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Detroit's
First SuperCar
In the mid to late 1980's,
Chrysler was enjoying success with the K-Car pulling them out of the Red
Ink, Jeep going strong and a vehicle not big enough to be a van, but roomy
like a big van, that was easy to drive and no one else produced. Chrysler
Corporation, with Chrysler's Chairman Lee Iacocca and Chryslers President
Bob Lutz, was as healthy as the day Walter P. Chrysler opened the doors
of Chrysler Corporation. In 1989, when the Viper concept car was introduced
at the Detroit Auto Show, Viper was intended to show Chrysler's Vitality.
With Carroll Shelby on board, Chrysler was turning out pocket rockets like
the CS Daytona Turbo, Omni GLH, GLHS and CS Spirits. Carroll Shelby wanted
to build a show car with many of the characteristics found on the famed
A/C Cobra that Carroll Shelby built back in that Airport hanger in California.
Chrysler put together a team of engineers Called "Team Viper" to build
that show car .
The original Show car, powered
by a LA 360 V-8, was a hit at the 1989 Detroit Auto Show. Even though not
a single Viper was produced at this point, the other manufacturers felt
the heat from the show car and started to panic. Magazines were filled
with ink on the incredible new SuperCar coming out of Detroit. GM even
built a Corvette in 1989 called the Snake Skinner, and still not a single
Viper was sold or even given the green light at that point to become a
production car.
With the great success of the
Show Car, the team was on track to take the Show Car to the next level.
They were not after a car for the masses to own, they wanted to build the
only US SuperCar to ever come out of Detroit. With the help of Lamborgini
(a Chrysler subsidiary), they commissioned the power train team from Lambo
to build them a SuperCar power plant like no other. Using the LA block
as the platform, Lambo was on their way to building the largest displacement
all aluminum gasoline motor to come out of Detroit in a production car!
The all aluminum 488 cubic inch
R/T 10 powerplant produced 400 horsepower, the most to come out of Detroit
since the early 70's, and Torque ratings unheard of by SuperCar lovers,
450 ft lbs of torque.
In May of 1990, the official
approval was given by Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca. One year later, Carroll
Shelby piloted a pre-production R/T 10 Viper as the Indianopaolis 500 Pace
Car. The first Vipers were released January of 1992.
First Generation Vipers were
considered by some as a crude "kit car". Chrysler translated that into
the most sought after production line vehicle to come out of Chrysler Corporation.
This R/T 10 was purchased in
New Jersey on August 11, 1994 at Warnock D-C-P-J-E. Base Price was $54,500
Total Price with A/C and Gas Guzzler tax was $58,500. Due to the low production
numbers, Vipers were being sold at market adjusted prices up into and over
the $70,000.00 range.
With only 13,000 miles, this
Viper is original from it's paint to it's tires.
