Details: A true convertible with a manual folding top, the new Viper’s composite body panels hang from a steel spaceframe.
It’s the most iconic American car of its era, arguably the only car made in Detroit since the dark days of the 1970s that’s worth veneration. But it’s been more than 10 years since the first production model was hatched, and the Viper is now the oldest product in the Mopar lineup. If it were any other car, a complete redesign would be long overdue.
The Viper is myth in aluminum, composite and steel. We’ve heard the tale of its genesis so many times the story has become folklore akin to that of the Pontiac GTO or even the Shelby Cobra. Ask yourself what Bob Lutz would be doing today if this car had never come to be.
2003 DODGE VIPER PHOTO GALLERY
Consider this: Would the Germans have so grossly overpaid for Chrysler if the “merger of equals” hadn’t given them access to a fleet of Vipers? Perhaps, but who could blame them if this was indeed their underlying motive? Certainly the car itself does not promote rational behavior.
Viper owners describe themselves as members of a cult. It is not uncommon for one of them to own two or more of these V10-powered beasts, and at the very least the true Viper enthusiast is a serial purchaser. An early roadster begets a coupe, which leads to a later roadster. Repeated attendance at track days demands a purpose-built race car, and thus the garage gets infested with snakes.
So there is no shortage of enthusiasm for the 14,000 Vipers built over the past decade, for their style, for their performance. We fight over who gets the car when one comes through our office, and people at gas stations still ask for a ride. But the laws of the car business say the Viper needs to be redesigned. “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” does not apply.
The chassis employs unequal-length upper and lower aluminum A-arms, coil-over shocks and a rear antiroll bar. Weight is 3357 pounds with a 50/50 distribution.
Thus, welcome the new Viper. It is too late to do anything about it, save ordering a 2002 GTS Final Edition, for Viper as we’ve known it is history. The new car will debut as a 2003 model, dubbed “SRT-10,” a convertible with dramatically different lines and a manual fold-down top. Cars will be delivered starting this fall, with current Viper owners lucky enough to have placed their orders scooping up the first model year’s production; the new Viper is clearly not received like New Coke.
But despite this sales success, a maelstrom has been brewing among its enthusiasts since Dodge first showed the car at the 2001 Detroit auto show. The eye of the storm: The new car just doesn’t look right.
“It’s not love at first sight,” admits Adel Elsayed, New Jersey Viper Club president and owner of four Vipers, with whom we spoke during a lapping session that he’d organized at Pocono Raceway. “When people saw the Viper concept in 1989, everybody said, ‘I want this car.’ The same [was true] with the coupe when it came out in ’96. The new Viper, a lot of people look at it and say, ‘Yeah, maybe.’ It does not leave that first impression.”
What could?
Osamu Shikado, the 47-year-old design manager of DaimlerChrysler’s Advance Packaging Studio, penned the new car. Shikado spent 14 years at Toyota in Japan before coming to Chrysler in 1994. Among his design credits are the 1983 Toyota Corolla, the 1990 Toyota Camry, the 1998 Chrysler Chronos concept and the 1999 Chrysler Citadel concept. To be fair to Shikado, his Viper is stunning. It’s aggressive and has all the muscular cues of the original. But it’s different and the Viper community has much invested in the original car. Letting it go will not be easy.
Joseph Houss is the national vice president of the Viper Club of America. He gushes when asked what he thinks of the new Viper: “I love the new style. I like change. I like different. This is the most exciting thing that’s happened to the Viper community. When they built this car, they listened to what the Viper owners wanted.”
Houss cites engineering leaps, things like the 7 percent improvement in the aerodynamics of the new convertible over the outgoing roadster. He talks about the motor, a stroker version of the current V10 with preliminary output of 500 hp at 5600 rpm and 500 lb-ft of torque at 4600 rpm. Other Viper owners are pleased the new car weighs less, due in part to a cast magnesium instrument panel support, aluminum shocks, carbon fiber fender supports, a conventional hood and fender design and the use of run-flat tires.
A revised V10 displaces 505 cubes and will make at least 500 hp and 500 lb-ft of torque; it’s mated to the carryover six-speed manual.
But Houss acknowledges the styling is controversial: “There are a good percentage of people who would have rather seen an existing coupe, maybe a little lower, a little more aerodynamic, but not a complete change. What may be the reason some people are frowning on the new body style is that everybody took it for granted that the new car would still look essentially the same.”
