Dodge Viper to end production after 2017

[Denis]

http://www.autoblog.com/2016/06/21/d...canceled-2017/

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Dodge Celebrates 25th Anniversary and Final Year of Viper Production with Five Exclusive Limited-edition Models

New 25th anniversary limited-edition models feature exclusive content to commemorate the final year of Viper production
1:28 Edition ACR (American Club Racer) – Celebrating the current Laguna Seca single-lap record of 1:28.65
GTS-R Commemorative Edition ACR – One of the most iconic Viper liveries of all-time
VoooDoo II Edition ACR – Rebirth of the VooDoo ACR
Snakeskin Edition GTC – Inspired by the original Snakeskin, now with unique snakeskin stripe
Dodge Dealer Edition – Viper ACR special edition available through Tomball and Roanoke Dodge dealers
Each limited-edition Viper model features a serialized instrument panel badge with the model name that can be customized with the customer's name
Customers can begin ordering special edition Vipers on June 24, 2016
The 2017 Viper is available in more than 50 million unique build configurations, including the ACR package, through the "1 of 1" customization program for a truly one-of-a-kind snake American hand-built supercar

June 21, 2016 , Auburn Hills, Mich. - The Dodge brand is celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Dodge Viper with five limited-edition models that commemorate the final year of Viper production and highlight several of the most iconic special edition Vipers of the past.

"The Dodge Viper has had a great run, and 25 years after it was first introduced, it leaves the supercar world reaching for the records it continues to set," said Tim Kuniskis, Head of Passenger Cars, Dodge, SRT, Chrysler, and Fiat – FCA, North America. "With more track records than any production car in the world, the Dodge Viper ACR will live on as the fastest street-legal Viper track car ever, the car that has set the benchmark for all that follows in its tracks."

One of the most unique and exotic high-performance machines on the road today, Dodge is honoring the Viper's rich, colorful and exceptional performance heritage on and off the track by paying tribute to some of the most iconic Vipers in its history. Beginning on June 24 and new for 2017 model year, customers can order their special snake in the following exclusive special edition configurations:

Viper 1:28 Edition ACR

Pays tribute to the current production car single lap record of 1:28.65 set by champion driver Randy Pobst in a 2016 Dodge Viper ACR at historic Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, Calif., in October 2015
Features black exterior and painted rear wing with red ACR stripes, Extreme Aero Package, Carbon Ceramic brakes, 1:28 Edition exterior sill decal, ACR interior with red accent stitching, serialized instrument panel 1:28 Edition badge, along with a custom car cover that matches the exterior paint scheme and showcases the customer name above the driver's side door
As many as 28 units of this new special edition configuration will be built for the 2017 model year
Looking back in Viper history: Using the same track record theme, Dodge previously produced 33 units of the 2010 Viper ACR 1:33 Edition to tout its previous track record of 1:33.915 set by SRT dynamics engineer Chris Winkler at Laguna Seca Raceway in November 2009


Viper GTS-R Commemorative Edition ACR

Designed to pay tribute to one of the most distinguishable and iconic Viper paint schemes of all time – the white and blue combination of the 1998 Viper GTS-R GT2 Championship Edition
Features Pearl White exterior with Blue Pearl GTS stripes, Extreme Aero Package, Carbon Ceramic brakes, Exterior Carbon Package, unique red Stryker badge decal, GTS-R exterior sill decals, USA flag B-pillar decals, ACR interior with red accent stitching, Header Red seat belts, serialized instrument panel GTS-R badge and a custom car cover that matches the exterior paint scheme and showcases the customer name above the driver's side door
As many as 100 units of this new special edition configuration will be built for 2017
Looking back in Viper history: 100 units of the 1998 Viper GTS-R GTS Championship Edition were produced to commemorate the Viper winning the 1997 FIA GT2 championship


Viper VoooDoo II Edition ACR

Modeled after the original 2010 Viper VooDoo edition
Features black exterior and graphite metallic ACR driver's stripe with red tracer outline, Extreme Aero Package, Carbon Ceramic brakes, VoooDoo II exterior sill decals, ACR interior with silver accent stitching, serialized instrument panel VoooDoo II badge and custom car cover that matches the exterior paint scheme and showcases the customer name above the driver's side door
As many as 31 units of this new special edition configuration will be produced for 2017
Looking back in Viper history: 31 units of the original VooDoo Viper ACR were built in 2010


