Photo: kragyen/instagram
While the Dodge Viper was retired back in 2017, the American supercar continued to make headlines this year, from the four units that showed up in FCA's 2020 sales report to fashion designer and car lover Magnus Walker portraying the machine as a future classic in a recent video. But what about its future? We explore this with the help of an independent rendering.
While its maker has yet to provide any details on the badge's potential future, the effort we have here comes from Craig Kember. We're talking about an automotive designer whose work you've seen on multiple Toyota production vehicles, race cars, and concepts (for one, he penned the interior of the FT-1 show car that previewed the Mk V Supra).
Kember's spare time sketching usually takes us through a wide variety of segments, with the models he reimagines ranging from the Chevrolet C10 to the "Hakosuka" GT-R.
As the designer points out in the description of the Instagram post below, the mix between the uber-compact passenger cell and the monstrous hood make this proposal hard to resist while obviously staying true to the five-generation Viper legacy.
Zooming in on the front end, we notice the 1991 original's rounded fog lights. As a reminder, this was a bare-bones hooning machine that came with no electronic aids (not even ABS) while also skipping luxuries such as exterior door handles and any form of roof.
However, the mix between the gaping air intake occupying center stage and the splitter-turned-bumper underneath it brings the Gen V Viper to mind. This final iteration of the machine, which we've had the extreme pleasure to review, has maintained the raw driving experience of its predecessors, all while evolving into a contraption that doesn't require stuntman training to take one on a journey. Alas, the transformation wasn't enough to generate healthy sales last decade.
And while the thin LED headlights provide the next-generation look, the exaggerated hips remind one of the vehicle's dedication to speed.
Perhaps the quirkiest feature of the proposal comes from the side pipe exit, which has migrated west of the side skirts. It now sits below a triangle that reminds one of the play button, whose popularity has reached new heights in the digital era.
Speaking of combos, it's not difficult to think of a mix between the engine sitting behind those exhaust tips and electric power, with this being one potential way to bring back the Viper.
You see, with ever-stricter emission regulations determining carmakers to commit to an all-electric future (Bentley will phase out the internal combustion engine by 2030, while GM plans to do the same by 2035), there's little hope for a Viper revival relying solely on the good old suck-squeeze-bang-blow.
In fact, if we are to zoom out and regard the big FCA picture (following the merger with PSA, this is now Stellantis), two main electrification pathways have been showcased to date. There's the Ferrari way, which involves hybrid machines relying mostly on gas, and the Maserati model, with the recent release of the twin-turbo V6-animated MC20 halo car set to be followed by a battery-powered version of the machine in 2022.
Regardless of how the technical side of generating emotions is approached, the place that the Viper has earned in many aficionados' hearts means its maker should be determined to bring back the badge.
Kember's spare time sketching usually takes us through a wide variety of segments, with the models he reimagines ranging from the Chevrolet C10 to the "Hakosuka" GT-R.
As the designer points out in the description of the Instagram post below, the mix between the uber-compact passenger cell and the monstrous hood make this proposal hard to resist while obviously staying true to the five-generation Viper legacy.
Zooming in on the front end, we notice the 1991 original's rounded fog lights. As a reminder, this was a bare-bones hooning machine that came with no electronic aids (not even ABS) while also skipping luxuries such as exterior door handles and any form of roof.
However, the mix between the gaping air intake occupying center stage and the splitter-turned-bumper underneath it brings the Gen V Viper to mind. This final iteration of the machine, which we've had the extreme pleasure to review, has maintained the raw driving experience of its predecessors, all while evolving into a contraption that doesn't require stuntman training to take one on a journey. Alas, the transformation wasn't enough to generate healthy sales last decade.
And while the thin LED headlights provide the next-generation look, the exaggerated hips remind one of the vehicle's dedication to speed.
Perhaps the quirkiest feature of the proposal comes from the side pipe exit, which has migrated west of the side skirts. It now sits below a triangle that reminds one of the play button, whose popularity has reached new heights in the digital era.
Speaking of combos, it's not difficult to think of a mix between the engine sitting behind those exhaust tips and electric power, with this being one potential way to bring back the Viper.
You see, with ever-stricter emission regulations determining carmakers to commit to an all-electric future (Bentley will phase out the internal combustion engine by 2030, while GM plans to do the same by 2035), there's little hope for a Viper revival relying solely on the good old suck-squeeze-bang-blow.
In fact, if we are to zoom out and regard the big FCA picture (following the merger with PSA, this is now Stellantis), two main electrification pathways have been showcased to date. There's the Ferrari way, which involves hybrid machines relying mostly on gas, and the Maserati model, with the recent release of the twin-turbo V6-animated MC20 halo car set to be followed by a battery-powered version of the machine in 2022.
Regardless of how the technical side of generating emotions is approached, the place that the Viper has earned in many aficionados' hearts means its maker should be determined to bring back the badge.
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