Final Dodge Viper rolls off the Snake Pit production line

By Tim Beissmann | July 05th, 2010

The end of an automotive era was reached on Thursday by Chrysler Group in the US with the final Dodge Viper rolling off the Detroit production line.

Employees at the Conner Avenue assembly plant, known as the Snake Pit, gathered at the end of the line as the vehicle was collected by its owners – Viper enthusiasts D’Ann Rauh and her husband, Wayne, from Texas.

Between them they own more than 40 Vipers – which is more than anyone else in the world – but not one of them is like the latest addition to the collection.

The final Viper was personalised for the couple with a gold exterior and twin copper stripes. Airbrushed into the stripes are the layouts of race tracks that have been significant to the Viper over its 19 year history.

Five-spoke black graphite aluminium wheels complete the unique exterior while the interior also features a one-off leather trim.

The Viper was initially built at New Mack Assembly in 1992 before relocating to Conner Avenue in October 1995. Production of the Viper’s V10 engine also moved to the Snake Pit in May 2001.

The first generation Viper RT/10 produced 298kW and 630Nm of torque. It sprinted from 0-100km/h in 4.6 seconds, covered the quarter mile in 13.1secs and had a top speed of 264km/h.

By the fourth- and final-generation, the Phase II Viper SRT-10, power was up to 450kW and torque to 760Nm. Zero-100km/h could be achieved in 3.5 seconds, the quarter mile was over in 10.92secs and the top speed had blown out to 325km/h.

Dodge is yet to confirm whether it plans produce an all-new version of the Viper. If it does decide to bring back the Viper or invent an all-new supercar, a replacement is unlikely to appear before 2012.

Shak

it was fun while it lasted. bad build and looks aside, that engine was spectacular as were the powerslides.
Sam300TD

RIP Viper. Mopar Sunday is on again on the 25th of this month at Willowbank Dragstrip near Ipswich in Queensland for anyone who wants to see Vipers and others such as Dodge, Chyrsler, Plymouth and Jeep. Go to moparsunday.com for more info. See you there!
Hung Low

A real modern muscle car! Love these beasts!
toxic_horse

That gold looks fricking sweeet !!!!
Al Juraj

It costs too much and is quite a handful on the race track, not to mention the 8.4-litre thirst. The Corvette and Mustang matched its performance but were much cheaper. The cartoon like design will be missed. Chrysler need to regroup and build a better package if they wish to resurrect the Viper.

Toxic_Horse

As if anyone who buys one will give a toss about extra fuel consumption.

Karl Krankschaft

Nooo. Viper we will miss you. That v10 of yours sounded beautiful . General awesomeness. It’s like the Chuck Norris of cars . Awesome, American , powerful . The dodge viper can kill two stones with one bird . Ahh I better stop getting emotional now. Poor viper what has the GFC done to you. Can’t say that paintjob oozes class though .

Glen

Two birds with one stone…? Forget the Hummer, this is what the US Army should have taken into the Middle East… would have scared anyone that saw it into surrender.

Dave

Viper, great car – you will be missed
Fenno

I’v never seen any out-of-the-box ‘Vette or ‘Stang do 10 second quarters…come to think of it, only the Veyron would be close.
I remember years back Road and track had a race up a mountain somewhere in california between a SRT10 and a
Yamaha R1. The bike was hosed.
It’s a pity these were overlooked in the grand scheme of supercars (bit like the short lived Vector) as they were certainly a very fast car.