DODGE VIPER
LONG, LOW AND BRUTALLY QUICK, THE VIPER WAS NEVER ACCUSED OF BEING SUBTLE
THIS PROBABLY ISN’T the car for the shy and retiring type, which is one reason why it gained so much notoriety over its model life. And we doubt this is about having the absolute fastest track weapon in the world. Owning a Dodge Viper, we reckon, is about having a car that lifts the pulse rate.
This was one of those weird anomalies in the long history of the Dodge brand, where parent Chrysler suddenly got a sudden rush of blood to the head.
What we ended up with was very American in some respects, despite the Lamborghinideveloped V10 powerplant. We’re talking a fibreglass body on a long-nosed missile that had the twin attributes of a big engine shoe-horned into a relatively light car.
In this case we’re talking an eight-litre powerplant in a 1500kg unit.
It was initially built as a roadster from January 1992. By the time this R/T10 GTS version rolled around in 1996 it was claiming 450 horses (335kW ) at 5200rpm and 660Nm of torque at 3700. Enough to make it very quick.
Some five generations of the car were developed, with countless variants along
the way. They were: SR I – 1991-95, SR II – 1996-2002, ZB I – 2003-07, ZB II – 2008-10 and VX – 2013-17. Those generations represented some significant technical upgrades, along with modifications to the overall shape of the beast.
Several third-party cars were developed off the platform, most notably the Alfa Romeo Zagato TZ3 Stradale and the Bristol Fighter. We’re talking production numbers of just nine and 13 respectively.
Incredibly, the Viper also had its own eponymous TV show. It was a California-based crime-fighting series, set in a fictional city of the future, where a hi-tech Viper was a prime crime-fighting tool. Think ‘KITT’ on steroids. It ran for four seasons and, thanks to corporate backing, featured an awful lot Chryslers.
Perhaps more significantly, the car has starred in numerous digital games across the decades.