04-08-2010, 03:02 AM
It’s been 18 years since the first Dodge Viper rolled off the assembly line. It was big, red, rancorous and unlike anything the automotive world had ever seen, and with it’s 400hp V10 engine it was poised to take on the world. Back then the Viper was a true concept car for the street, hell, when first released it didn’t have door handles, windows or a roof. It was raw and as powerful as you could get, while at the same time being oh so quintessentially American.
Now in its fourth generation Dodge has finally decided to bid the big bad snake farewell, but not without sending it off in style. 50 “Final Edition” Vipers will be built. 20 Coupes, 18 Roadsters and 12 ACRs. The Viper captivates everything that we have come to love in an American super car. As a true performance machine the Viper is the stuff that little boys dream of. It’s a hooligan in every sense of the word and makes no bones about its persona.
Contrary to the wash of fantastic, extremely inaccurate reports currently making their way around the web detailing the tragic demise of the iconic Dodge Viper, Chrysler has no intention of killing off the supercharged snake. Heavily revising it beyond the point of recognition, yes, killing it, not exactly.
As detailed during the 6-hour press conference hosted by Chrysler yesterday, the Dodge Viper as we currently know it will cease production in 2010 and be replaced by a Fiat-engineered successor in 2012. What has sparked the deluge of rumors are the suggestions that the new Viper will be such only in theory and bear little (if any) resemblance to the Viper of today.
Fiat has not confirmed anything beyond the production timetable and some sources doubt the new performance Dodge will even carry the Viper nameplate. Some are scandalized by the idea of corrupting the Viper’s Americana design while others look hopefully towards Fiat’s performance brands, Maserati and Ferrari, as a preview of the mysterious replacement to come.
If you’ve got a need to own a brand new, dealer-purchased Dodge Viper, you’d better get your financing in order quickly. Unconfirmed rumors seem to indicate that the last production run of the 10 cylinder, 600 horsepower Corvette fighter will start by the end of the month. This makes sense, since dealers have already begun accepting orders for the “Final Edition” models.
If the rumored replacement for the Viper is still in the cards, we won’t see it until the 2012 or 2013 model year. Given Dodge’s current financial situation and new ownership, I suspect they’ll have to move a whole lot of Fiats to justify the expense of a new high performance image car. Speaking for gear heads everywhere, I hope it happens.