Dominik Farnbacher drives a street-legal 2010 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR to a new production car lap record of 7:12.13 at the Nürburgring Nordschleife.
Chrysler Group announced today that it will reopen its Conner Avenue Assembly Plant in Detroit for the production of the next generation 2013 SRT Viper. The closed Viper plant was the victim of the Chrysler bankruptcy in 2009 and was originally listed as an asset to be sold. However, there were no takers for the sale of the Viper and its entire Conner Avenue plant for only $10 million. The Viper business earned $16 million in 2008 by building 1,545 cars and engines, according to a bankruptcy filing.
Fiat – with nothing to lose – decided to retain Viper intellectual property and production assets after Chrysler Group emerged from a taxpayer financed reorganization. In an attempt to wring out some final sales from the old Viper, Dodge built 500 2010 model year Viper coupe and roadster models. Sales of existing – $90,000 asking price – Vipers have been slow at 161 Vipers this year through November. And there are some still in stock, although Chrysler didn’t provide AutoInformed with an exact breakdown.
A 2010 production Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR (American Club Racer) posted a 7:12.13 lap time this September on the12.9-mile Nürburgring Nordschleife. This means that the old Viper on one timed lap was faster than a 2012 Chevrolet Corvette ZR1, which posted a lap time of 7:19.63 back in June. A Porsche 997 GT2 RS posted a 7:18 lap time last year, but the Porsche at $350,000 in Germany is roughly three or more times more expensive the American super cars.
Viper production began in May 1992 at the New Mack Assembly Plant, and then moved to the Conner Avenue site in October 1995. All Vipers that rolled off the line were hand-built in a low-volume, modular process. Over the course of 15 years, Conner Avenue employees built about 12 vehicles a day for a total of 22,070 Vipers.
Introduced as a concept car in 1989 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the Dodge Viper was championed by then president Bob Lutz and design head Tom Gale. Viper allegedly was designed and engineered to test public reaction to the concept of a back-to-basics, high-performance, limited production sports car. It was a shameless and unapologetic knock-off of the original Ford Cobra.
Customer orders began before the auto show was over. Chrysler Corporation immediately decided to determine the production feasibility of what was merely a show car with no engineering or assembly data behind it.
In May 1990, after months of study and testing, Chrysler announced that the Dodge Viper, powered by an aluminum V-10 engine was a “go.” The hundreds of millions that were spent for the program were hidden by Lutz under the profitable minivan line, and for all I know the 2013 Viper expenses might still be residing there.
See:
- Dodge Viper Bests Chevrolet Corvette Lap Time at Nürburgring
- Corvette ZR1 Cuts 6 Seconds from Nürburgring Lap Time
- Click here for in Corvette video
- Click here for Viper video
