Dodge Viper's last hurrah?
While the 2010 model sets a new track record, more details emerge on next-gen American supercarDodge has promised to kill the brand's iconic sportscar, the Viper, later this year and then resurrect it in three years. Just what form that new Viper will take is starting to emerge form the company.
Speaking as the 2010 Viper SRT10 ACR secured a new track record at California's Laguna Seca Raceway, Dodge President and CEO, Ralph Gilles, admitted that the 2012 reborn Viper would rely on input from new sibling brands Ferrari and Maserati. But Gilles stressed that earlier reports that the Viper would be based on a Ferrari/Maserati platform were wide of the mark.
"We're going to keep Dodge's performance icon alive and well by not only producing some of the most special Vipers ever built, but we're also investigating what the next-generation Viper is going to be," Gilles said. "When we have partners across the ocean who are known as the best sports carmakers in the world, the future opportunities are huge."
Asked outright by American publication Autoweek about the connections between Dodge and Ferrari, Gilles was blunt.
"Ferrari is Ferrari, Viper is Viper. Please don't go there," he said.
Gilles did reveal some details about the 2010 Viper that will officially be launched at next month's Los Angeles Motor Show. The final 500 examples of the V10 coupe will feature interior upgrades, new colour and decal options, a shorter fifth gear ratio, short throw shifter and changes to the rear wing.
The changes helped Dodge SRT vehicle dynamics engineer Chris Winkler guide the Viper SRT10 ACR (which stands for American Club Racer) to a new claimed production car lap record of 1:33.915sec around the Laguna Seca earlier this week.
"It was definitely exciting but a somewhat uneventful lap overall from behind the steering wheel," Winkler said. "The Dodge Viper ACR has amazing power and handles like a dream, so following my first practice here last month, I came away pretty confident that we'd be able to set a new record."
The confidence probably stemmed from the fact the previous record holder was the Dodge Viper-based Devon GTX and prior to that it was... a Dodge Viper!
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