Words: Shubham Choukse
According to an Instagram post by Ralph Gilles, the design chief of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, their hallowed muscle car – the Dodge Viper, will finally reach the end of its production. The Instagram post shows two cars on the assembly line, the one in yellow paint and black stripes is an ACR model and is the final customer car while the other one is painted red and is headed to the heritage collection of the company.
Production started in 1992, the Dodge Viper with its massive 8-litre V10 motor ruled the streets of America for a long time. The Viper is currently in its fifth generation, being introduced in the year 2013. There are a number of possibilities for this demise. Some believe that the fifth generation model didn’t meet the sales expectations; the company dropped the price, reduced the production and even had to stop the production for a little while, but the sales never took-off. Another speculation revolves around the new rule added by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, USA, which made side curtain airbags mandatory on a new car and Viper’s narrow frame didn’t allowed that.
Despite so much going on with the Viper, some enthusiasts crowdfunded the Viper’s record attempt at the Nürburgring and the Dodge Viper ACR clocked the lap time of 7:03:45,making it the fastest rear-wheel drive car with a manual transmission and the fastest car from America around the Nürburgring. The blazing fast lap was set by Dominik Farnbacher in a Viper ACR equipped with Extreme Aero Package.