Viper Snakeskin Edition GTC

Color was inspired by the original 2010 Snakeskin ACR
Features new Snakeskin Green exterior with a custom snakeskin patterned SRT stripe, Advanced Aerodynamics Package, GT black interior, serialized instrument panel Snakeskin badge and a custom car cover that matches the exterior paint scheme and showcases the customer name above the driver's side door
As many as 25 units of this new special edition configuration will be produced for 2017
Looking back in Viper history: 31 units of the original Snakeskin Viper ACR were built in 2010


Dodge Dealer Edition ACR

Available exclusively through Dodge's highest sales volume Viper dealers, Tomball Dodge of Tomball, Texas, and Roanoke Dodge of Roanoke, Ill.
Features Viper White exterior with Competition Blue center stripe, Adrenaline Red driver stripe, Carbon Ceramic brakes, Extreme Aero Package, ACR interior with red accent stitching and custom car cover that matches the exterior paint scheme and showcases the customer name above the driver's side door
Serialized instrument panel ACR badge
As many as 33 units of this new special edition configuration will be produced for 2017


Industry-first '1 of 1' Viper customization program continues
Continuing for the 2017 model year is the exclusive Viper "1 of 1" customization program that enables buyers to create their one-of-a-kind "Snake" from the ground up. With 16,000 exterior color options, including matte exterior finishes, 24,000 custom stripe colors, 11 wheel options, 16 interior trims and seven aero packages, three brake packages and four suspension options, there are more than 50 million ways for buyers to customize their one-of-a-kind Dodge Viper. Each "1 of 1" model Viper features a personalized instrument panel badge with customer's chosen name to commemorate their exclusive design. No two customers can order the same configuration, including color, in the same model year

ACR model returns as ultimate street-legal racer
The Dodge Viper ACR returns in 2017 as the indisputable "ultimate street-legal race car" with significant aerodynamic and suspension upgrades. Relaunched in 2016, the third edition (1999-2002, 2008-2010) of the Viper ACR has taken the performance car world by storm with more track records than any production car in the world — a total of 13 road course lap records as certified by the Sports Car Club of America.

About Viper
All 2017 Dodge Vipers are powered by the iconic all-aluminum 8.4-liter V-10 engine that delivers 645 horsepower and 600 lb.-ft. of torque — the most torque of any naturally aspirated sports car engine in the world. Standard safety features include electronic multistage stability control, traction control and a new four-channel anti-lock brake system.

Since 1992, Dodge and SRT have built approximately 30,000 Vipers at the Mack Avenue Assembly (1992–1994) and Conner Avenue Assembly Plant (1995–current), both in Detroit.

About Dodge Brand
The Dodge brand is America's mainstream performance brand. With the purification of the brand and consolidation with SRT, Dodge is getting back to its performance roots with every single model it offers. The Dodge and SRT brands offer a complete lineup of performance vehicles that stand out within their own segments. Dodge is the "mainstream performance" brand and SRT is positioned as the "ultimate performance" halo of the Dodge brand, together creating a complete and balanced performance brand with one vision and one voice.

From muscle cars to compact cars, minivans, crossovers and full-size SUVs, the Dodge brand's full lineup of 2016 models deliver best-in-class horsepower, class-exclusive technology, unmatched capability and a slew of cool features, such as LED headlamps, Dodge signature racetrack tail lamps, dual exhaust, 8.4-inch touchscreen infotainment centers and 7-inch thin-film transistor (TFT) customizable gauge clusters, to name a few. For the 2016 model year, customers will be able to drive the new 2016 Dodge Charger and Challenger, as well as the Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and Charger SRT Hellcat. The Dodge brand lineup also includes the Dodge Dart, Durango, Grand Caravan and Journey, including the Crossroad model, and its flagship, the Dodge Viper.

[FenwickHockey65]

Sergio's too busy trying to figure out how to shoehorn a Hellcat into every FCA model.

[bpang1234]

^^^Yeah that is his "Master Strategy" since his other "Master Strategies" haven't worked out so well.

All FCA has going for it right now is strong performance at Jeep and a good truck. The Hellcats are awesome but I can't believe they are making much money out of them.

