Around the Block | Dodge Viper SRT-10
Last Gasp for Dodge’s Asp
You must be registered for see images attach
SERPENTINE To the end, the Dodge Viper has worn its crude, rude personality as a badge of honor.
By JOHN PEARLEY HUFFMAN
Published: December 3, 2010
You must be registered for see images attach
The Viper wears its vices as virtues.
WHAT IS IT? Two-seat supercar.
HOW MUCH? Base $92,705 including $1,700 gas-guzzler tax. (Dual graphite painted stripes are $3,425 more.) Neither traction nor stability controls are offered.
IS IT FAST? It is seriously, wickedly, shockingly quick. If yours won’t get from 0 to 60 m.p.h. in less than four seconds, there’s something wrong with it.
IS IT THIRSTY? The
E.P.A. rating is 13 m.p.g. in town, 22 on the highway. But if you use the throttle as intended, those numbers will dive into the single digits.
ALTERNATIVES Skydiving, bear baiting and cage fighting.
THE Dodge Viper coupe rattles, is impossible to enter or exit gracefully, has side-exiting exhaust pipes that burn if you brush against them and comes with chintzy interior trim — much of which feels as if it’s about to break off in your hand.
The shifter for the 6-speed manual transmission is so stiff it feels as if it should be towed into gear by a team of oxen, the huge tires tram disconcertingly over pavement imperfections and the ride is stiff enough to shatter the most supple coccyx.
Of course there’s no real room for cargo, the outward visibility is crummy and the driver and passenger sit in what amount to uncomfortably narrow channels gouged out between the thick center tunnel and the tall, wide door sills.
But the Viper wears all those vices as virtues. After 19 years, it remains the most uncompromised production supercar ever built by a major manufacturer.
It’s ferocious where Ferraris are sophisticated. Raw in all the ways that Porsches are refined. And it’s as demanding as the Corvette is coddling.
This car is indifferent to its driver and his survival. You either take the Viper on its own terms or it will kill you. If you’re enough of a driver to drive it hard, it’s an exhilarating near-death experience.
The Viper’s V-10 engine, based on the architecture of an old
Chrysler V-8, features a throwback valve train with a single in-block camshaft and 20 pushrods to operate the 20 overhead valves. But by dint of its enormous 8.4-liter displacement it delivers 600 horsepower at 6,100 r.p.m. and, more impressive, a cranium-compressing 560 pound-feet of torque at 5,000 r.p.m.
Even at idle this engine rocks on its mounts with menacing muscle; blip the throttle and the whole chassis seems to twist.
Launching a Viper takes some subtlety since so much power can overwhelm the rear tires even though they’re huge P345/30ZR19 Michelin Pilot Sport PS2 radials — about as close to racing rubber as original-equipment tires can be.
Once the car is moving, it seems almost to compress around you. With so much power available, the Viper seems to squirm over the tires at every gear change.
According to
Insideline.com, the SRT-10 will catapult to 60 m.p.h. in just 3.9 seconds and thunder through the quarter-mile in 11.7 seconds at just over 127 m.p.h. The driver will be lucky to take a breath during the trip.
On the road the Viper delivers the sensation of infinite grip. There isn’t much steering feel from the Michelin tires in the front (P275/35ZR8), but the car reacts with a suddenness and determination that’s startling. But the grip isn’t infinite and the Viper’s rear end will break free suddenly when its limits have been exceeded. At that moment you need the reflexes of a Foyt, Andretti or Senna to recover.
After 19 model years, Dodge built its final Viper in July — a 2010 model, virtually indistinguishable from the ’09 — then idled the Conner Avenue Assembly Plant in Detroit.
But
Sergio Marchionne, the chief executive of Fiat, which controls Chrysler, has promised that an all-new Viper will make its debut in 2012 with a distinct platform and engine not shared with any other Chrysler or Fiat — though a sprinkling of Ferrari fairy dust would be appreciated.
The only question is whether Chrysler will dare to once again make such a raw-nerved, ******** and glorious monster.
A version of this review appeared in print on December 5, 2010, on page AU2 of the New York edition.
