The Viper was discontinued in 2017. So why even bother talking about it now?
Well, this fully-bred American sports car was still being sold by Dodge dealerships 3 years after it was officially discontinued and many Viper enthusiasts were still happy to get their hands on one of these, despite the ax being let down on the entire project years prior.
And in good riddance, Dodge announced last year that they’ll soon be releasing an all-new Dodge Viper. But we don’t want to talk about that super-lightweight V8-powered monster able to take on the record-breaking C8 Corvette.
Instead, we want to go through the entire 25-year history of one of the most powerful sports cars ever produced on American soil. These 10 are not your average Dodge Viper. They defined the fast, unique, and coolest in the entire car’s history.
10 Neiman Marcus Special Edition Hennessey Venom 700NM
Because this marriage unorthodoxly worked. The story is that Neiman Marcus figured out that rich men who could afford designer clothes and shoes for their wives deserved better in life. And this tasteful machine is exactly what they needed.
And sure enough, nothing about the performance of this car suggested that it could be driven in stilettos despite the jet black exterior and a leather-trimmed, red, and white interior suggesting otherwise. All that was thanks to Hennessey.
The car featured a tuned, 8.4L V10 to the chassis. The 700NM at the end of the car’s rather long name was put there because that Hennessey V10 produced 700 ravaging horsepower. Hennessey even had to offer full-day training at their offices on how to handle the throttle in this car.
9 2016 Dodge Viper ACR
The only way to explain how fast the Dodge Viper ACR was, is by literally calling the Ferrari 458 Italia slow. Its rich history started in 1999 when Dodge unveiled the ACR variant that cost $10,000 more than the regular viper.
Fast forward to the 2016 model, which was surprisingly road legal, and you get to understand the steep price difference. This car was only third in Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to the over a million dollars Porche 918 Spyder and McLaren P1, when Motor Trend tested it. Nothing else, not even a fully bred bull from Lamborghini, could challenge it.
Why?
Because everything about its performance was ridiculous. The top-performing 2016 Viper ACR was blessed with an 8.4L 645-hp V10. The massive carbon-fiber rear wing, coupled with an aggressive front splitter, rear diffuser, and dive planes, gave this car approximately 1750 lbs of downforce. The only other car at the time, capable of producing such massive amounts of downforce, was the menacing McLaren P1.
8 ASC Diamondback Viper
The ASC Diamondback Viper is not your regular Viper. Yes, the original touch was done by Dodge, but everything else unique about this car was the work of McLaren and American Specialty Cars (ASC).
The ASC Diamondback Viper was based on the SRT10 Coupe. But that is where all the similarities end. This production was focused on trimming weight, a theme ASC had strongly established in its tuning jobs.
McLaren helped push the V10 in this Viper from 500hp to a whopping 615hp. They also fitted a carbon fiber hood that had ten trumpeted air-intakes sticking out, in what was a commemoration of the Can-Am engines synonymous with McLaren in the previous years. There was more carbon fiber added to the front fascia, roof, rockers, and decklids. These additions helped the ASC Diamondback Viper shed enough weight to make it 0.5 seconds faster in a 0-60 mph run.
Unfortunately, ASC went bankrupt a year later, after producing just a single one of this beauty.
7 Dodge Viper Bravado Banshee
The Viper Bravado Banshee is not a fast Viper. Some drivers might even argue that it falls within the spectrum of most old and regular Vipers. However, it is unique.
This ride specifically started life as a regular 2006 Dodge Viper SRT-10, before West Coast Customs transformed it into the Bravado Banshee, as exactly seen in Grand Theft Auto III. Rockstar games commissioned the production of the Banshee, which extensively featured a lot of Rockstar Games and Bravado Banshee branding.
And after being sold in auctions thrice, the Bravado Banshee was once again listed for a starting price of $63,000 in 2018. That was as much as a brand new 700-hp Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat.
6 1998 Viper GT2
The 1997 GT2 Road version would have never been made had there not been for the legendary 1997 GTS-R race car that took home the Team and Driver title in the 1997 FIA GT2 class.
