What COULD have been the Gen5

[kdaviper]

found this article on allpar describing a particular design study for the Gen V that was scrapped because of risk and cost...
According to this plan, the new Viper and its ALMS counterpart would have been developed side-by-side and the Gen V may have come with a KERS.
http://www.allpar.com/cars/viper/viper-project.html

 

[denniskgb]

Interesting it's almost like another form of politics in the car business.

 

[SnakeBitten]

Nice read. It would seem that the unwillingness to try new tech is alive and well like I thought according to this article. Those silly comments about CCB's, MR shocks etc from the SRT engineers finally make sense lol.

It would have been incredible what this car could have done. Too bad the backward mentality and tight bean counters have stifled the Viper from being truly cutting edge even more potent performance wise.

 

[99 R/T 10]

Nice read. It would seem that the unwillingness to try new tech is alive and well like I thought according to this article. Those silly comments about CCB's, MR shocks etc from the SRT engineers finally make sense lol.

It would have been incredible what this car could have done. Too bad the backward mentality and tight bean counters have stifled the Viper from being truly cutting edge even more potent performance wise.

That's why we got a half-assed upgrade in performance. it could have been soooooooo much more.

 

[BAD BOYZZ GARAGE]

Awesome article, that would have been one bad ass Viper if built. Straight from the race track to the production line for the street versions...





BAD BOYZZ GARAGE
Toddy

=DISTRIBUTORS OF POWER=

 

[ACRucrazy]

Cool article.
While going for a drive today I thought, why didn't the Gen V come with cooled seats. Move that up to the top of my list for the Viper should have as an option.

 

[chorps]

A *lot* of Chrysler management has their head buried in the sand. A lot of MBAs there without engineering degrees have made crappy decisions.

 

[ACRucrazy]

But hey, we have $14,600 paint jobs, $5,000 stripe jobs and Alcantara headliners!

 

[MoparMap]

Imagine the cost of a tech heavy car though. The Viper wouldn't be the Viper if it cost $200k+. Over $100k is bad enough for some people and on the borderline of still being one of the most accessible high performance cars on the market. That might potentially just drive more people to the Vette if it was half the price of the Viper. It's like other exotics vs. the Viper today. The Viper holds up with European cars that cost twice as much, if the prices were leveled (even with added performance), I don't think the market would hold it. The people that normally buy the high end high cost exotics would probably scoff at a Viper, even if it was the performance king, just because "it's that American car".

 

[SRTviper]

Imagine the cost of a tech heavy car though. The Viper wouldn't be the Viper if it cost $200k+. Over $100k is bad enough for some people and on the borderline of still being one of the most accessible high performance cars on the market. That might potentially just drive more people to the Vette if it was half the price of the Viper. It's like other exotics vs. the Viper today. The Viper holds up with European cars that cost twice as much, if the prices were leveled (even with added performance), I don't think the market would hold it. The people that normally buy the high end high cost exotics would probably scoff at a Viper, even if it was the performance king, just because "it's that American car".

I don't think the viper cost this much because of the cost to produce or more like the mark up to get their money back sooner since it is a very low volume car. If they viper came with all the above mention it would be worth every penny at its asking price.

 

[MoparMap]

I don't think the viper cost this much because of the cost to produce or more like the mark up to get their money back sooner since it is a very low volume car. If they viper came with all the above mention it would be worth every penny at its asking price.

True, the volume probably does play a lot into it now that I think about it. I still think they'd be shooting above their market though. It might be worth the money, but would they be able to sell them since they'd be directly competing with brands like Ferrari and Lambo? Right now they have an interesting price point between a lower end Vette and something like a high end Porsche, yet they still compete in performance with the Ferraris and Lambos.

 

[SnakeEye]

Viper with a V8... wrong.

 

[SRTviper]

True, the volume probably does play a lot into it now that I think about it. I still think they'd be shooting above their market though. It might be worth the money, but would they be able to sell them since they'd be directly competing with brands like Ferrari and Lambo? Right now they have an interesting price point between a lower end Vette and something like a high end Porsche, yet they still compete in performance with the Ferraris and Lambos.

I think if they brought their profit margin to almost break even and added all of these nice things they would sell more and build the customer base. Then later they could make further improvements and up the price to increase the profit margin. They came out thinking the viper name alone was enough and for new buyers it isn't. This way it would have been something really special but now it is too late. We just have to take it for what it is. Slightly over priced but think of it as the viper name premium and for a nicer interior if you get the laguna leather.