The SRT Viper undergoing testing. Production begins in autumn, dealers officially launching sales in November.
If you’ve been saving your pennies for the return of Chrysler’s supercar, the all-new SRT Viper you now may be in for a search to find a dealer.
Letters are now going out to Chrysler’s 2,300 U.S. dealers letting them know whether or not they’ve been chosen to carry the reborn supercar. The maker hints the number that have been approved will ultimately come to more than 100 to 150.
That’s a turnaround from earlier plans. When the maker revealed the reborn Viper, last spring, it initially indicated most retailers would be offering it. But Chrysler apparently recognized that would create problems considering it only plans to produce about 2,000 of the 2-seaters annually, or less than one for each of its dealers.
SRT chief Ralph Gilles - also Chrysler's corporate design chief, plants a welcome kiss on the new SRT Viper.
Past success selling the original Viper apparently was considered in choosing the new network, but Ralph Gilles, Chrysler’s chief designer and head of the SRT brand, suggested that an even bigger factor, “is, first of all, to have the fire, the passion. That’s the unofficial requirement, that you have a love affair with the car.”
An official requirement is an up-front payment of $25,000 – including $5,000 for certification and another $20,000 for the necessary tools and training to service the Viper.
The return of the Viper is considered a major step both in the resurrection of Chrysler following its 2009 bankruptcy as well as the U.S. maker’s growing alliance with Italy’s Fiat.
The original, 1992 Dodge Viper was hailed by Chrysler as the rebirth of the classic American sports car, and during the NY Auto Show preview of the 2013 SRT Viper, Gilles emphasized that it was “designed in Auburn Hills (Michigan) by Americans and will be built in Detroit.”
But he also quickly acknowledged that his team “did consult with our friends at Ferrari/Maserati,” the high-performance arm of Chrysler’s Italian partner, Fiat.
Where the original Viper was intended to be a raw, even brutish machine – without even airbags or antilock brakes – the new model will be relatively sophisticated with far more comfort and safety technology onboard. But the emphasis is still on pure performance, the 2013 Viper powered by an 8.4-liter V-10 making 640 horsepower – 40 more than the last of the old snakes – and 560 lb-ft of torque, a 40 lb-ft increase. It feeds the rear wheels through a six-speed manual transmission.
Another change has been the decision to market the Viper under the SRT brand name, short for Street and Racing Technology, rather than as a Dodge. Where much of the rest of the industry has been consolidating brand names in recent years, Chrysler Group has gone the other direction, now marketing products under SRT, Ram and even Mopar marques.
The new SRT Viper will be produced in the same craft-work plant in Detroit as the earlier model, Chrysler recently reopening the plant it had shuttered prior to its bankruptcy.
In fact, before going into Chapter 11 the maker’s former CEO Bob Nardelli not only halted production of the Viper but even tried to find another manufacturer that might want to buy the nameplate. He was unsuccessful – which proved a good thing once Sergio Marchionne came onboard as chief executive and decided a new SRT Viper would symbolize Chrysler’s own rebirth.
The first of the new 2013 SRT Vipers will reach showrooms by November. The sports car will carry a base price of $99,390, with the GTS version starting at $122,390.