I fully believe that GM will buy them out in the near future unless they can hit some kind of home run (actually FCA would need several home runs to continue to operate as a large company).

[Denis]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

Sergio's too busy trying to figure out how to shoehorn a Hellcat into every FCA model.

Waiting on a Hellcat Dart

[DGthe3]

Originally Posted by bpang1234

^^^Yeah that is his "Master Strategy" since his other "Master Strategies" haven't worked out so well.

All FCA has going for it right now is strong performance at Jeep and a good truck. The Hellcats are awesome but I can't believe they are making much money out of them.

I fully believe that GM will buy them out in the near future unless they can hit some kind of home run (actually FCA would need several home runs to continue to operate as a large company).

Why? GM's already got a bunch of dead brands that basically fill the roles that the main FCA brands do. If GM wanted a performance brand they'd revive Pontiac (Dodge). If they want an off-road brand, there's Hummer (Jeep). For not-quite-premium, theres Oldsmobile (Chrysler). And for quirky small cars ... Saturn (Fiat).

Sure, there's the other Italian brands like Alpha and Maserati ... but they're hardly worth spending countless billions to get.

Plus, everything that could be considered a core competency at FCA is done just as well at GM. Trucks, SUVs, performance cars ... there is already a stellar group of engineers at GM working on those products. They don't need to bring in a bunch of others to do more of the same.

No, if a company is going to buy FCA its going to be one that has a fairly small footprint in North America and does well with smaller cars. Like Hyundia/Kia. A hypothetical 'HKFCA' would have a strong presence in nearly every global market & decent to good offerings in nearly every segment.

[BMR Sales]

You can get the new Fisker based on a Viper and be really exclusive!

[BMR Sales]

Originally Posted by bpang1234

I fully believe that GM will buy them out in the near future unless they can hit some kind of home run (actually FCA would need several home runs to continue to operate as a large company).

Not going to happen. They sell enough Fiats, Alfas, & Ferraris in Europe to not even worry about what happens here!

[motorhead]

Originally Posted by BMR Sales

You can get the new Fisker based on a Viper and be really exclusive!

Badass!!! Love it

[CapeCruisin]

until it comes back
again

[DrkPhx]

The Viper was a great car, but priced way too high and is probably a little too hard core for most people.

[bpang1234]

Originally Posted by BMR Sales

Not going to happen. They sell enough Fiats, Alfas, & Ferraris in Europe to not even worry about what happens here!

http://www.fcagroup.com/en-US/invest...s/default.aspx

They haven't owned Ferrari for a few months now.

Fiat and Alfa are beautifully designed but horribly engineered cars. Just look at how much trouble Alfa has had to push the new sport sedan into our market. They might turn a nice profit in Europe but not enough to prop up the excess baggage of the North America side of the company.

GM wouldn't need most of FCA, they'd probably only keep a handful of models (the Jeeps, maybe the Charger and likely integrate the Ram engineering that is proving to win out in comparison tests) around and let the rest die. I don't expect they'll have to offer very much at all as it is becoming more and more of a fire sale situation. The other poster noted that GM has killed off brands that they could revive but really none of them had much respect in the market other than MAYBE Pontiac and the Hummers to a small percentage (even though the final Hummer products were pieces of shit). What GM does have is a few small holes in their lineup (off-road inspired SUVs, Cop Cars, etc.) and the experience with cherry picking from their brand portfolio to come out the other side.

[DRKS1D3]

Originally Posted by Denis

Waiting on a Hellcat Dart

You'll be waiting a while. The Dart is being discontinued (all that engineering, designing, testing, etc., was for nothing). What a waste of money and resources.

Originally Posted by CapeCruisin

until it comes back
again

Agreed. It has been stated that the Viper is merely taking a hiatus for now. It isn't being killed off completely. There is a very good possibility that it WILL be back!

[stoopid]

Originally Posted by DRKS1D3

You'll be waiting a while. The Dart is being discontinued (all that engineering, designing, testing, etc., was for nothing). What a waste of money and resources.

And the Chrysler 200, which could have been great but... well, you know. It's a Chrysler.

[FenwickHockey65]

Let's not forget Sergio admitting FCA copied Hyundai with the 200, or that other companies were better at building compact cars.