The 2nd-gen Miata is often the target of Dodge Viper jokes. Slap a couple of stripes on this bad boy and it looks like a fake V10 supercar of yesteryear. However, this is an actual Dodge Viper that may trick you into thinking it's a Miata with how crazy its mods are.
The U.S. Army Viper? There must be some joke here that we don't get, a line of G.I. Joe sports cars or some secret weapon prepared for wars that are settled with drag racing instead of bombs and guns. Because the last time we checked, an "Army Staff Car" (written on the back) is something like a Willys, a 1942 Ford Sedan, or even a 1950s Chevy.
Besides the army theme, this build also stands out through its widebody design. There are a couple of widebody kits available for older Vipers, but nothing like this. So we think the builder either converted an existing universal package or 3D-printed his own. Either way, you can see flares that are so wide they need to be held in place with strunt arms.
After a post from 1320video initially grabbed our attention to this build, we looked online for the car and could only find one clip for extra information. The weird vehicle resides in Japan, rides on 20-inch wheels, and has 230mm or 9 inches added to either side.
The fenders at the back are so wide that only a "dually" wheel setup could fill them out. It's pretty unusual to see such skinny tires in a trucking configuration. Speaking of which, the Viper is trying to imitate Deuce and a Half truck with its radical long mufflers. They're not functional, though, as the real Viper exhaust fumes are coming out the back end on this generation.
It's puzzling that the builder applied the Army treatment to a genuine Viper here. This looks like a 1996 model that is worth about $40,000 or more. The same comic effect could have been pulled off with a Miata for a fraction of the money.
Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida. Full profile
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