Mint Viper taken to the crusher

[Y2K5SRT]

Although it would bring tears to my eyes, I would definitely be interested in seeing the pictures. Also, I had heard that many of these TV "Vipers" were the shells with V8's in them. I had heard they didn't show the engines during the show (only saw one episode) and there was no reason to dump a $10,000+ motor into them. It is also interesting to think of the brand new Vipers in Detroit that are used as "test mules" that also end up being destroyed - complete with shiny new V-10's. *shudder*

Chris

 

[JonB]

Chrysler (not D-C) did provide a fleet of cars to the producers. In fact, on 2-3 poccasions, these guys visited the original VCA C+D site and chatted !

VCA-BC member Jim McNeeny? even had an episode filmed at his palatial HOME, and his car figured in some background shooting.

There were "camera rollers" without motors at all....ie front or back halfs of Viper, pulled trailer-like for "inside " action shots. Several of the early cars did have 360V8s. Avter the Vipers were less scarce, and the show renewed, most had V-10s.
There were PPV Vipers that CHRYSLER would have crushed anyway!

fact is, D-C crushes a few Vipers every year......

 

[GR8_ASP]

Jon,

Even with knowledge of the guillotine effect I have removed my spare when traveling cross country. My belief is the "packed to the gills trunk" with roof, etc effectively prevents the trunk from moving straight forward. Have to have somewhere to put all that Zaino!

 

[Henry Cone]

Jon, I believe that the spare is part of the crash system for the coupes as well. If you look at the rear end of the frame rails you will see a bolt that holds a metal cable to each rail end. This cable apparently starts at one frame rail, passes around the front of the spare tire well, and back to the other frame rail. The only reason that I can come up with for this cable is to help improve the crash strength of the rear of the car by making the spare part of the crush zone...

I don't have any proof of this so I'd be interested in any info that you may have on the purpose of the cable.

 

[Ron]

<FONT face="Comic Sans MS">Have they or the Feds crash tested any?</FONT f>

 

[JonB]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Ron:
<FONT face="Comic Sans MS">Have they or the Feds crash tested any?</FONT f>
<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Of course.........mandatory. REPORTING is only manadatory on 5000+ / year models however ! The crash-tests revealed a rather gruesome event if SPARE TIRES are removed from RT/10s that get hit in the rear. ALWAYS mount your spare in trunk, ESPECIALLY in RT10s! As tech inspector, I wount let an RT/10 on track or strip without one. It is part of the crash/crumple safety zone

 

[jimandela]

This is all very interesting!!! Seeing that a guy here in the local paper (Buffalo News) advertised 1 of 23 prepoduction vipers
1996 gts for sale...i called him and he explained (making a long story, short) that other 22 were sent to the crusher but his went
out the back door of the factory for a guy who was retiring!!!
he had all the names, etc. well the guy retiring said "get it out of here". it ended up under salvage title in ohio. that's where this guy got it. brought it here to NYS with a now clean title..it had the federal emssions exempt sticker and when he took it to the local dealer for service they advised of the preproduction vin and that there records shown blown engine and tranny at 13,000.
this was all very interesting that there maybe 1 preproduction gts blue/stripes out there!! I passed and did not buy the "hot car" p.s. the guy selling it did try to contact dodge about the car but was told they were consulting legal about it!