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No Ferrari Viper, Dodge brand chief says

Wed, 25 Nov 2009

Despite allusions to cooperation on the Viper with Chrysler's new Italian owners, there will be no Viper Ferrari.

Hey, it was a natural question, especially since Dodge opened that door in a press release on Tuesday about a lap record set by a production Viper ACR at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca (1:33.915; more on that in a minute).

"When we have partners across the ocean who are known as the best sports-car makers in the world, the future opportunities are huge," Dodge brand chief Ralph Gilles said in a release.

The future opportunities for what--a Ferrari V12 in a Viper body? A Viper V10 in a Frankensteined 612? What? You could go insane imagining the possibilities. So we spoke to Gilles directly and asked whether there would be any cross-engineering or parts-sharing to the extent our overactive imagination imagined there might be. We asked about a Ferrari Dodge Viper.

"No," he said in about as definitive a tone as car execs ever get.

Then what did he mean by the "opportunities are huge?"

"They really know sports cars. We just want some advice," Gilles said.

But wouldn't a Ferrari Viper be cool, regardless?

"Ferrari is Ferrari, Viper is Viper," he said. "Please don't go there."

OK.

We did get these exciting tidbits about the 2010 Dodge Viper: there will be a new graphics package! New stripes! And a new color--Anaconda Green! Also, a new interior for the 2010 Viper will be launched at the Los Angeles auto show.

The 2010 Viper will get a shorter fifth-gear ratio (changing from 0.74 to 0.80) for improved high-speed acceleration and higher straightaway speeds, which hampered an earlier 2008 "lap record" at the N


By Mark Vaughn