First time I ever saw a Viper was probably the first or second year of production. The local dealership had one that they were haning onto...er... i mean, selling for an outrageous price. They had it in a local parade. I was to young to really understand then...
Fast Forward to 2002, late december, there was a yellow 2001 that had been sitting at the dealership for a few years. My dad kept talking to them about it, but never serious, and they always wanted to much. Finally, many months later they called my dad and gave him a number that he couldn't turn down - They had to get it out of there, and were willing to out it ultra cheap.
My dad sort-of kept me in the loop during this, but none of the rest of the family knew. Not my brother, not even my mother (Hey, she gave him "permission" to buy it if he sold his race car. He sold it, bought the viper, then built a new race car ). So I went down there with my dad they day he put money down on it. I'm drooling over the thing, 18 years old, and finally I get the balls to crawl into the driver's seat in the middle of the dealership showroom while my dad & the sales manager are in the office behind it.
I hadn't been sitting in it for more than 5 seconds and I had a sales guy litterally come running at me, and said "UHHMMMM, Excuse me, Can I help you?!" I replied "Nope, not really" and oh boy was this guy flustered, new sales guy, didn't know me or my dad like the rest do being that we're family. He says "Well, You really need to get out of this car. It's kind of special, and we don't let people touch our Viper." The sales manager saw & overheard all this, came out laughing - told him to go sit down, that it was no longer their Viper.
Bad news was, there was a foot of snow on the ground, and tons of road salt. We didn't want to take it home then, but the dealership absolutely loved the idea of still keeping it there as a "showpiece" About a month later, dad called me at home, told me that he thought enough of the salt was washed off the road - so we went to pick it up. Only problem was, I couldn't even ride in the thing since someone had to drive the second vehicle. I had to follow that thing of rolling beauty for 10 miles to our shop, watching EVERYONE freaking out about it.
Few months later, spring came. I was riding with my dad to our shop, I was still 18 at the time. We got half way to the shop, dad pulls into the mall parking lot. We sat there until i asked what we were doing. He says "Well, I was waiting for you to get out so we can switch seats!" It took me two trips around the mall to learn how to drive a stick, let alone learning it in a Viper before he told me to take it back to the road. A few months later at 19, I took it to prom. I was waiting off to the side of the parking lot, waiting for it to empty out to remove the risk of someone being dumb and hitting me. The line of cars waiting to leave the parking lot was stopped by 3 cars, 2 of which people were hanging out the window motioning me ahead. What should have been a half hour wait to get out of the single parking lot exit only took 2 minutes.
I'm 22 now. I can still remember these days like they were yesterday. I feel lucky and privileged to even have access to the keys.
Fast Forward to 2002, late december, there was a yellow 2001 that had been sitting at the dealership for a few years. My dad kept talking to them about it, but never serious, and they always wanted to much. Finally, many months later they called my dad and gave him a number that he couldn't turn down - They had to get it out of there, and were willing to out it ultra cheap.
My dad sort-of kept me in the loop during this, but none of the rest of the family knew. Not my brother, not even my mother (Hey, she gave him "permission" to buy it if he sold his race car. He sold it, bought the viper, then built a new race car ). So I went down there with my dad they day he put money down on it. I'm drooling over the thing, 18 years old, and finally I get the balls to crawl into the driver's seat in the middle of the dealership showroom while my dad & the sales manager are in the office behind it.
I hadn't been sitting in it for more than 5 seconds and I had a sales guy litterally come running at me, and said "UHHMMMM, Excuse me, Can I help you?!" I replied "Nope, not really" and oh boy was this guy flustered, new sales guy, didn't know me or my dad like the rest do being that we're family. He says "Well, You really need to get out of this car. It's kind of special, and we don't let people touch our Viper." The sales manager saw & overheard all this, came out laughing - told him to go sit down, that it was no longer their Viper.
Bad news was, there was a foot of snow on the ground, and tons of road salt. We didn't want to take it home then, but the dealership absolutely loved the idea of still keeping it there as a "showpiece" About a month later, dad called me at home, told me that he thought enough of the salt was washed off the road - so we went to pick it up. Only problem was, I couldn't even ride in the thing since someone had to drive the second vehicle. I had to follow that thing of rolling beauty for 10 miles to our shop, watching EVERYONE freaking out about it.
Few months later, spring came. I was riding with my dad to our shop, I was still 18 at the time. We got half way to the shop, dad pulls into the mall parking lot. We sat there until i asked what we were doing. He says "Well, I was waiting for you to get out so we can switch seats!" It took me two trips around the mall to learn how to drive a stick, let alone learning it in a Viper before he told me to take it back to the road. A few months later at 19, I took it to prom. I was waiting off to the side of the parking lot, waiting for it to empty out to remove the risk of someone being dumb and hitting me. The line of cars waiting to leave the parking lot was stopped by 3 cars, 2 of which people were hanging out the window motioning me ahead. What should have been a half hour wait to get out of the single parking lot exit only took 2 minutes.
I'm 22 now. I can still remember these days like they were yesterday. I feel lucky and privileged to even have access to the keys.
