This just came on line about the sale of Viper...
Jack Roush talks about Daytona win, Viper sale, propane-powered Fords: AutoWeek Magazine
Jack Roush talks about Daytona win, Viper sale, propane-powered Fords: AutoWeek Magazine
Viper sale in Autoweek
- Thread starter CCBrian
- Start date
gtsviper
Enthusiast
Rumor has it that the sale is already done...just waiting for an announcement. Saleen Viper anyone?
alpine7822
Enthusiast
He's not being evasive...I know someone VERY close to Jack (in fact, he's getting one of the rings Jack mentioned) and he's all but confirmed that Jack did not bid. However, he has said, as Jack did, that if they were able to ****** it up at a good deal, and he can make it work, he would do it. You have to understand, Jack sets out to win at everything he does. He never does anything unless he knows the outcome for him is likely to be positive. Look at his race teams, they are competitive all the way through, his companies are the same way. However, if anyone were to take over Viper and make it work as a stand-alone brand, I'd put my money on Jack. The question is whether someone will get a deal done with Chrysler before it interests Jack.
Martin
Enthusiast
My money's still on Penske 
ViperGal
Enthusiast
So wo are the three bids?
Martin
Enthusiast
The info was never released publicly to my knowledge... The rumored ones my friends in Detroit shared with me are:
- Tata Motors
- Penske
- Mclaren
- Daimler
I know that's more than three - but those are the four I've heard from different sources (several of those overlap)... Take it with a grain of salt, though - the guys I hear these rumors from are definitely up pretty high in the food chain (I went to grad school with them 20 years ago and they worked their way up the engineering ranks) but they're not totally 'in the know.' They could completely be full of BS. That said, Penske seems to make the most sense to me from a business perspective.
FastZilla
Enthusiast
I couldn't understand what he was saying. I'm going to have to take all that double-talk to a translator.
viperdrummer
Enthusiast
My firm has been involved in NASCAR for many years--mostly representing drivers. Jack is one of the smartest, shrewded businessmen in the garage. If he gets involved with the Viper , which I doubt , it will likely be done without putting much, if any, of his money at risk.
01sapphirebob
Enthusiast
I would agree on the double talk thing. We will all just have to wait and see...
AW: Let's shift gears here for a second. Can you tell me, were you interested in buying the Viper business?
JR: We were contacted on it, but I don't have any great interest in it. We don't have discussions going on at this time. I wouldn't say that if it was going to hit the ground that I wouldn't ****** it before it got dirty. But right now I'm not motivated. [I'm] much more motivated in things that are in our future than a historically significant nameplate from the past.
AW: Are you one of those--Chrysler has sort of acknowledged three bids. Are you guys at all one of them?
JR: I don't know if we made a bid. We were certainly contacted by Chrysler very early on in their interest to see if we would be willing to pick it up, and to take responsibility for the plant, and do some other things that really involved just a huge investment and great exposure. And we'd have to find a way to make the investment affordable and the exposure minimized.
There is no serious consideration of that responsibility.
AW: You said there's no serious consideration?
JR: Yeah, they came initially and asked us if we would care to take the responsibility of the plant and the car and the manufacturing of it. And I said no. That's not saying that we may not have been approached that I'm unaware of subsequent to that. And we may not yet be approached and be offered something that could be attractive.
I'm not saying under no scenario we'd be interested. But given the things that were attached to it in the first place, the risk for reward opportunity wasn't in balance.
AW: Let's shift gears here for a second. Can you tell me, were you interested in buying the Viper business?
JR: We were contacted on it, but I don't have any great interest in it. We don't have discussions going on at this time. I wouldn't say that if it was going to hit the ground that I wouldn't ****** it before it got dirty. But right now I'm not motivated. [I'm] much more motivated in things that are in our future than a historically significant nameplate from the past.
AW: Are you one of those--Chrysler has sort of acknowledged three bids. Are you guys at all one of them?
JR: I don't know if we made a bid. We were certainly contacted by Chrysler very early on in their interest to see if we would be willing to pick it up, and to take responsibility for the plant, and do some other things that really involved just a huge investment and great exposure. And we'd have to find a way to make the investment affordable and the exposure minimized.
There is no serious consideration of that responsibility.
AW: You said there's no serious consideration?
JR: Yeah, they came initially and asked us if we would care to take the responsibility of the plant and the car and the manufacturing of it. And I said no. That's not saying that we may not have been approached that I'm unaware of subsequent to that. And we may not yet be approached and be offered something that could be attractive.
I'm not saying under no scenario we'd be interested. But given the things that were attached to it in the first place, the risk for reward opportunity wasn't in balance.
2006red/whitecoupe
Enthusiast
Tata Motors has 2 billion of debt due in the spring with 100 million of cash currently and no contingency plan; I seriously doubt they will be buying anything.
Martin
Enthusiast
Yeah, they 'were' at the top of the list after buying Jag, but now I think it is TA TA to Tata... I'm glad - that would be one of the potential buyers that would piss off existing customers.
Lawrenzo
Enthusiast
An article in Autoweek that I received yesterday says that the company that just bought Saleen, MJ Acqusitions, is interested in it. Time will tell.
Similar threads
