This is Your Last Chance to Order a New Dodge Viper
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles will offer five limited-edition versions of the 2017 Dodge Viper before it brings the axe down on the model.
Orders kick off on June 24 for the V10-powered performance beast, with FCA cranking out up to 217 units before it puts an end to the model’s 25-year run. The model bows out the same way it came in — brash, colorful, and obsessed with performance history.
All new Vipers come with the familiar (and monstrous) 8.4-liter V10 engine, making 645 horsepower and 600 lb-ft. of torque.
The Viper 1:28 Edition ACR pays tribute to the record lap time set at California’s famed Laguna Seca Raceway in October 2015. The lap time (1:28.65) was set by Randy Pobst, driving a 2016 Viper ACR. All black, with a painted wing and red ACR stripes and Extreme Aero Package, the 1:28 edition sees numerous other goodies added to the package. Up to 28 will be built.
The Viper GTS-R Commemorative Edition ACR is the high-volume version, with up to 100 units on tap. It brings back the blue-and-white paint scheme from the 1998 Viper GTS-R GT2 Championship Edition.
The Viper VoooDoo II Edition ACR (no, that’s not a typo) sees 31 examples, the same as an earlier version (missing one ‘o’) built in 2010. It’s black, too, but with metallic stripes.
It’s the rarest version that gets all the hype. The Viper Snakeskin Edition GTC — a name that conjures up images of cougar bars and the film Escape from L.A. — comes in Snakeskin Green with a snakeskin pattern SRT stripe. Only 25 will be made.
Then there’s the Dodge Dealer Edition ACR, which doesn’t sound nearly as sexy as Snakeskin. The all-white version also piles on the goodies, but it’s only available through Tomball Dodge of Tomball, Texas, and Roanoke Dodge of Roanoke, Illinois (the country’s highest volume Viper dealers).
And after this run, it’s all over. The model that entered the world as former Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca was leaving the company takes a dirt nap. FCA doesn’t have time for the model anymore, and buyers don’t seem to have the money or enthusiasm — the Viper’s best production year was 1994, two years after it appeared, and recent sales were less than half of what they were a decade ago.
The Viper’s departure also means the death of the V10 engine in FCA’s portfolio. The 1990s are now truly over.
[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]
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The fact that this article uses a picture of the last-gen, 2003-2010 Viper, instead of the current car that's been around since 2013, tells me just how little anyone cares. Sad. I actually had to Google what the current car looked like, because I had forgotten. The market for the Viper was always going to be very limited, but FCA did an exceptionally poor job promoting it as a halo car.
Had I the money, an ACR would be in my garage in place of the Cobra replica. It would be both a step up in comfort and performance. it would also be more rare.