First Dodge Vipers Ever Built Are Being Crushed

[Rogue One]

First Dodge Vipers Ever Built Are Being Crushed

These preproduction Vipers were some of the first that were ever stitched together. Now Chrysler wants them dead.Why? Blame the lawyers. These cars were never meant to be street-legal. They were built without emission control systems or speed limiters. You can see where this is going. At least two of the cars managed to make it to public roads and—big shock—were involved in accidents. Since Chrysler still technically owns the cars, the company is liable for any damages. The resulting lawsuits have cost the automaker millions of dollars.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jdp8auBPGp0[/youtube]

[Bubba1]

I'm not a fan of lawyers, but I'm not sure I blame lawyers here as much as the parties who ignored the contracts and allowed those "display" prototypes to be taken out on the road, plus the drivers who crashed 'em. IMHO, at some point, people need to be responsible for their own actions. After paying out millions thus far to defend themselves from those lawsuits, I can't say I blame Chrysler for wanting them crushed.

[float_6969]

I couldn't watch the video. I started to, and made it 15 seconds in before I turned it off. It sucks that Chrysler is in this position. I can't blame them for doing it either though. Blech. ppl are stupid.

[krash]

Cant bring myself to watch the videos.... The viper was pretty much my childhood. Why not just put the cars in storage or something?

[sx moneypit]

Why didn't they just part them out?

[MinisterofDOOM]

Worst cameraman in history.

Also, everyone's reporting these as the "first vipers ever built" but I keep seeing photos and video of GTS Coupes, which didn't exist until years after the Viper was already an established model. Pretty sure 2nd gen is not "first ever" by any means.

Lastly:
Vipers aren't really that exotic. It's not like someone's crushing Ferrari 250s or something.

[skydragoness]

Why didn't they just part them out?

Seems like a waste of good parts, why not dismantle and sell to people who probably need them (with disclaimers)? It's not a particularly common car.
I guess the whole thing is just one huge liability.

[RicerX]

The Viper is easily the most exotic thing to come from America before things like the Saleen S7 and Hennessey Venom showed up.

That said, I would take one of those cars as a charitable donation to my "save the manuals" program. It is a shame to see these things destroyed. I mean... why not at least display them somewhere and disable them to where they're not driveable? Or... well... idk.

Just give them to me. I will fix it.

[skydragoness]

The Viper is easily the most exotic thing to come from America before things like the Saleen S7 and Hennessey Venom showed up.

Wat?
What you know about the Vector W2? [straight face]

Well I guess it doesn't count, since it was a concept, but the W8 was produced though!


There's also the Ford GT40 and Shelby Daytona that I guess could be classified as 'exotic' American designed super cars.

[MinisterofDOOM]

I would definitely put the GT40 and even the later GT above the Viper in terms of exoticness. The Venom and the S7 are certainly more exotic, being ultra-low-production specialty models.

The Vector (All of them) is like the anti-Pantera. Rather than being the perfect blend of American muscle and italian beauty, it's the most obnoxiously pointless blend of Italian nonsense and American mediocrity.
And yeah, the Mangusta was sexier than the Pantera, but was also gutless, so Pantera trumps it here.

[Bubba1]

And yeah, the Mangusta was sexier than the Pantera, but was also gutless, so Pantera trumps it here.

I fell in love with the Mangusta when I first saw one at the NY Auto Show back in 1967(I think) that car literally oozed sexiness.

[skydragoness]

The Vector is so terrible that it's awesome. Now I want a poster of one.

I met a 90yr old (not joking) that owns a Pantera. He drives it--with a lead foot allegedly and with shakey hands. He shouldn't be driving. I would not want to be on the road at the same time/place as him. Awesome car though.

[elwesso]

I don't really consider the viper really any more exotic than a higher end corvette, it's really the same principle that's even less livable than the corvette.

Honestly, I think this is probably the best thing to happen. The last thing Chrysler needs is to shell out money for stupid stuff (they do that enough on stuff they actually intend on selling), and there's plenty of other vipers around.

Like Joel said, it's unfortunate that the people who had these cars were irresponsible enough to let them out. If nothing else, they should have been kept like Chrysler intended or put into a museum. It would be nice to see them saved, but what can you do?

[adrianfromthecastle]

yalls crazy. vipers are the shiz.

In all seriousness though, part outs would have been more acceptable than scrapping it. What a waste! Not because its a viper, but because its a fully functional car with parts that are still good. Exotic or not, its still a bad a** roadster

[Bubba1]

yalls crazy. vipers are the shiz.

In all seriousness though, part outs would have been more acceptable than scrapping it. What a waste! Not because its a viper, but because its a fully functional car with parts that are still good. Exotic or not, its still a bad a** roadster

I think if one weighs the few thousand dollar "waste" of parts value against the value to Chrysler of making several multi-million dollar lawsuits go away immediately, crushing 'em and walking away makes more sense. Besides, it's not like there aren't already plenty of used/new Viper parts readily available for sale all over the country. And if you think about more, if Chrysler were to sell those "prototype" 20+ yr old used parts and one or more of them fail, then they re-open themselves up to more lawsuits. And avoiding lawsuits is why they retired those prototypes in the first place.