- "Daft...but wonderful."
- ―Clarkson's Top 100 Cars
Dodge Viper is a performance roadster and coupe built and produced by the American automobile company Dodge. This was the first sports car to powered the V10 engine. This was the one of other American sports car that do not equipped an optional automatic gearbox throughout all generations.
The engine valvetrain uses an OHV, it has a higher displacement at 8-litre and maximum rev limit at 7000 rpm.
The first-gen model lacks many equipment like TCS and ABS for driver aids, no A/C, no airbags for shredding weight. Altogether it became optional. In second-gen saw the introduction of the high-performance variant called the ACR, the third-gen, the chassis was made more stronger and lighter yet more rigid. The fourth-gen the engine gets major updated like an additional of 300 rpm, revised cam-lobe etc. the gearbox is also updated as well, the special edition was released the ACR and ACR-X and others. The production was halted in 2010 in a preparation of the final generation.
The final-gen was released in 2012, with some changes on the performance. The car is simply badged as SRT Viper later reverted to Dodge Viper in 2015 until 2017. The ACR performance model was notably to lap closed to 7 minute in Nürburgring Nordschleife, the lap remains unofficial. This was the first manual car to set fastest lap. The production of the car was ceased permanently in 2017, some stated that the car was failed to comply the FMVSS Standard 226 with the lacked of side curtain airbags.
Appearances[]
- A Dodge Viper took part in a drag race in Clarkson: Unleashed on Cars against a Porsche 911 Turbo, Caterham 7, Lotus Esprit, TVR Cerbera and Aston Martin V8 Vantage driven by Jeremy. The Viper ended up losing.
- In Clarkson's Top 100 Cars, the Viper appeared on the #62 spot.
- In Series 5, Episode 3, Clarkson takes a new Viper for shakedown, he likes the performance on the car. In the hands of The Stig, the car lapped in 1:28 nearly closed to BMW M3 CSL on wet.
- In Series 19, Episode 2, Hammond takes an SRT Viper for the challenge on the Western US Road Trip. In drag race organised by LVMPD, all trio (including Hammond) lost to modified purposely built drag race vehicle. In aerial laser tag Hammond had been hit 23 times. Before the final challenge his Viper has already been sabotaged by Clarkson and May then he's last to arrived on the Palm Springs and crossed the border by foot.