1994 Dodge Viper – Classified of the Week

The Dodge Viper was, let’s not beat around the bush here, bonkers. But while it may have been wheeled insanity, it was also a deeply important car. Today, think of Dodge and you think of the current range of again, bonkers cars. The Charger, the Challenger, the Hellcat versions and the Ram. Big, burly cars and trucks that are modern day hot rods. The Challenger Hellcat can nudge 200bhp in ‘red key’ tune let us not forget. Dodge has become a brand now synonymous with speed, with noise and with power. But in the late 1980s, the story couldn’t have been more different. Instead, Dodge was a creaking shell of its former muscle car self. Sure, it had given us the Charger, the Challenger, the hemi, but those days had gone. In the 1980s, Dodge made incredibly dull small cars. Wheeled boxes with about as much zest as a glass of tepid milk. They were awful. Dodge needed to change that.

The original concept was pretty damn close to the final car!

In 1988, the team at Chrysler’s Advanced Design Studios bunked off penning dull saloons and instead, let their minds run wild. What they came up with was the Viper. A low, impossibly wide, two-seater with a curvaceous body and three-spoke wheels. Delicious. Chrysler’s (the parent company) Bob Lutz suggested that they should produce it. A clay model was built, then a metal one and before they knew it, it was being unveiled to giddy crowds at the 1989 North American Motor Show. Chief engineer Roy Sjoberg was directed to develop it into a full production car. However, it wasn’t plain sailing. Motoring mega man, Lee Iacocca, wasn’t sold on the $70,000,000 development projection (despite it actually being quite cheap, relatively speaking). Not to be deterred, Sjoberg and his 85-strong team carried on developing it, including the all-new V10. In 1990, Iacocca gave his approval. It was a wise move on his part, as the Viper instantly put Dodge back on the map.

The Viper would become a Dodge mainstay for the next twenty-six years. It went through various, increasingly bonkers evolutions as the years rolled by, and for that the motoring world was thankful. It was a silly car, one that didn’t need to exist. But it did, and what it did for Dodge was nothing short of miraculous. And while the later cars are indeed the maddest, that doesn’t mean the early cars are tame. As evidenced by the one we have here; a 1994 Dodge Viper R/T10. And SR-1 as it was known internally. This is Viper genesis. The original. The daddy. And now, a classic. Doesn’t look like your traditional classic though, that’s for sure.

Fitted with an eight-litre V10 backed up by a Borg Warner T56 six-speed manual transmission, this beast is all grunt. No supercharger, no turbo. Just power. 400bhp in fact, with 465lb ft. It can crack 60 in 4.6 seconds, and it will go all the way to 165mph. The performance is helped by the fact that the Viper isn’t nearly as heavy as it looks. It tips the scales at a positively featherweight 1,490kg thanks to the tubular steel frame design and fibreglass body. It’s a bit of a handful to drive, mind. No traction control, no ABS and no airbags if you get it wrong. It doesn’t even have door handles or door locks. You do get a stereo though. Not that you can hear it.

This one, which is priced at a not unreasonable £49,950 is in stunning condition. It was imported in 2006 and has been with the same owner since. It’s been fitted with some 20-inch split-rim alloys, it boasts an impressive history file and even has the benefit of a recently fitted clutch. It even comes with weather gear, should you be bonkers enough to take this 400bhp, rear-wheel drive, no traction control car out in the wet!

It’s not a car for shy, retiring types as the advert rightly states. But it is a hell of a lot of fun. A big, daft over the top car that will never fail to put a smile on your face. Do it. You only live once.