Car and Driver: BREAKING: Next-Gen Viper

Mr. Nice

Well-Known Member
Joined
Dec 6, 2007
Messages
2,556
BREAKING: Next-Gen Viper Coming in Late 2012, Will Have Stability Control

Full Article

2012-Dodge-Viper-mule-626x417.jpg


Dodge has confirmed that the next-generation Viper will be revealed in late 2012?we expect that?ll make it a 2013 model?and that it will pack stability control. We should mention that stability control is required by federal law for all 2013-model-year cars, and that law is the reason many doubted the brutal and traditionally technology-shy Viper would make it to a third generation.

This ought to bring some healthy controversy. The first two generations of Viper didn?t offer such computerology, giving it the reputation of being the automotive purist?s monster. This view isn?t unanimously held by folks who have had the schvitzy-palmed experience of wheeling a Viper, which is a rolling Yakov Smirnoff joke for some: ?In 600-hp Viper, car drives you!? In reality, though, the Viper can be easier to drive quickly than its reputation suggests.

We?ve got a full rundown of what we expect from the next-gen Viper here, but expect between 600 and 700 hp. Contribute to your savings account and life-insurance policy accordingly.
 
Last edited:
I'm shocked the current one does not have stability control.
 
Shamelessly copied from Viper's sig:

... I ask Herb Helbig, vehicle synthesis manager for SRT and a member of the original Team Viper development group since day one, if they'd ever thought of adding traction control. "It comes with two," he says, pointing at my feet. "Learn to use them." Got it.
- Motor Trend on the 2006 Dodge Viper Coupe, November 2005

I love the Viper, it good to know it's coming back.
 
The Viper is the modern equivalent of this:

800px-AC_Shelby_Cobra_%28Auto_classique%29.JPG
 
As long as there is a switch to turn it off...
 
...and machineguns, must have machineguns.





What? We will tell the greeners they shoot flowers or something :p
 
Dodge developed the chassis that the SLS rides on.
 
Dodge developed the chassis that the SLS rides on.

Just because they used an Viper body shell to hide it in development-stadium? :roll:
64538417_fca0c4874c.jpg


Don't you know that the SLS has a lightweight Aluminium transaxle chassis? Dodge never heard of words like Transaxle, or Aluminium.
 
https://pic.armedcats.net/p/po/polly/2011/04/15/Successful-troll-is-successful.jpg
 
Last edited:
Just because they used an Viper body shell to hide it in development-stadium? :roll:

Don't you know that the SLS has a lightweight Aluminium transaxle chassis? Dodge never heard of words like Transaxle, or Aluminium.

http://blogs.insideline.com/straightline/2010/06/mercedes-benz-sls-started-out-as-the-next-generation-dodge-viper.html
Remember the original prototypes of the Mercedes-Benz SLS coupe? When we caught them running around Death Valley a few years ago and they were wearing chopped-up Dodge Viper bodywork. At the time, we figured it was nothing more than a case of Mercedes recycling some spare body parts from its corporate partner.

Turns out there is a little more to the story. Inside Line has learned that Dodge was in fact working on a next-generation Viper before the Mercedes project had even started. Dodge engineers had already built an all-aluminum chassis and were working on a completely redesigned suspension setup.

When the Mercedes side of DaimlerChrysler caught wind of the project it figured it would make a good basis for the SLS. The two projects quickly became parallel development programs with Mercedes piggy backing on the work Dodge had already done.

Not too long after that, the Dodge engineers were pulled off the Viper project as the company's declining financial situation forced it to abandon non-essential programs. Mercedes continued the work and the SLS AMG soon became reality.

Dodge will have a chance to redeem itself when the Viper returns from a short hiatus in a few years, but we suspect the engineers still look at every SLS AMG and wonder what the current Viper could have been.
 
Gah.
Viper any day.
I just can?t bring myself to like the SLS.
 
Hopefully if it has a ESC off button (come on...it will...:p) that button will truely mean off.

Glad to see it'll live on :)
 
I never saw what the big deal was in the no traction control thing. Seems like pointless posturing to me. I heard something like 30% of Vipers end up wrecked. Doesn't surprise me.
 
Just because they used an Viper body shell to hide it in development-stadium? :roll:
64538417_fca0c4874c.jpg


Don't you know that the SLS has a lightweight Aluminium transaxle chassis? Dodge never heard of words like Transaxle, or Aluminium.

FAIL.
 
Top