The 2003 Viper is no J Mays-style re-scale. Compared to the 2002 model, the new car is nine inches wider—and looks it. While the wheelbase is stretched 2.6 inches, the overall length shrinks by an inch, making the car seem more square. Without the roadster’s sport bar or the coupe’s roof, the convertible looks flat and chiseled and not nearly as curvaceous as the car it replaces.
“Is the current shape ****?” Houss asks. “Absolutely. Is it the sexiest shape that’s come out of Detroit in a long time? Probably. But how long can you go on without trying something new?” We tried out the new Viper, in pre-production guise, on a few laps of an autocross course. The 2003 Viper delivers more of everything.
More power—thanks to 505 cubic inches and a new intake manifold. More grip—from Michelin 275/35ZR-18 fronts and 345/30ZR-19 rears, a viscous limited-slip differential and ground effects that run from the rear of the engine back to the rear fascia. And more brakes—a Brembo system with dual-opposing piston, fixed front and rear calipers with 14-inch rotors. Team Viper claims the new car will go 0 to 60 mph in less than four seconds, 0 to 100 in less than 10 and do 0 to 100 to 0 in less than 13.2.
The car is also more of a delight to the senses: It doesn’t stink like fiberglass, the driver’s footwell carries a dead pedal and is less cramped, the convertible body style dramatically improves visibility and the roar of the side exhaust pipes is back. Other notable creature comforts include a new climate control system that actually works, seatbelts that pull from the outside shoulder and a 500-watt sound system that’s audible with the top down at 100 mph.
If you’re thinking the Viper has had some rough edges polished, you’re on the right track. For those who worry that a kinder, gentler Viper and its concessions to better functionality betray the spirit of the original, know the new Viper is still crude and drastic—no array of microprocessors inject rational behavior into driving beyond antilock braking.
There will always be a fringe element who wish for a more brutal car; however, the improvements to the Viper are welcome, not only for making it both literally and figuratively more accessible, but for the potential to improve its overall quality. Yes, the Viper has lost its clamshell nose in favor of a separate hood and fenders, but talk to any Viper owner who’s had to replace the front end—at the cost of a Ford Focus—and the logic behind the change becomes understandable. DaimlerChrysler claims the new hood and other aspects of the styling will also make it easier to build the car to a higher level of fit-and-finish.
A new intake manifold has a central dual-plenum design with shorter runners and a single throttle body. Side exhaust pipes are back, but the clamshell hood is history.
Yet still, the new Viper looks the betrayal of an icon. It represents the inevitable demise of a car that was an instant classic and hasn’t aged a bit since that auto show car of 1989. For some, no amount of refinement or additional power can make up for that. Larry Dixon is one of the members of the New Jersey Viper Club, someone who bought his Viper for the styling, first and foremost. He’s not interested in the new Viper, not at all.
“The car is still unique, but it’s not as good as it was, the styling anyway,” he says. “I don’t care for the square lines—it’s not as rounded as the old Viper was. It just doesn’t look as good. It looks like a Corvette.” Dixon understands the logic behind the redesign, but it’s an emotional thing, this love of cars. It’s the classic battle of the head and the heart.
“I see the new car as an evolution of the older one,” Elsayed says. “Some people will like it, some won’t. The new car has lines that are not representative of the original Viper, but it has other attributes like a bigger motor and more horsepower that Viper owners will appreciate. And I think the styling is going to grow on you.”
Houss also points out that the new car will “make sure there aren’t 10,000 Viper owners upset when the value of their cars goes down because the new body style is just so inspiring that everybody has to get rid of the old ones. We’ve got a lot of guys [in the Viper Club] who’d like to keep their current car and get a new Viper.” He can’t wait for the delivery of his 2003.
And despite Elsayed’s lukewarm reaction to the new design, he was among the many who have also placed an order for the new car. “I am a Viper fan,” he says, proving that a reputation 10 years in the making has a value at least as important as **** lines.
And whatever it looks like, the new car is still a Viper.
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Final GTS: Well, with the credentials of the designer, it's now wonder...LOL. And about what Joseph Houss said, sorry bud, but I seriously doubt there is enough people out there that want the SRT bad enough to cause a drop in the Vipers value that will last more than a month or two... as of recent, the supply of current Vipers is cut off, which means the people that want them, and like them, cant get them anymore. That will keep values high. I see the SRT is a stripped down cheapened up replacement with a few racing goodies thrown on it in order to hide the fact that is IS stripped down and cheapened up. The "bean Counters" are obviously running the show now...
