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Dodge Viper "The Patriot" Brings SRT Back in Glorious Rendering

The year was 2013, and Ralph Gilles, who was leading SRT (a standalone brand at the time), announced that the SRT Viper GTS-R would be returning to Le Mans. Jumping to February 2021, we saw the executive, who is currently one of Stellantis' two global chief designers, taking to Instagram to assure us that the SRT performance division's recent axing doesn't spell the end of go-fast proposals from the company. So, what went wrong, and can we do something about it?
Dodge Viper "The Patriot" rendering 6 photos
Photo: ashthorp/instagram
Dodge Viper "The Patriot" renderingDodge Viper "The Patriot" renderingDodge Viper "The Patriot" renderingDodge Viper "The Patriot" renderingDodge Viper "The Patriot" rendering
Unlike the monumental success registered by the Dodge Viper GTS-R of the late 1990s, which dominated the GTS class at Le Mans between 1998 and 2000, among others, the Gen V-based motorsport machine didn't become a podium hit.

Speaking of the Gen V Viper road car, as we found out while reviewing the V10 animal, it delivered a raw driving experience, threatening Italian exotics for a fraction of the costs while showing surprising manners when it was required. Alas, sales were still poor, which determined the model to be axed back in 2017. And with the age of electrification now upon us, building a business case for the return of this nameplate's sweet V10 seems anything but likely.

Now that we've briefly answered the first question in the intro, we can move on to the second one. And how about an otherworldly SRT Viper GTS-R freed of racing restrictions to make us feel better? That is precisely what the rendering sitting before us has to offer.

The build, which is virtual for now, comes from an American artist named Ashley Livingston Thorp. You know, the illustrator, graphic designer, and creative director whose work you've seen in motion pictures such as Prometheus, X-Men: First Class and The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Oh, and as I first noticed almost a year ago, he's also responsible for the muscle car-themed Batmobile we'll get to see in the now-pushed-back-to-2022 The Batman.

Racing regulations saw the heart of the actual race car stroked down to 8 liters while it was forced to breather through restrictors. There are no such constraints here. Better yet, this is a twin-turbo proposal, and we've seen the wonders such hardware can work on the V10 heart of the machine.

In fact, here's the artist explaining the nickname of the proposal via the first Instagram post below: "I call this build The Patriot because it doesn’t get much more American then a Dodge Viper, especially one that has twin turbos shooting flames from the sides."

And while it looks like the turbo plumbing could use some changes to become functional, we're certain that all the hardware would be perfectly sorted out for a real-world build (fingers crossed for this wacky racer making it past the pixel border someday).

Not least thanks to its height, the rear wing makes the word extreme seem like a bit of an understatement. Then again, this is precisely the type of reference such a project deserves; keep in mind that while SRT left the project after 2013, Riley Technologies, the motorsport partner it used for the development, continued to field the machine. The specialist moved the wing towards the sky, paying homage to the Plymouth Superbird aero car of 1970 in the process, as racecar-engineering shows.

In fact, just about every piece of airflow manipulation hardware on the machine will give you something to write home about. And you need to look no further than the rod-secured splitter sitting below an open posterior or the Turbofan-like wheels to notice that.

Then again, since Thorp knows a thing or two about catering to the needs of a large audience, the artist has also portrayed the Viper with a clean posterior—yes, there might be such a thing as Viper purists seeking this kind of form.

Regardless, the artist also mentions a bit of a Viper collab with fellow pixel master Colorsponge, who came up with an equally insane rendering based around another representative of the Viper breed. But this is another story for another time tomorrow.


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About the author: Andrei Tutu
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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.
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