposed to compete in Formula DRIFT never will.
We all know that the automobile industry isn’t doing too well due to the current economic climate. In an attempt to save whatever money they can, some manufacturers have shifted production away from sports cars while others have dropped their high performance divisions all together. The latest victim of these cutbacks is the sport of drifting. Due to their current fiscal situation, Mopar, Chrysler’s high performance division, has been forced to terminate their sponsorship and support of the “Crazy Swede” Samuel Hubinette and Shaun Carlson’s NuFormz Racing, the California based tuner responsible for the Mopar Drift Viper that was competing in the Formula D series here in the U.S.
It is a shame that Mopar would decide to cancel their drift program right as the season was getting started; especially because the team was running 4th in the points. Sam finished second at the opener in Long Beach and only made it to the round of 16 at Road Atlanta, but for the two-time Formula D Champion with 16 career wins, bouncing back to the top would not have been difficult.
Now this guy has patience. Take two GT3 racecars, a Porsche 911 and a Dodge Viper, put them on the track and wait to see what happens. As the onboard footage from the V10 powered piece of American iron shows, the Viper driver chased down the German flat six for almost 10 minutes before making his move.
Back in August Chrysler announced plans spinoff the Dodge Viper and sell it as its own brand. Now Chrysler President Jim Press confirms that there are three offers to turn the supercar into its own brand name.
Chrysler needs to submit a restructuring plan to the U.S. Treasury by February 17 and demonstrate its longer-term viability by March 31 in order to preserve a $4 billion federal loan. Getting a few bucks for a spectrality supercar will be a good step in showing that Chrysler is spending wisely.
So what’s in store for the Viper’s new future? We can’t be sure because the sale will likely happen beyond the March 31st deadline. But in a time when plenty of cool/fast/fun cars are in trouble, we are just happy that the Viper has a future.
The 2008 Viper ACR was recently put on the Dyno for a little testing. According to the results, there was 546 hp and 510 lbs-ft of torque to the rear wheels. With a 15 percent driveline loss this represents an engine that puts out 642 hp and 600 lbs-ft at the crank. Dodge’s claimed rating for the Viper ACR is only 600 hp. So either someone had a little fun with the engine or the good ’ol days of manufacturers underrating horsepower is back!
We had no trouble keeping the Dodge Viper in our test fleet on the road, so why can’t everyone else? Yesterday Wrecked Exotics showed us one in Texas, and now we found this one close to our Miami offices.
This 2008 Dodge Viper SRT-10 Coupe died on a test drive. The car is so new it still has some protective wrapping on the interior and the window sticker is still affixed. It only has seven miles on the odometer.
The Viper does have pretty severe case of road rash, but the $38,000 discount over the sticker price should help relieve some anxiety. Any takers?
Sometimes moderation is okay. When Dodge handed us the keys to a Viper for our fleet, we returned it in the pristine condition. Unfortunately the same cannot be said for this unlucky owner in northwest Texas. Reports have the driver taking this curve at about 140 mph, and well, the result is obvious.
Back in December Hurst announced that it would celebrate its 50th anniversary with a special edition Dodge Viper. It will be limited to only 50 units, and the very first of them will be auctioned this Saturday at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale auction.
The production Hurst/Viper vehicles will feature the new Hurst HARD-DRIVE gold anodized pistol-grip shifter, Hurst 19" and 20" polished aluminum wheels, Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 tires, Corsa exhaust and Moton Club Sport adjustable coil-over suspension with Eibach springs. The interior features a special Katzkin charcoal leather with Hurst embroidered logos, gold thread detailing and perforated leather inserts. In honor of the Golden Anniversary the vehicle will be available exclusively in Hurst’s legendary color combinations of Black with Gold stripes and White with Gold stripes. HURST/Vipers are available for individual order though Hurst Performance Vehicles and Woodhouse Dodge.
Partial proceeds will go to Victory Junction, a year-round camping facility for children for chronic medical conditions or serious illnesses. We really liked the Viper in our test fleet, so a Hurst modified one must be even better.
Lookie what we got here. The Dodge boys decided to drop off their ultimate pavement pounder on our doorstep. They must have really liked our review of the Challenger SRT8 for us to deserve this reward.
When the Dodge Viper first showed up in 1992, it was the meanest thing around. It looked mean and sounded mean, so it was trivial why many people were surprised when the Viper had a mean attitude.
The original car was meant to be out in the elements. The car had side curtains and a fabric roof that was only meant for temporary duty, just like the open top versions Lamborghini Murcielago and Bugatti Veryon.
The Viper wasn’t ashamed of what it was, the American roadster. The Viper was designed to be the spiritual successor to the Shelby Cobra, but the public decided that modern cars needed modern conveniences. So over the 17 years Dodge has kept its snake in production there has been a little softening. But don’t think this is a compromised car. This is a pure sports car, which means we have no complaints.
One of less exploited benefits of the DaimlerChrysler marriage was McLaren sprinkling a little bit of it magic over the Chrysler line-up. Unlike Carroll Shelby, it seems McLaren was not willing to soil its name by a few hopped-up economy cars. The only exception to this was when the racecar maker laid its hands on the Dodge Viper for American Specialty Cars (ASC).
The ASC Diamondback Viper was first shown at the Detroit Auto Show in 2006, and now three years later it can be taken home by the first person to cough up $295,000. The car includes a carbon fiber roof, deck lid, rockers, fascia inserts, body trim and hood with ten Can-Am style trumpeted air intakes. This all resulted in the in about 85 lbs of savings, which results in a car that goes from 0-60 in about 3.5 seconds (about the same as a factory-fresh $85,000 2008 Dodge Viper.)
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