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Dodge Viper Documentary is a 22-Minute Piece on America’s Finest Supercar

If you’re a fan of How It’s Made, Megafactories and any other documentaries about the world of engineering, then you might want to kick back for 22 minutes and enjoy the following piece about the Dodge Viper. Dubbed “Viper: DNA of a Supercar,” there are a few things that need to be mentioned.
Dodge Viper 1 photo
Photo: screenshot from Youtube
As far as I’m concerned, I was hooked on how this nonfictional motion picture started. Seeing a 2015 Dodge Viper SRT play in the desert wasteland is an indirect tribute to one of the most revered car-centered movies ever made - 1971’s Vanishing Point.

For those that haven’t seen it, there’s a particular scene where Kowalski, who’s running away from the police in his Magnum V8-powered Dodge Challenger, hides from the rozzers in the desert. That part of the movie also features a naked lady riding an old scooter, some hippies and a rattlesnake collector.

Don’t ask, just watch Vanishing Point. You’ll love it to bits! However, turning back to our documentary, I don’t really understand why a little slipping and sliding action at circa 60 mph (96 km/h) requires the Viper’s driver to wear racing overalls and a crash helmet. After that, the short documentary really starts.

But the cheesy narrator gave me a headache and I find it utterly disgusting how Dodge hails the new Viper as a sort of automotive equivalent to the 7 wonders of the ancient world. Simply put, it's overkill.

And when I say new Viper, I mean it. There’s not a single mention about its predecessor and how the V10-powered snake on wheels evolved from the early 1990s original to the outgoing 2015 model year. Still, it’s really entertaining to watch if you’re an enthusiast of the 645 horsepower two-seater bruiser.

Before you press play, let me share some figures with you:

• More than 3,700 unique components come together to form a Dodge Viper
• More than 90 percent of the Viper’s interior is hand-wrapped in leather
• Designed with structural integrity, 48 percent of the Viper’s exterior is carbon fiber
• The entire paint process is done by hand and requires 150 man-hours to achieve the high quality finish

Now is time to go behind the scenes and find out what it takes to create this American exotic. Enjoy!

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About the author: Mircea Panait
Mircea Panait profile photo

After a 1:43 scale model of a Ferrari 250 GTO sparked Mircea's interest for cars when he was a kid, an early internship at Top Gear sealed his career path. He's most interested in muscle cars and American trucks, but he takes a passing interest in quirky kei cars as well.
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