Ask the right people, the racers, the track junkies, the people who have driven many and know much. Ask them what is one of the best track cars on the market and many will tell you it’s the Dodge Viper ACR Coupe. With its 645hp V10 engine, reduced weight, stiff adjustable suspension, carbon ceramic brakes, and crazy aerodynamics, it’s pretty much a GT car with a VIN number and a license plate bracket.
But unfortunately 2017 is the last year for this beast of a car. FCA is unceremoniously killing it and replacing it with an overweight drag car as their halo car. And that’s a damn shame because there won’t be another one like it, ever. To celebrate the end of this era, Pennzoil created automotive porn video featuring the Viper in all its fire-spitting and tire-smoking glory. Enjoy.
Video: The Last Dodge Viper
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8 responses to “Video: The Last Dodge Viper”
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A daring heist to steal a yellow, American made supercar referred to as ‘her’? Is there a nod to to H.B. Halicki’s Gone in 60 Seconds here? Remember the first Eleanor was returned to her owner in Halicki’s film, because a Repo Man has to live by a code.
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I can’t figure out why you would take a halo car that sticks like glue to the road and replace it with a car that’s arguably only designed to go in a straight line?
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Because amortized development costs?
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That makes sense but the Viper’s been around since 1992 (excluding 2010-13); 1989 if you include the prototype. I would think 25 years would be enough to amortize the Viper even with the smaller sales numbers. Of course, it was also one of the few cars to have its own TV series. That says halo to me much more than the Demon.
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Except Viper was pretty significantly redesigned for ’03 and ’13, and also it appears that less than 32,000 Vipers were made in its entire production run, while Dodge sold twice as many Challengers last year alone (to say nothing of the hundreds of thousands of Chargers/300s sold each year).
Also, I think unfortunately the Viper never managed to overtake the Corvette in notoriety, and never really managed to win over the Porsche Uber Alles types who might value a hard-charging track car. Plus, the Hellcat and Demon are both really good at being summarized in really simple terms that appeals to the non-enthusiast types, and have a very direct connection to more affordable equivalents.-
The Viper was certainly the anti-Corvette. It reveled in its rawness and brutality whereas the Corvette moved evermore toward refined power and handling.
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I’m not gonna lie, I read all of that in Dominic “Ask any racer, any real racer…” Toretto’s voice.
And, admittedly, as a 90’s kid, I had a Viper poster on my wall (one of the 1rst gens that won LeMans), and I will likely be checking Auto Trader shortly for ones I still can’t afford. -
“I can’t figure out why you would take a halo car that sticks like glue to the road and replace it with a car that’s arguably only designed to go in a straight line?
The answer is really pretty simple, and even makes sense in a sort of way if you think about it. The Viper was a Chrysler Company product. The Chrysler company no longer exists. Dodge is a brand of FCA corporation. The emphasis of that brand is “American style cars” with “American style performance”. Just as you don’t expect Jeep to build a four door sedan, or Dodge to build a Rubicon Style off-roader, Dodge won’t build any sports cars. FCA has another brand for that market, and that brand Is Alfa Romeo. FWIW Alfa Romeo won’t be building any more dragsters, though, so it’s all fair, see?
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