Remember the Dodge Viper ? The two - seater sports car from Chrysler with the V-10 engine , supercar specs and a slung - back cockpit that made it attend like an Italian sports railroad car ? Well , it does n’t exist anymore . Or , to be more precise , it still exists , but has a different name : The SRT Viper . For several years , Chrysler has been append the initials SRT ( for " Street and Racing Technology " ) to its high - powered models because they were developed by a special team within Chrysler , a radical of engineers and designers focalise on cars intended less for commuter train and more for fancier who wanted amuscle carthat would n’t be out of place on the Indy 500 racetrack . These cars have included the Dodge Challenger SRT8 ( where the 8 indicates an 8 - piston chamber engine ) , the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 , and quite a few others . But now Chrysler has decided to gyrate off SRT as a separate division within the party and the Viper is its flagship vehicle . The Dodge Viper SRT10 , one of the most sinewy supercars ever to roll out of a major American automaker ’s fabrication works , has become simply the SRT Viper and , after some time spent express off prototypes at motorcar display , the first one to hit the streets is the 2013 model .
If you want a car with the sleek line of a Ferrari and the H.P. of a rocket sled , the 2013 SRT Viper might be what you ’re look for . With a fire - take a breath V-10 engine under its hood , it come across like Superman in a world of 4 - cylinder Clark Kents . The inside of the car has been upgraded from what some people once perceive as a evenhandedly cheap shape plastic appearance on sr. models ; the 2013 SRT Viper has brightly colored leather - upholstered seats design by the same fellowship that makes seats for Ferrari . Perhaps the not bad change over old models is in the electronics : Simply put , it has them while the older viper did n’t . The Viper was originally plan for old - school drivers who wish the feeling of control the railcar all by themselves , without computers make determination for them . That ’s no longer effectual , but the SRT team has made the new Viper ’s computerized controls both pernicious and optional .
On the next couple of pages we ’ll take a spirit at what ’s under the hood of the 2013 SRT Viper and what ’s inside .
Under the Hood
Let ’s get the drivetrain specs out of the room first : The 2013 SRT Viper has rearward - rack - drive with a 10 - piston chamber , 8.4 - liter engine that can father 640 - horsepower and 600 pound - pes of torsion . The SRT engineers say it has the potential to hit a top speed of 206 miles per hour ( 331.5 kilometers per time of day ) . That would be the " racing " part of Street and Racing Technology . As you know , there are n’t many street in the United States where 206 miles per time of day ( 331.5 kilometre per hour ) would be legal – but there are quite a few where it would be lethal .
That ’s one heck of anengine , and it ’s a mountain more hefty than anything you would have seen from Detroit as recently as just two 10 ago . The 1992 Dodge Viper only had a 400 - H.P. engine and maxed out at 150 miles per hour ( 241.4 kilometers per hour ) , though that was still about three times faster than you could have gone on the local throughway without a race ticket ( and mayhap chopper video reporting on the evening word ) . In putting this new drivetrain together , SRT had to make some compromise , but they ’ve tried to make them as subtle as potential , so classic Viper drivers wo n’t notice that a computing machine is monitor their car ’s every move . For a large contingency of its owners , part of the Viper ’s charm has always been its unruliness , its all American refusal to adopt the naturalise magic spell of its European counterpart . Make the ride too smooth and these possessor might palpate that somebody has made the Viper downright prissy . Unfortunately , the U.S. regime has made this somewhat difficult by mandating ABS braking and traction controller . In other Word , the 2013 SRT Viper has to boast computer - controlled smoothness – whether owner want it or not . The SRT Viper will , however , allow you to simply work stability see off ( a feature article that ’s been potential for several year ) . There ’s also set in motion mastery for racers who want to get moving as chop-chop as possible from a standing first . And for driver with more svelte tastes , those who prefer a smooth , more European driving stylus , SRT offers a pricier GTS example with two - fashion adjustable shocks and legal - dampening equipment to keep the boom of that 640 - H.P. engine from drown out any Brahms that might be playing on thesatellite radiosystem .
