Now that the Dodge Viper is waiting to be resurrected, the V10 toy receives even more respect than it did back when it could be found in showrooms. As such, you can imagine aficionados' sadness after a special example of the Viper recently went through a fiery crash.
The accident took place at the drag strip, with the fifth-gen Viper racing another machine of the kind at the time. The crash is documented in the first piece of footage below (the clip on the left) and it's as brutal as they get.
Nevertheless, while most accidents that involve fire see the flames showing up after an impact, things were the other way around in this case.
To be more precise, the supercar blew its engine while sprinting down the drag strip and the oil that escaped the motor caused the car to slide halfway through its run. And it didn't take long before the fiery Dodge hit the wall.
Alas, the accident took place at speed (the thing was doing about 100 mph at the time), so the Viper bounced off and hit the wall on the other side of the track. The only good side of this tale is that the driver walked away unharmed.
The devil is in the details
The incident that kickstarted everything involved the engine spitting out rod #9. Then again, this didn't exactly come as a surprise, since the 8.4-liter V10 had been pushed all the way to 1,310 wheel horsepower on stock components, with a twin-turbo kit. Note that the gearbox had previously failed, with the machine then using an h-pattern dog box gearset.
The said setup had allowed to car to hit 200 mph in the half-mile, while delivers a low 9s quarter-mile run at 160 mph.
While the engine and the chassis of this Dodge, which was nicknamed White Snake, are ruined, the twin-turbo kit was almost undamaged and will be transferred to another Viper, albeit with a tamer setup.
The conclusion of the gearheads behind the build? Keep the stock motor below 1,200 horsepower if you care about fifth gear and rod #9. Speaking of which, the second clip below (the one on the right), brings you the complete tale of the supercar.
In his quest to bring you the most impressive automotive creations, Andrei relies on learning as a superpower. There's quite a bit of room in the garage that is this aficionado's heart, so factory-condition classics and widebody contraptions with turbos poking through the hood can peacefully coexist. Full profile
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