[Les Quam]

Steve really brings up a good point that is worth elaborating on in regard to the early days of the Viper. Today in 2006 it is almost becoming routine for manufacturers to develop these high HP supercars. It's almost like the flavor of the week nowadays.

But back in 1989 when the Viper was on the drawing board the last performance car to come out of Detroit was the 87 Buick GNX which many called the last of the muscle cars after the 73 Super Duty TAs were the last of the muscle cars.

The fact that Dodge built this car at all back in 91/92 was and is amazing. Dodge at the time was floundering and had no performance cars in their lineup at all. To build this car in 92 Dodge had to satisfy a million and one government regulations and cars like the Viper were not popular nor were they politically correct.

So Dodge decides with the help of a guy named Shelby to stuff a 488 cubic inch V10 motor into a car with no door handles or even windows let alone airbags. Having no idea if the car would even sell? Today it is easy to build a Ford GT and project that it will sell. But back in those days it was a terrific gamble by Dodge IMHO.

But not only did they build it. They built it by hand and still build it by hand all these years later. It still is America's only handbuilt muscle car that I am aware of? And lets not pretend it was anything but a muscle car when it was built. It had a 488 cubic inch big block connected to a 6 speed trans with no reverse lockout. It had rear brakes that were smaller than the ones on my shifter Kart up until 2002. Dodge openly admits when their customers started racing Vipers on road tracks as opposed to the drag strip they were flabergasted. They just didn't design it for road racing back in 92.

Lets also give credit to Dodge for sticking with the handbuilt Viper all these years and not making it a two year wonder like the Ford GT. Lets also acknowledge that Dodge created a dealer network of Viper dealers and required them to have a highly trained Viper tech on staff at all times and no other tech is supposed to work on Vipers other than the dealers Viper tech.

Ford has not followed through like that with the GT there is no Ford GT tech and in fact little or no tech training for the Ford GT. I watched in amazement as my friend in town who is the service manager at a Frod dealership tried to sort through the various recalls on the Ford GT. Ford sent no factory rep, sent no Ford GT tech, provided no tech manual and required the dealers to look online for instructions. Fortunatley the serice manager is a former Nascar racer so he could align the car and set the camber castor and toe as well as the bump steer in a proper manner. But other GT customers have not been so lucky and have complained that after the control arms were replaced the cars never handled the same again.

Dodge also over the years has encouraged it's Viper owners to track their cars and covered the problems under warranty.

Steve is an old Viper racer so he was there when Dodge listened to their customers at the Dodge Viper owner invitationals which by the way Dodge pays for every year or two and puts on a huge world class factory backed event for Viper owners and built a competiton coupe especially for the Viper racers to race in the Viper racing league.

This Comp coupe is a street Viper with the interior removed and a roll cage installed built and designed for Skip Thomas's Viper racing league. As a result Viper owners are justifiably some of the most loyal and passionate customers in the car world.

I simply get tired of reading about uninformed media types who bash and dismiss the Viper as a crudely built inferior car. The fact of the matter is the people who hand build Vipers are very proud of their cars and proud to be part of the Viper program.

When you consider that the Viper is the only handbuilt big block American high performance car manufactured today and that the factory shows it's appreciation for it's Viper customers by building a Comp Coupe and throwing a huge party every couple of years at the factory expense for it's Viper owners I think that Dodge and the car deserve more respect and should not be dismissed so easily when a two year wonder comes along like the Ford GT every few years. Really IMHO the Vipers only true American rival is the Z06 Vette.

My two cents.