Top in Automotive: SRT Viper

Showing posts with label SRT Viper. Show all posts

SRT Announces Return to Le Mans 24-Hour Race with New Viper GTS-R [w/Video]

Monday, February 4, 2013

Even SRT boss Ralph Gilles has admitted that the previous Vipers had an “axe-murderer” kind of demeanor but, despite that, the “snake” has had been quite successful in racing, competing against the best production-based rivals in the world and beating them not only in America but across the globe, too.

One of its greatest triumphs has been finishing in the first two places in its class for three years in a row, from 1998 to 2000, in the most prestigious endurance race in the world: the 24 Hours or Le Mans.

Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Jay Leno loves two things: jean shirts and cars. Being an American, he has a soft spot for homemade models, especially those with a powerful engine under their hood.

One of them is the Viper. Leno already owns two of Chrysler's flagship sports cars, having brought the original way back in 1992 and then, since he wanted a coupe, a GTS as well.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

It’s like the Super Bowl for Detroit-made sports cars: the brand-new Corvette Stingray, which just made its world premiere in Detroit this week, versus Chrysler’s third-generation SRT Viper.

Granted, in their current forms, the two cars are separated by tens of thousands of dollars and nearly 200hp, with the base Vette’s 450hp 6.2L V8 looking puny compared to the Viper’s massive 8.4L V10 with 640-ponies. Conducting a fair twin-test won’t be possible until Chevrolet rolls out the next Corvette Stingray ZR1.

Friday, January 11, 2013

Thursday, January 10, was a historic day for Chrysler as the first SRT Viper rolled off the production line at the Conner Avenue Assembly plant and was handed over to his owner, Scot Thomas, by Fiat-Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne.

Thomas was the winning bidder for the #001 Viper at last year’s Barrett-Jackson auction. The 40-year old, who lives in Oklahoma, is the president of the APMEX precious metals company and paid US$300,000 for the car, the proceeds going to the Austin Hatcher Foundation for pediatric cancer research.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Three very different schools of automotive thought came together at a Cars and Coffee meeting in Irvine, California, a couple of weeks ago, for a mechanical symphony comprised of 32 cylinders, 19.7-liters and a whopping 1,884-horses.

Thankfully, the revving competition between the Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4, 2013 SRT Viper and the Lexus LFA was captured on film by several visitors for our enjoyment.

Monday, January 7, 2013

The Dodge Viper, in its two previous incarnations, was a love it or hate it kind of sports car; which is probably what Bob Lutz, Chrysler’s president at the time, intended when he green-lighted the project in 1989.

Lutz intended for the first Viper to be a modern-day Shelby Cobra. When the car became available in 1992, it was clear that the “Team Viper” had achieved its objective.

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

When the third-generation Viper was launched back in April at the New York Auto Show, SRT boss Ralph Gilles had said that the company “simply would not let the performance icon of the Chrysler Group die.”

Love it or hate it, the Viper is undoubtedly an icon. Its two previous incarnations followed the same recipe: aggressive styling, a big-displacement V10 up front with huge torque driving the rear wheels and…that’s about it.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

The current, sixth-generation Corvette is about to be replaced as its all-new successor is just around the corner, being already teased by GM itself and due to break cover at the upcoming Detroit Motor Show next month. It’s about time, too, as the C6 has been around since 2005.

As it’s getting ready to exit the stage, though, another player comes charging in. In fact, it’s the only other car from Detroit that can lay claim to be an American supercar: the all-new SRT Viper.

It would be unfair to the ‘Vette to even think about pitting them against each other, wouldn’t you agree?

Friday, December 14, 2012

Yes, yes, we know that we haven't seen the new Ferrari F150 (that's Maranello's official code-name) in its entirety and that depending on your point of view, you can probably find similarities between each and every passenger car, but for the sake of conversation, we'd like to pass on a question, which came up from one of our readers.

No, we are not talking about the "Whale shark?" remark on our post with the first official teasers of the F150, but "The Italian Viper?" comment that followed.

Monday, November 26, 2012

The Chrysler Group has released a new video of its pride and joy, the new 2013 SRT Viper that just recently went on sale in the States, as well as of the upcoming 2013 Dodge Charger Daytona R/T, which was revealed today ahead of its world premiere at the LA Auto Show on Wednesday, November 28. Read more »

New 2013 SRT Viper Goes on Sale: Huge Gallery with 224 High-Res Photos

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

America's newest, baddest and fastest sports car, the 206mph (332km/h) 2013 SRT Viper from the Chrysler Group, is available for order today.

It offers buyers a choice of two models, the base version priced at $97,395 and the better equipped GTS at $120,395 (equal to €76,000 and €93,900 at today's rates). Both MSRPs do not include a $1,995 destination charge.

“The Street and Racing Technology brand team is extremely proud that our hand-built-in-Detroit, flagship supercar is back and ready to take on the performance-car world,” said SRT CEO Ralph Gilles.

“Our returning customers will see the world-class levels of pride, quality and hand-built craftsmanship built into the 2013 Viper," he added.

