Recently in Viper Category

I have an appreciation for all sorts of cars, but deep down I'm a Mopar man.  I've owned Fords and Chevys, but my favorite cars have been my 1983 Dodge Mirada 340 and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340, and when I get to events like SEMA I'm always very excited to see what Mopar has in store for me.

 

This year, I have to admit that the indoor Mopar display was a little bare, although cars like the Challenger 1320 (click here for more info) and the new Dodge Avenger pro stock car (more info coming soon!) made the display worth the time.  

 

But there was still Mopar Alley.  The area connecting the Central Hall and South Hall runs you through a parking lot and atop a busy overpass, but for years now Mopar has bridged the gap with a variety of new and vintage Mopars -  both privately owned and featured vehicles owned by Chrysler Corporation.

The idea for the Dodge Viper was conceived of in the mid to late 1980's, a fairly dark era in the history of the American Muscle Car. This period in history saw the introduction of a 4 cylinder economy engine into fabled performance cars such as the Ford Mustang and the Chevrolet Camaro. In the case of the Chrysler Corporation, vintage performance car names had been slapped on imports built by Mitsubishi. While Chrysler still had some fairly quick cars, with their popular turbocharged Daytona and Laser, these 4 cylinder front wheel drive configured vehicles were a far cry from "muscle cars". The only vehicle which had not been compromised since the muscle car days was the Chevrolet Corvette, but with only 230-240 horsepower, they too were not what they once had been. Recognizing a gap in the market and the need for a Chrysler muscle car in 1987, then-President Bob Lutz contacted the head of Chrysler's Advanced Design Studio, Tom Gale, and discussed the possibility of creating what would be a modern day AC Cobra. This would be a car that would embody every aspect of high performance, whether on a drag strip or a road course; a car that would go down in history as being one of the all-time great American Muscle Cars. It took only a few months for Gale and the people at Chrysler Design to come up with a clay model and then a concept that would be displayed at the 1989 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. The public and the media loved the new concept when it was displayed, and due to the reception that it received, Chrysler chief engineer Roy Sjoberg was given the green light to begin development on a production car based off of this concept.

Like an indomitable storm, the Formula Drift Series descended upon the streets of downtown Long Beach this past weekend for round 1 of the 2009 season, bringing with it the thunder of Team Mopar's tire-destroying Dodge Viper SRT10 drift car to a crowd of more than 40,000 fans. Also making an appearance was the 2009 Dodge Challenger SRT8 drift car, giving fans a preview of things to come later in the season. Now entering its 5th season, the Formula Drift Series has grown exponentially in just a short period of time and has been a key player in exposing drifting to the U.S.

The new Dodge Challenger has allowed Dodge enthusiasts a chance to buy a new "muscle car", with the definition of rear wheel drive, front engine, V8s.  However, models like the Charger SRT-8 and Dodge Viper SRT-10 have filled the gap in Dodge performance, although in other segments, and both have proven to be very successful.

In speaking with a handful of performance enthusiasts (both Dodge, other domestic, and import enthusiasts), I found that the following models were the most commonly mentioned in the question of "what is the best Dodge muscle car of all time?  There is no right answer, so here are the 8 models that were mentioned when I was asking people the same question, so I present to DodgeForum a tail of the tape for each of the following 8 cars for your consideration in what you would pick as the greatest Dodge muscle car. 

The Chrysler Corporation Employee Pricing system offers great low prices to company employees, but that program has typically had its exclusions, such as the Dodge Viper.  However, with sales suffering in a rough economy, the sales of the already slow selling Viper have gotten worst.  Even though the Viper appears to be in its twilight hours with the end of production already announced and an effort by Chrysler to sell the Viper program to the highest bidder, Dodge has announced that it is now included in the Employee Pricing Program.  This is great news for company employees who have an uncertain job future, so its questionable how many of the company's 130,000+ employees will jump on the deal.