During the L.A. Auto Show, Dodge unveiled its 2008 Viper SRT10 ACR (American Club Racer) – a street-legal racecar. The vehicle features an aluminum V-10 engine that produces 600-horsepower and 560 lb.-ft. of torque.
In order to really tear off, you have to actually tear out.
To minimize the car’s weight, Dodge indicates consumers can opt for the “Hard Core” package, which eliminates the audio system, under hood silencer pad, trunk carpet and tire inflator.
Dodge says the ACR will cost “under $100,000″ which to my way of thinking could very well end up translating to $99,999. The SRT10 ACR arrives in the second quarter of 2008. With a base Viper coupe running about $87,000, a $10-12,000 track pack is not totally unreasonable for a car on which racing stripes alone are a whopping $3000 option.
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Unlike the average car off a showroom floor a lot of that pricing info is merely ‘bait’. A new Viper rarely sells for less than the sticker price and in many cases it sells for several thousand more just for the simple fact that the “average” Viper buyer really isn’t interested in cost. The real enticement is seeing it sitting there on the showroom floor ready to be driven. When I bought mine it was nothing more than, “That’s something I could get used to. Honey write the man a check. My wife said, “He told me to write the check for this much and not a penny more.” Ten minutes later I smoked the tires right off the showroom floor.
What I have learned is that in the time it takes me to spend half a day getting hustled by some guy in the “heat room” of some dealership I can be doing something a lot more constructive not to mention profitable. What’s the old saying about, “If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.” This is just one more reason they are required to charge us a $5000 gas guzzling tax.. simply because nobody objects.
Over the years as a collector and on the incoming side of the service counter of auto repair shops I have seen countless times where someone had a car they could not afford to maintain. Getting a loan to buy it’s easy but can you afford it. Now before I give the wrong impression let me tell you I have done the same thing countless times. As a matter of fact it was those hard to face facts that led me to the harsh realization that if I ever wanted to afford those types of toys I was going to have to figure out one of two things. Either I was going to have to learn how to pick locks or make the money to afford the toys. I chose the later and never looked back. This is typically the case with most purchasers of high end cars. Price is simply not an issue.
The good news is pound for pound (dollar for dollar) there is no better buy than a Dodge Viper. For less than $100k you get a car that is within a few miles per hour of any $100,000,000 car and can do many things they cannot. What was really fun was when I bought my 97 GTS coupe not only was it covered under warranty but in fact Dodge would fly a team of tech’s out to California, remove my motor and put it in special crate and take it back to their headquarters, trick it out and then fly back out and reinstall it in time for the next race. Oh, excuse me… did I say race? I meant to say high performance driving event.
Unlike most Viper owners who buy them as in “investment” (get real) and then place them in a “car condom” in the garage I drove mine on the track every single chance I got and my son became the youngest licensed race car driver in the U.S. in that very car at the ripe old age of 13. After I put 100,000 brutal miles on it I sold it for more than I paid for it simply because the man that wanted it said he wanted one with some race history.
In the racing world they have earned the nickname, “Doctor Killers” simply because doctors can afford them but like many other who buy then they can’t handle the car and end up doing something stupid.
If I had it to do all over again I would buy the stripped model and no plates.
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