Photo: Dodge
American supercar. Two words that go together like water and oil. When Dodge presented the world with the Viper, however, the American automotive scene got the supercar it deserved. Fast-forward to the present day, and the slithering serpent that served as an icon to a generation of gearheads finds itself on the brink of extinction. Ladies and gents, mark your calendars for August 31.
On that fateful Thursday, the Viper as we know it will cease to exist for one particularly obvious reason. Ralph Gilles let it slip that the end is nigh during a speech at an automotive show in February, but this time around, Fiat Chrysler confirmed that Conner Assembly Plant will grind to an ominous halt.
Operational since the mid-1960s and purchased by Chrysler in the 1990s, the factory located at 20000 Conner St. on the East Side of Detroit is kept alive thanks to a workforce of 87 employees. The closure, however, will see the workers be offered positions at other locations. The automaker, meanwhile, says that the closure will indeed be permanent.
Conner Assembly Plant is the place where the Viper has been manufactured, mostly by hand, since 2012. That's the year the generation known as Phase VX entered the scene, a family of models that gave birth to one of the best track tools to wear license plates: the unapologetic ACR.
For those who tend to see the glass as being half full instead of half empty, the upside is that plenty 2017 Viper vehicles are sitting around in dealer lots. Pricing for the 2017 Viper kicks off from $90,495 excluding destination, while the $121,395 Viper ACR rounds off the lineup nicely.
And so, we get down to the question present on everybody’s lips: does FCA has a replacement in the offing for the Viper, a model that will serve as an heir-apparent to the naturally aspirated V10-powered berserker? Yes, it has. Probably. Likely. Hopefully.
“Given the architectural development within the brand [i.e. the Alfa Romeo Giorgio rear-wheel-drive platform], there is a possibility that a new version of the Viper may surface. Whether it will surface in time [to replace the current model, whose production ends on August 31, 2017] is unclear to me,” declared head honcho Sergio Marchionne early in 2016.
Operational since the mid-1960s and purchased by Chrysler in the 1990s, the factory located at 20000 Conner St. on the East Side of Detroit is kept alive thanks to a workforce of 87 employees. The closure, however, will see the workers be offered positions at other locations. The automaker, meanwhile, says that the closure will indeed be permanent.
Conner Assembly Plant is the place where the Viper has been manufactured, mostly by hand, since 2012. That's the year the generation known as Phase VX entered the scene, a family of models that gave birth to one of the best track tools to wear license plates: the unapologetic ACR.
For those who tend to see the glass as being half full instead of half empty, the upside is that plenty 2017 Viper vehicles are sitting around in dealer lots. Pricing for the 2017 Viper kicks off from $90,495 excluding destination, while the $121,395 Viper ACR rounds off the lineup nicely.
And so, we get down to the question present on everybody’s lips: does FCA has a replacement in the offing for the Viper, a model that will serve as an heir-apparent to the naturally aspirated V10-powered berserker? Yes, it has. Probably. Likely. Hopefully.
“Given the architectural development within the brand [i.e. the Alfa Romeo Giorgio rear-wheel-drive platform], there is a possibility that a new version of the Viper may surface. Whether it will surface in time [to replace the current model, whose production ends on August 31, 2017] is unclear to me,” declared head honcho Sergio Marchionne early in 2016.
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