What else ? The SRT Viper has 14 - in ( 35.6 - centimeter ) disk bracken and Pirelli tyre . A lightweight Al flywheel makes the engine rev up quicker , a six - fastness manual transmission with improved gear ratios and a lighter body and chassis . Oh , and it ’s faster than the one-time Viper , too – for several reasons . One is that 640 - horsepower engine . Another is that the torso has been streamlined for a lower retarding force coefficient and the locomotive engine has variable - valve - timing . And the base model is 140 pounds ( 63.5 kilograms ) lighter than the erstwhile one . This is a car that screams both sleekness and power without too much loss of American ruggedness .
But what about the one feature of the old Viper that probably pull in the most possessor complaint : Its Department of the Interior ? Yeah , that ’s had a work over , too .
It’s What’s Inside That Counts
The inside of the old Viper had a reputation for being – How can we put this exquisitely ? – cheap . More like the moldable chairs in your local auto mechanic ’s waiting elbow room than the plush interior of a Lamborghini . That might conform to the tough figure of speech of a muscle gondola with a budget price rag but when a vehicle has a spikelet price that can easily adjoin into the six figures , it really ought to offer amenities more like those in the high roller lounge at a Las Vegas cassino . Not amazingly , SRT has that covered , mostly with leather upholstery , supplemented with soft grain vinyl radical . The interior color schema is downright reasonably , in the macho sorting of style a Viper would guarantee . There are color accents on the seats and matching semblance stitch on the doors , consoles and instrument panel .
Sabelt , the fellowship that reach seats for Ferrari , has design shell ass for the 2013 SRT Viper . In the higher - price GTS model , you get stock Napa leather upholstery or optional Italian Laguna leather . The Viper , being a subspecies railroad car as well as a street car , the roof is high to accommodate the gadget driver ’s helmet ( or just a taller driver ) . And , in keeping with the Viper ’s transition from the analog era to the digital age , the splasher has been changed into the form of electronic wonderland bear these days of luxury ( and even a muckle of mid - price ) railway car . There ’s an 8.4 - inch ( 21.3 - centimeter ) cabinet screen with touch controller for Bluetooth connectivity , satellite radio and a GPS . you may also choose between 12 and 18 verbalizer for your sound system ( in case you ever get tired of take heed to that incredible locomotive growling ) . The touch modality screen includes what SRT call an electronic vehicle selective information showing , or EVIC for short , with a " high - definition introduction of performance - orientate feedback to the number one wood " [ beginning : Drivesrt.com ] . This feedback include quickening time , brake distance and top speed , the sorting of info that a racing driver needs more than a commuter train , but you may reckon that even drivers who only expend their Viper on the street will peek at it every now and then .
There will inevitably be drivers who overleap the ' grating sharpness ' of the Viper of one-time and resent the encroachment of motor - by - conducting wire computer controls on a railcar that once challenge a number one wood to take a piercing turn and number out pointed the good way . SRT has die out of its agency to make the new 2013 Viper as conversant as potential for these ' previous - timekeeper ' while still making it user friendly ( yes , and politics - safety - mandate well-disposed ) for driver who came of age in the era of the Prius . Or for those drivers who just want a car that meld European elegance with loiter touch of the American muscle car spirit . It ’s anybody ’s surmisal if this is a car that will please both groups or if this is a via media that wo n’t please anyone . But either way , you ca n’t say that Chrysler has n’t given it one hell of a endeavour .
Okay , I ’ll ' fess up . I drive a Prius . It ’s electronic right field down to its room access handle . Its motor would n’t know how to grumble if it take lessons from a cavalry sword - toothed Panthera tigris and it will never go half as fast as the 2013 Viper . Which is a safe thing , because the speeding ticket here in California are make so expensive that one might be me more than I ’m getting paid to write this article . But I also remember the first time I pace on the accelerator of a V-8 powered car with a manual transmission and how it felt like I ’d hitched a ride on a Sun Myung Moon rocket . I can only imagine what it feels like to drive a V-10 with 640 - HP and 600 pound - feet of torsion . Or , no , I really ca n’t . But it must be quite a drive .
