John Neff at Autoblog reported on August 27th that Chrysler’s halo car, the Dodge Viper, may be sold to a third party. Rumors have been swirling for some time that the Viper could be canceled. In attempts to streamline their line-ups, we have already seen Chrysler discontinue the Pacifica, Crossfire (which borrowed heavily from ex-parent Daimler), PT Cruiser Convertible and the Dodge Magnum.
The Viper is a well loved car, and enjoys strong fan support as evidenced by a healthy owners club. It’s no secret the Viper has been a successful race car as well. The question now is who would buy the Viper? Neff speculates it could be a tuner, or a group of investors.
Here’s my take. Most of us have heard of Steve Saleen-he’s the guy that took everyday Ford Mustangs and turned them into serious performers. Steve sold his old company and opened SMS Limited. One of SMS’ first projects was creating a heavily massaged Dodge Challenger. Saleen will be producing these cars at a brand new facility in Orange County, California. Saleen has the know how to build specialty cars, and I feel that this would be great for the Viper.
Some of you may lament that Chrysler, looking at its balance sheet, may not be able to justify the continuation of the Viper. But if the car could be sold, and continue to be built, it is a win-win situation. I’ve been lucky enough to have tested a Viper. The car is a positive riot. But you always knew where Chrysler wasn’t spending money on the car, and it showed. It made the car feel less special. I hated that the key fob was no different that that of a Dodge Stratus. The leather was of pretty poor quality. Cheap plastics, interior squeaks and rattles took away from the experience. A specialty builder like Saleen could address all these weak points, and still retain the sheer outrageousness that the Viper embodies.
The Viper has so much street cred it can easily stand on its own. The absence of a Dodge badge will not take anything away from the car. Dodge has little to lose here, since the car was sold and marketed almost on its own anyhow. To the boy-racer buying a Caliber SRT4, the loss of the Viper won’t make a difference. As Sting used to sing, if you love somebody, set them free. If this sale does happen, we owe a debt of gratitude to Chrysler for not taking the easy way out and just shuttering the Viper factory and throwing away the plans.
The Viper has served its purpose, it was the ideal halo car for Chrysler in the early 90’s…it was Bob Lutz that instigated the Viper at the time.
Today the Viper is a little too far behind the times compared to other cars in the segment, at some point Chrysler stopped developing the Viper.
In the early 90’s it was quite a ride….they would light up the 315’s in a blink.
Hennesy would be a prospect…
The Viper did exactly what it was supposed to do. It served as the flag-ship for Dodge, set all kinds of records, dominated every series it competed in, at a mere $80,000 it could perform at the level of almost every production car in the world in all aspects including cars that cost hundreds of thousands more. Like the Cobra, the Viper was never intended to be a daily driver with all the comfort levels like the Corvette and if it were not for the Viper the Vette would still be as mondain as it was. When you want performance who needs quite? In the world of racing and athletic performance nothing gets better until the thermostat is turned up and that’s exactly what the Viper did.
As for the key fob… I have driven my Viper over 90,000 both on the track and on the highway and not once did I ever leave it anywhere that required the use of an alarm but something that I did think was very cool was the key with the Viper engraved in it. To my knowledge there isn’t another car with one as cool at that.
Viper… It came, It Conquered, It became history, just like Shelby’s other creations.
@Strada
“Today the Viper is a little too far behind the times compared to other cars in the segment”
Completely untrue. Viper is the fastest car around Nürburgring, beating cars that cost several times more than the ACR. Have a look: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nordschleife_fastest_lap_times
viper what a car hardley changed in its looks just bought into the times enegh but not takeing away that unmistakeable viper body
have and allways will hold the dodge viper at the top of the best cars list ever
I have 6 vipers im a collecter.