The 1998 Viper GT2 Commemorative Edition was built the following year, as a commemoration to the winning GTS-R race version, and it turned out to be one of the best Dodge Vipers ever built. It ran on a 460-hp power unit that rocketed this GT2 since it was lighter than the standard model that was being sold at the time. What makes these even more special is the fact that Dodge only built and sold about 100 units of the GT2 for road use.
5 1992 Viper RT/10
Originally, this was the Dodge Viper SR1 – the first generation Dodge Viper ever built. Yes, Dodge intended for this car to be a performance sports car. But nothing about the RT/10’s design made that look obvious.
The first most striking design feature was the lack of door handles. You had to use the interior door release handle to get into the car. And that was after you unzipped the vinyl window because it had no glass windows. And it wasn’t a hardtop because all that protected you from the weather elements was a piece of canvas you’d stretch over the windshield and “sports bar.”
Still, the 400-hp 8.0L V10 made this very special, and the first production Dodge Viper, faster than the menacing Chevrolet Corvette ZR-1.
4 2017 Dodge Viper GTS-R
This car is not just fast. It’s also very unique. The 2017 GTS-R was produced to commemorate Viper’s 25-year successful racing history. This was after Dodge announced that the last Viper would roll off the production line in 2017.
But for this one, its celebration was rooted deeper into the achievements of the 1998 GTS-R GTS Championship Edition Viper. As such, it spotted special badges and a custom exterior livery. Specifically, the 2017 GTS-R came in the same pearl white, and blue pearl GTS stripes that the racing Vipers in the 1990s used to don.
Under the hood was that same 8.4L V10 that Dodge shipped with almost every other Viper. However, an aggressive aero package improved its performance, making its 0-60 time and overall track performance much better than that of the standard Viper.
3 2005 Viper SRT-10 Coupe
This is the Dodge Viper SRT that finally donned a roof. The SRT director at the time, Dan Knott, even mentioned that unlike the convertibles, this was a sure thing. And it was also unique.
Yes, the convertibles were powerful machines. That 500 hp from the 8.3L V10 with immense torque was enough to butcher lap times on the track. But the 2005 SRT-10 coupe offered something different. Despite running on the same chassis, and clocking 0-60 in 3.9 seconds, 0.1 seconds off the convertible Viper, this was the first Viper that felt practical.
Yes, sports cars are never meant to be practical. But the leather-clad seats, a six-speed manual gearbox that rested the engine at 1600 rpm at cruising speeds, and a rather roomy interior made a 500-mile journey in this unique Viper loveable.
2 Dodge Viper ACR-X
If you think the ACRs were savage beasts, then you haven’t heard of the ACR-X. Think of it as Professor X. Everything that the ACR didn’t have, this had, and in plenty.
Produced in 2010, the Dodge Viper ACR-X was a remarkable improvement from the base ACR. It used the same 8.4L V10, though Chrysler removed the corks and allowed it to produce 40 more ponies, giving it 640 in total. Torque was also upped by 45lb-ft, to an impressive 605lb-ft in total.
Those are just very small changes. What makes this car unique or fast?
Well, add the “small” power unit changes to the improved suspension, sticky Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires, and reduced weight, and you have a car that toppled the regular ACR’s Nurburgring lap time by 9 seconds. It went ahead to beat the record set by the regular ACR around Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca by 3 seconds.
1 Hennessey Viper Venom 1000TT
Why mention a Hennessey production in the same breath as original Vipers? Because this car not only proved that Vipers can be extra and race-worthy but also featured in the formative years of Hennessey Performance Engineering as a company.
The first Hennessey Viper Venom the company ever worked on was in 1993, following a special request by a customer who wanted to compete in the Nevada open road races. Long story short, this Viper Venom 500 won in its class and finished fourth overall, clocking an average speed of 164 mph.
That started a long development and tuning journey for Hennessey that has seen it work on some impressive Viper Venoms like the 1000TT. This specific Viper Venom made 1,000 ravaging horsepower from an 8.55L twin-turbocharged V10 sourced from a 2003 Viper.
The rest of the performance was nothing short of ridiculous, with the car clocking 3.25 seconds from 0-60 mph, before clocking a top speed of 215 mph.