The Dodge Viper is an icon for all car enthusiasts. The small sports car powered with a V-10 was the outcome when the Dodge team wanted to come up with something which screamed performance. A Red Viper RT10 from the '90s is the embodiment of the same. The Viper got such a huge response from the market that Dodge kept the insignia going for years. Viper was the answer to anyone who wanted to do away with all the new shams and wanted to just feel the power oozing through them while on the road.
The Viper was pretty basic when as far as features are concerned, but boy could it pack a punch. It was one cane of the most dangerous cars back in the day. The Viper wasn't that expensive and boasted a V-10 Engine, which was all the speedsters were concerned about.
Let's Find Out How Much A Classic Dodge Viper Is Worth Today
Dodge Viper: The Modern Day Shelby Cobra
In the late '80s, Chrysler was in trouble. They weren't able to capture the market or keep up with the competition against Ford and Chevrolet. Bob Lutz, the Executive Vice President of Chrysler had a brilliant idea to bring Chrysler into the competition. He was pretty clear about what he wanted. He wanted a two-seater sports car which went fast. Bob Lutz wanted to recreate something like the Shelby Cobra to bring back the American Muscle Car. Lutz conveyed the same to Chrysler Head of Design Tom Gale.
Tom Gale was pretty excited and had his own share of success with cars like the Plymouth Barracuda and Challenger. Lutz had given him free rein to do whatever needed to bring that vision to reality. Taking inspiration from the Shelby Cobra, they decided to put in a V-10 engine into a small body. The Viper was given a long hood, a small deck which is the trademark of an American Muscle Car. Caroll Shelby was also consulted while developing this car. Caroll Shelby, Gale, and their team came up with a prototype for this beauty within a year.
Back in the day, Chrysler also had Lamborghini in its deck. They made sure to reap its benefits. Lamborghini which had then released the Muria, Countach, and the Diablo was helping out to make the Viper a beast with teeth.
Under the Hood of the Viper
The Viper was an overpowered muscle car with no features to keep it in control. The Viper was also dubbed as the 'Widow Maker'. The Dodge Viper had an 8.0-liter V-10 engine powering the beast. Initially, they planned on putting in the V-10 engine which was being developed for the heavy-duty Dodge Ram Pickup truck into the Viper. Then, Dodge wanted to go one step further and convert the iron-block V-10 developed for the trucks into an aluminum design that would be better suited for the sleek Viper.
The massive V-10 was producing an astounding 400 HP and 465 pound-feet torque. It had been coupled with a six-speed manual transmission. Due to the pretty low weight that the Dodge was able to maintain on the Viper, it was able to do 0-60mph in 4.2 seconds, and it hit a top speed of 160 mph. The Viper could easily complete the quarter-mile in just about 12.6 seconds at the speed of 113.8 mph.
Design and Other Features
As far as the Dodge Viper was concerned, Lutz envisioned just one simple thing an ultra-focused, back-to-the-basics, fast American Muscle car. The team delivered on just that. The Viper back then had no features to assist the driver, no stability control, no traction control, no airbags, and no anti-lock brakes. It was a beast without the brains. The Viper wasn't going to be that easy to tame.
To give it this speed and this simplicity, the team did away with all the luxuries. The badge of the Viper looks like it has snakeskin which is very good attention to detail. The grille had crosshairs which were a trademark, Dodge. Dodge hoped people would recognize it. The design of the car was based on the previous sports cars like the Jaguar E-type and the Shelby Cobra. Like the Cobra it had no roof, the Viper also didn't have any real windows. The windows were clip-on which were delivered in a black bag. The windows were plastic and had a zipper on the outside. Pretty weird right. It went as far as to no door handle on the outside. So, to open the door from the outside you would still have to reach over on the inside.
The interior could easily be called cheap and crappy. The quality of the plastic wasn't that great. The screws were all exposed considering it to be a pretty expensive car back in the day. They didn't put in much work as far as looks, luxury, and superfluous features were concerned. The Dashboard also included one special indicator which suggested the driver when to shift for optimal fuel efficiency. As if, anybody driving the Viper would even bother themselves with fuel efficiency. The seatbelts of the original viper were given on the doors. The exhaust of the cars was right below the doors which burned a number of customers even though they added a sign warning everyone of the same.
What is the Viper Worth Today?
The Dodge Viper is one of the most iconic American Sports cars which according to today's standards was definitely not safe for the roads. It was a beast. The models that came later on, were just a more toned-down version where the company gave in to the customers' demands for the luxuries. Still, the Dodge Viper was easily able to outperform its European Rivals at a much lesser cost which was initially $50k. Nowadays, the Classic Dodge Viper goes for around $40,000. It's a very small price to pay to own a beast with this kind of lineage and performance.