The Viper has earned quite a reputation among car enthusiasts as the widow maker, driver killer, death trap, or anything that points out that getting behind its wheels means signing for a one-way ticket into the afterlife. The Dodge Viper is one of those few cars ever built that scare the bejesus out of actual speed freaks.
The Viper gets a lot of criticism for being a sketchy American supercar, and we can't blame anyone who thinks it is a little bit overpowered to handle right. If history serves us right, the Viper was born out of Chrysler's need to fight local rivals Ford and General Motors, and as you'd expect, emotions played a huge role in the final result.
David Patterson, popularly known as ThatDudeinBlue on YouTube, recently drove and reviewed a twin-turbo 2002 Dodge Viper. The last time he got behind the wheel of one of these bad boys was with Thottl's 1,000 hp (1,014 ps) Hellcat-swapped 2001 Dodge Viper RT/10.
Stock, the 2002 Dodge Viper packs an 8-liter V10 engine good for 450 hp (456 ps) and 490 lb-ft (664 Nm) of torque. To harness all that power, it runs on a six-speed manual transmission sending all the power to the rear wheels.
"The Gen One to the Gen Two is surprisingly a really big jump. They fixed a lot of the bad of the Gen One. Because when you have a Gen One, and it has high miles on, it feels like a kit car, and I hate to say that because I love the Viper," David said, comparing the first-generation Viper to the second.
David's feature car was a Gen2 Final Edition Viper (227/350) – the automaker's first goodbye unit for a Viper. Only 350 of these were developed in a showstopping Viper Red exterior with dual stone white stripes racing from the front grille to the rear.
The factory 2002 Viper GTS might have rolled out of the factory with 450 hp (456 ps), but David's featured Viper makes a little more power thanks to a twin-turbo setup (Precision 6267).
According to David, this boosted 2002 Dodge Viper makes 650 whp (765 hp/ 776 ps) and 650 lb-ft (881 Nm) of torque.
"The powerband comes in very predictably; that's what I like about it too. With the V10, you have so much displacement that the turbos spool up so quickly," David said about the performance of the Viper. "It's not one of those Toyota Supra moments where you are like lag, lag then hits you in the face," he added.
David thinks the boosted Viper is fun to drive. Besides the twin turbos, it is also fitted with AEM Electronics Infinity Standalone, which has traction control – making it much easier to drive.
It's also tweaked to run on a 'boost by gear set up.' According to David, it ramps in power very progressively. The first gear is limited to four, while the second is limited to six pounds of boost.
Curious how this boosted Viper drives? We recommend catching that and more in the video below.
Humphrey is a car enthusiast whose love and passion for automobiles extended into collecting, writing, driving, and working on cars. He got his passion for cars from his Dad, who spent thousands of hours working on his old junky 1970 E20 Toyota Corolla. Years later, he would end up doing the same with a series of lemons he’s owned throughout his adult life. Full profile
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