The Generation Game: Dodge Viper

[Liquid]

The Generation Game: Dodge Viper

1991-2002 Dodge Viper (SR I/SR II)

Bodystyles: 2-door targa, 2-door coupe, 2-door liftback
Engine: 8.0L V10
Drivetrain: FR
Length: ~4.47m / 176in
Weight: ~1,520kg / 3,344lbs

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2002-2010 Dodge Viper (ZB I/ZB II)

Bodystyles: 2-door roadster, 2-door coupe, 2-door convertible
Engines: 8.3 - 8.4L V10
Drivetrain: FR
Length: ~4.46m / 176in
Weight: ~1,559kg / 3,430lbs

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2012-2017 Dodge Viper (VX)

Bodystyles: 2-door coupe
Engines: 8.4L V10
Drivetrain: FR
Length: 4.46m / 176in
Weight: 1,525kg / 3,355lbs

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The delineation between gens isn't absolute with some of the Vipers. You may quibble at your leisure.

Previous Results Thread

 

[AEKara38]

All of them, especially in AEK colours or blue and white, don't make me choose! Since Need For Speed on PS1 I've loved Vipers

 

[05XR8]

First Viper I ever saw was the original targa on the West Side Highway. Around that time of debut. My brother was driving his ‘88 Cordia L. We’re taking a regular cruise down the Henry Hudson Pkwy and doing a run down to South Street Seaport and then loop up the FDR and back to The Bronx.
As we exit to where the Henry Hudson becomes West Side Highway, we see this red Viper with yellow wheels. Look like John Madden(not) was driving. The top of the guy’s head was over the windscreen! Anyway, not sure the car was even for sale yet. Traffic was hectic as usual, our lane was moving and we never saw it again.
So, in 1996, I had traded my 1990 Saab 9000 turbo for a ‘92 Passat GL(I wanted the green Passat GLX that was next to it, but a married couple offered more down payment to the dealer, which was Potamkin Volkswagen). Wouldn’t you know it, possibly the same red with yellow wheels Viper was on the showroom floor!

Love me a top off car, but the First Gen GTS is the joint. Bonkers styling and the motor. Newer Vipers are faster, but to me, the original is perfect.

 

[-Fred-]

No contest.

But if we have to stick to road cars, it's still the first gen GTS, blue over white.

 

[Liquid]

No contest.

But if we have to stick to road cars, it's still the first gen GTS, blue over white.

Absolutely agree but I will also submit:

I think the third-gen also looks fantastic but it doesn't have anywhere near the cultural impact as the first RT/10 and GTS. The first-gen Viper is a proper Gran Turismo car - for lots of us non-Americans, particularly young ones in the 1990s, it was a completely amazing WOW! car to have in a game absolutely of the Zeitgeist.

 

[TheCracker]

Difficult one this. They're all equally cool and all equally good looking. Got to go with the first gen as that's the one with the most motorsport heritage and also being the original means what followed wouldn't have existed had it not being for impact that it created.

 

[Jezza819]

Easy choice, first gen GTS, blue with white stripes.

 

[lilcat89]

First-gen GTS, in blue with white stripes in just perfection to me. As a kid, I had a set of Maisto 1/18 scale American sportscars with the Cobra-R, C5 Z06, and Viper GTS. The Viper was the prettiest looking one of the set, and probably the best looking American car of the era. The first Daytona 24 I remember watching was the one that the Oreca Viper won overall. Those GTS-Rs helped and I do quite like the Second-gen SRT-10 roadster as well, but just not as much.

 

[Tornado]

Think the second Gen is kinda lame, but it's a tight race between the first and third. Have to mull it over.

 

[BKGlover]

Gen 1. Something about Gen 3, not sure what exactly, never grabbed me, and while I like the Gen 2 look it was at it's best in it's racing/track day versions (Comp Coupe and ACR specifically for me.) but the original was a shock that has never let go of my heart, even if it wouldn't hesitate to kill me, and then the GTS was released and it is still a gorgeous thing that is still likely to kill me.

That said, if I could afford any of them I would not say no.

 

[McLaren]

No contest.

But if we have to stick to road cars, it's still the first gen GTS, blue over white.

2,250,000 reasons this is the correct answer. IIRC, this specific chassis absolutely dominated the 2000 GTS roster.

 

[Liquid]

Apropos any and other memories of the cars, I always associate the original RT/10 and GTS with the fabulous dealership music in GT1.

 

[Liquid]

@Tornado Just curious what settled your vote in the end?