"With two price classes of the SRT Viper and SRT Viper GTS, we have offerings for both the traditional core Viper customer and for the new customer who wants the same performance in a package with more technology and premium creature comforts.”

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

With the new generation of the Viper, now marketed under the SRT brand, being just weeks if not days, away from launch, the Chrysler Group announced that it's Mopar division has already prepared a variety of upgrade parts for the two-seater sports car that will be available for order soon. Read more »

Mopar to Trick Out New 2013 SRT Viper and Wrangler Hemi V8 4x4 for SEMA

Saturday, October 13, 2012

The performance crew over at Mopar may have revealed a selection of customized cars such as the V10-powered Dodge Charger Juiced, the Fiat 500 Beach Cruiser and the Urban Ram concepts in the flesh and in advance of the SEMA Show on October 30, but the Chrysler Group's tuning arm is keeping several more projects under wraps.

Among the dozen or so SEMA show-bound Chrysler cars that have no yet been unveiled in the flesh are the "Moparized" 2013 SRT Viper and the Jeep Wrangler Sand Trooper, both of which were teased through renderings.

Friday, October 12, 2012

If there's one thing Mopar's people like doing to Chrysler Group cars more than anything else, it is to shoehorn the brand's gargantuan V10 powerplant under their hoods.

For this year's SEMA Show, they had the opportunity to do it again, this time with the latest iteration of the Dodge Charger sports sedan that gets a Viper 8.4-liter V10 Mopar crate engine, good enough for 650-horsepower, or 10hp more than the new 2013 SRT Viper sports coupe.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Leave it to Hennessey Performance to take an already viciously powerful sports car like the brand-new 2013 SRT Viper and tune it to the extreme.

As with any other proposal from Hennessey, it all starts with a heavy tuning of the SRT Viper's 8.4-liter V10 engine, which in stock form, delivers 640 horsepower and 600 lb.-ft. of torque to the rear wheels via a 6speed manual gearbox.

Hennessey will offer two performance packages for Chrysler's finest sports car.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

As the Chrysler Group's undisputed "halo" car, one would believe that the Detroit-based carmaker would want most of its U.S. dealers to be able to show and sell the new 2013 SRT Viper, but that's not the case.

An Autonews report back in July, quoted Ralph Gilles, CEO of the SRT brand, saying that around 15 to 20 percent (or roughly 340 to 460 showrooms) of Chrysler's more than 2,300 U.S. dealers will carry the V10-powered sports car, but according to USA Today, Gilles has now lowered that number even more to only about 100 to 150 shops or 4-6%.

Gilles told the newspaper that the No. 1 requirement, "Is first of all, to have the fire, the passion. That's the unofficial requirement -- that you have a love affair with the cars and you just love fast cars."

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Overcoming many difficult situations over the past few years headlined by a bankruptcy procedure and a change of ownership, the Chrysler Group managed to develop and introduce the third iteration of its famed Viper supercar that will now be marketed under the SRT brand nameplate.

As it prepares for a mid-November launch, the automaker invited members of the motoring press to try out the potency of the venom produced by the new Viper's uprated 8.4-liter V10 powerplant at the Gingerman Speedway in South Haven, Michigan.

Monday, September 10, 2012

We know many of you have been waiting to learn how much the spanking-new 2013 SRT Viper will cost ever since it broke cover at the New York Auto Show earlier this year.

The good news is that the Viper carries a starting MSRP of more than $15,000 lower than that of GM's rivaling Chevrolet Corvette ZR1. As always, the bad news is that at $97,395 excluding a $1,995 destination fee (*), which lifts the total to $99,390, most [of us] cannot afford it...

Aside from the base model, there's also the Viper GTS priced at $120,395 (excluding $1,995 destination).

This version spices up the snake with several goodies such as a two-mode active suspension and six-spoke forged-aluminum “Venom” rims, while keeping the same 8.4-liter V10 engine that delivers 640 horsepower and 600 lb.-ft. of torque to the rear wheels via a 6speed manual gearbox.

Thursday, August 16, 2012

In a somewhat unexpected move, the Chrysler Group’s Street and Racing Technology (SRT) brand has previewed a new limited edition version of the upcoming 2013 Viper ahead of its world premiere at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance in Monterey, California.

The car is named the SRT Viper GTS Launch Edition and it pays homages to past Viper Coupe reveals in 1996 and 2006. It is finished in the Viper's distinctive GTS Blue paint with dual Bright White stripes running the entire length of the sports car and it rides on five-spoke polished forged-aluminum design wheels.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

The new generation of the Viper sports car may have made its world premiere back in April at the New York Auto Show, but up until now, we have only seen the same pre-production model finished in a candy red metallic paint.

Today, the SRT brand released a new picture of a different engineering prototype that the automaker says just "passed its dry-track stability control testing with flying colors".

What makes this pre-production model newsworthy is the new paint job that couples a red hue for the body with twin racing stripes in white running from bumper to bumper.