Posted on 03/06/2014 1:17:21 PM PST by Doogle
The original Dodge Viper revealed in 1992 was a beast of a machine — an attempt by then-Chrysler exec Bob Lutz to revive the spirit of the Shelby Cobra and give Chrysler a world-class sports car. Powered by a massive V-10 with 400 hp, the early Viper's brute force overwhelmed many drivers.
Today, the power that made the Viper a legend appears to be at the heart of an order from Chrysler to dozens of trade schools, demanding the immediate destruction of some 93 early Vipers, including a preproduction model that could likely fetch a couple hundred thousand dollars at auction.
According to The Olympian, the staff of South Puget Sound Community College was told by a Chrysler official that their Viper had to be crushed within two weeks. It's common for automakers to donate cars to automotive shop classes, and in many cases the vehicles in such donations aren't saleable — meaning the company technically still owns the cars. School officials say Chrysler told them two of the 93 early Vipers given to schools had been involved in accidents by joyriding students, creating a major liability for Chrysler.
Of those 93, the Viper at SPSCC stands out. It was the fourth Viper ever built, with a prototype hard top years before Dodge offered a production version. With no emissions controls, and no speed limiter, the V-10 can make 600 hp, and school instructors say it could be worth $250,000 to a museum or private Viper fan.
(Excerpt) Read more at autos.yahoo.com ...
....just a bad decade for older cars...first we had Odungo’s assault on the “clunker”...then the Corvette collection...now the vipers...
how’d that happen how’d that happen
I tried to order a Viper last July. The dealer asked if I already owned one. I said no. He laughed at me and walked away.
There’s 146 on eBay currently including 51 new ones.
If you read the story, the schools don’t hold the title, so Chrysler is still liable. They were basically a permanent loan. It sucks, but legally they can’t be sold or driven.
I miss the days when cars actually had cool names........
Viper
Stingray
Camaro
Barracuda
Now we get Fusion and/or alphabets and numbers.
You might enjoy the laugh:
10 worst Chinese car names
http://jalopnik.com/5220208/the-ten-worst-chinese-car-names
Another one that sort of fits in with what you’re talking about here is “Wildcat.” It sounds pretty cool until you consider the following two things:
1) a wildcat is basically the wild counterpart of an ordinary house cat; and
2) the car the name was applied to is a Buick.
Agreed. I think it says something about our creativity, among other things.
If Chrysler still owns the vehicles, let them pick them up and have them crushed. Why should the schools be responsible for this?
Also, these cars are orth millions on the open market. Why not just sell them and take the money?
Chrysler is not making any sense if you take them at their word.
Which means, of course, they have an ulterior motive. And I think the fact that they want these students of automotive engineering to destroy this beautiful American car themselves, instead of Chrysler doing it, is the big fat clue in the middle of the shop.
It’s simply an anti-American ploy by the Rats who own Chrysler. A sacrifice, if you will, for their god of self-revulsion. Liberalism takes constant self-revulsion and hatred of America. What better way to express this is to have American students crush this American supercar themselves - simply because they were told to do it.
Great obedience training in self-destruction and self-loathing, I’d say.
Are there any names as bad as say, the Nissan Homy Super Long or the Mazda Bongo Friendee?
There was a fellow who lived in Kladno - about 18 miles or so NW of Prague - who had a Dodge Viper. He may have imported it in, I don’t know where he got it from, but this guy shouldn’t have been behind the wheel of anything more substantial than a VW Beetle. He didn’t know how to drive the car; I think it was a little too much vehicle for him, but he’d struck it rich, and I guess he wanted to show off.
After having it less than one year, he totalled it. The last time I saw it, it was sitting in a wrecking yard on the outskirts of town. Damned shame; it was a beautiful car.
High-performance cars aren’t for everyone.
One of the fastest muscle cars ever made was the Buick GS455 Stage 1. It was faster than a 'vette.
One day soon a generation will arise who will think that the first car was a Prius.
...might work as a golf cart...*smiles*
As a matter of fact, those cars were the first thing that came to mind when I read this story, because I remembered asking Dad "whatever happened to the Turbines?"
He told me they'd been destroyed, by Chrysler, and years later I read Chrysler had, indeed, destroyed 100 of these special cars.
It bothered me when I was a kid, and it bothers me today. The litigious society, it would seem, at least as far as Chrysler's Turbine experiments, is at least 50 years old, and Leno must pay a "rider" on insurance to keep hold of his museum piece.
It also means Chrysler did not destroy all of them. Aren't there at least five of them stashed away?
Some of the prototype vehicles made by the manufacturers have trickled out over the years, and some of them were pretty amazing.
I knew one guy who got his hands on what looked like an ordinary 4-door sedan of the early 1960s. What made it special was that it was solid steel, with non-standard reinforcing that made it into a real tank. Oddly enough, its fuel mileage was not very much worse than a production model of the same type. The difference being that the engine was hand crafted, not mass produced, so had no tiny gaps by which a lot of efficiency is lost.
He was not a good driver, though, and got into four accidents in the time he owned the car, while seriously damaging the other cars involved, just scratched his paint.
that's messed up...
And the blame goes to....? Well, you-know-who. An entire MULTIIVERSE of government-related trouble awaits those who put a car with no VIN number on a public street.
But, I won’t miss them. Pretty good, albeit rudimentary engine, whose only claim to fame was number of holes and displacement, in a car with the style and sophistication of a shaved bar of used soap.
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