 

[Eunos_Cosmo]

First gen all the way. At least to look at. I don't think I'd want to actually own and drive one.

 

[Liquid]

Bit too busy today so the next thread will go up tomorrow.

 

[Nexus]

Before the power to weight ratio and speed limits were introduced, we had a few 3rd gen ACR's winning the top class of the Adelaide Rally over the years - against Exige's and GT2 RS's. Insane machines.

 

[VXR]

I missed the voting, but the original red RT is supreme and the GTS is a close second.

 

[FT-1]

I missed voting too, but I'd have a hard time choosing, all 3 gens evoke a different sense of nostalgia for me. The early Gran Turismo games introduced me to the SR, The ZB was very prominent in street racing video games in the mid-00's (Though I mostly associate it with Midnight Club), and the VX was the original Forza Horizon hero car, and I'll always associate it with any game in the series. I would probably choose the original for starting everything off.

 

[Downhill Dino]

Apropos any and other memories of the cars, I always associate the original RT/10 and GTS with the fabulous dealership music in GT1.

Similarly this starts playing in my head whenever I see a GTS:



Good memories. Coincidentally also in Gran Turismo (GT3) but I've always associated the song, and the GTS, with Test Drive 5/6.

 

[ScottPuss20]

I like all Vipers very much. I always freak out when I see one down here because they're soo rare. However if I was going to choose one for my dream garage it would probably be the first gen GTS. Dodge brought what was essentially a sledgehammer to a sports car knife fight and it somehow managed to win. It kicked the Corvette to the curb, forcing Chevrolet to develop the legendary LS engine for the C5. The other 2 generations of Viper did not find the same amount of success on or off the track. It really was a case of lightning in a bottle. Nobody saw it coming and not even Dodge were able to repeat it.

 

[Tornado]

@Tornado Just curious what settled your vote in the end?

There's probably not much need to relitigate how amazing of a car the first generation was at the time after Dodge actually took the steps to make it not be TVR-level of slapdash in its construction, design and performance so I'll skip it. The last generation was the one that had all the capability (so much so that Ford needs to charge $350,000 and have an army of engineers take over the Nurburgring to barely eclipse it) while also actually being a "real" car with actual effort being made towards making them livable and exotic. They are also extremely striking in person just as the original was and still as shockingly small (same dimensions as a C4!?) as the first generation.


The second gen in comparison was the beginning of the grotesque parody of MANLY that has dominated Dodge's marketing to this day, to the extent that it's a needlessly worse car than the GTS-era first generation car in some ways for what was (initially) fairly meaningless performance gain, especially once the C6 Z06 dropped soon after.

 

[TheCracker]

They are also extremely striking in person just as the original was and still as shockingly small (same dimensions as a C4!?) as the first generation.

 

[Venom800tt]

View attachment 1458399

There is a reason I call Vipers "spicy Miatas", I mean look at how small they are lol. Also let's be real here the NB was totally inspired by the original Viper.
I voted for the VX myself, but I love the SR just as much. It pains me to think that there will never be another sports/supercar like it again.

 

[TheCracker]

That photo is perhaps a touch misleading with the angles its taken at but still:

..............................Length..................Wheelbase........Height
Challenger.......197.9(inch).....116.2.........57.7
Viper GTS........176.8...........96.3..........46.9
NA MX-5..........155.5...........89.2..........48.4

 

[Omnis]

You don't know cool until you've seen a Hennessey Venom GT-S in person. I'll never forget the sound of that thing, the huge wing and made-in-Chincinatti front splitter. Someone had a red one with acid-yellow stripes down here. That's the car that put Hennesey on the map.

LOL, found it on BAT: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1997-dodge-viper-gts-23/

The yellow looks more orange now. I think the hiviz fluoro washed out-- probably had some orange tint to mask the green hue.

 

[Darla Starch]

You don't know cool until you've seen a Hennessey Venom GT-S in person. I'll never forget the sound of that thing, the huge wing and made-in-Chincinatti front splitter. Someone had a red one with acid-yellow stripes down here. That's the car that put Hennesey on the map.

LOL, found it on BAT: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1997-dodge-viper-gts-23/

View attachment 1459826
View attachment 1459827

The yellow looks more orange now. I think the hiviz fluoro washed out-- probably had some orange tint to mask the green hue.

 

[Chikane_GTR]

For me its the GTS viper first car I ever liked from when I first saw it in GT1 with the beautiful blue and white.

Follow by the Team Oreca Viper from 1999 to the end 2000 one if the most dominant race cars ever.

The 2003 Gen are OK and the 2013 I'm not a big fan of.