I love my first gen Viper, especially because its "Look At Me" Yellow.
Tried to find a car that out-vipers a Viper and surprisingly, nothing does.
The first post about taking ownership of a first-generation Dodge Viper pretty much sums it all up:
Well, I've been silently saving up for a viper for a while, and the deal of a lifetime came up and as soon as I saw the ad and price, I called the guy and worked something out for same day. The car wasn't far from me, and a friend who owns a shop and trailer said, "If you get it, I'll go pick it up." He showed up at midnight and uhhhhhh. Yeah I'm pretty stoked.
The pros: It's a viper
The cons: Most of the stuff on a first gen viper like the clutch switch is going poo poo, the top is pretty crapped out, and yeah. It needs love. The paint isn't perfect, definitely needs correction (which I can do no problem). It also appears to have a shift light that you'd expect to see at oreiley's because I don't know why. I'll fix that.
BUT, the title is clean, the car has never been wrecked, it runs great, and just needs a little love. Will probably update the electronics to some fun new microcontroller stuff that's better than the dodge minivan electronics, fix it up, and enjoy me something fun and fast while I keep working on the Jalpa.
The new owner is corsepervita, the brains behind the DIY Lamborghini Jalpa also featured on our forum.
But wait, the ownership experience gets better:
My partner looked at the car and went, "Where's the door handles?"
Me: "Well there are none."
She goes, "So how do you get in the car?"
Me: "Well, you reach through the window and open it up."She just looked at me like "really?"
So she goes, "Well, how do you roll up the windows or whatever?"
I go, "You don't, you put the windows in when you want them, and then it has a zipper so you can unzip them."
Her "Un….zip the windows?"
So I tell her to hang on a sec, I go grab one and bring it in the house and go, "I present to you, a viper window."Her only response was, "This car is 100% made by dudes, for dudes. This is the most dude car I've ever seen. Y'all don't got door handles, your windows are optional, and the top is a nightmare to put on."
Me: "Well, I mean it basically is a street legal race car."Safe to say she much prefers the 997 LOL.
Check out the thread for more details, including the transformation made by a tune-up.
Also, anyone need a shift light?
I love my first gen Viper, especially because its "Look At Me" Yellow.
Tried to find a car that out-vipers a Viper and surprisingly, nothing does.
Her only response was, "This car is 100% made by dudes, for dudes. This is the most dude car I've ever seen. Y'all don't got door handles, your windows are optional, and the top is a nightmare to put on."
The most accurate description of a 1G Viper ever.
Dodge set out to build a modern Cobra. Hard to find fault with the car when it is exactly that.
In reply to 93gsxturbo :
V12 Lamborghini's
Otherwise...not much lol
93gsxturbo said:Tried to find a car that out-vipers a Viper and surprisingly, nothing does.
I think I remember that thread. I don't thinks it's surprising at all that nothing out-Vipers a Viper, haha.
I still love the looks of these. I think they look more stunning than the last gen.
I had the pleasure of driving the second gen at a Skip Barber school in 2000. What I remember most was how scary it was to have no dead pedal and no ABS on a car with that much power. It was fast, fun, hot, and scary, just like you'd expect. Kinda funny how pedestrian the HP numbers seem now.
The exterior door handle broke off, so it's good this one doesn't have them!
I agree, there's not much more butch than an old Viper.
I've only driven them on track; 3 or 4 stock ones as well as a couple of 700+ horsepower versions. Ironically I don't find them scary.
1-1-2021 the day I learned that Vipers didnt have door handles.
Just never noticed.
hybridmomentspass said:1-1-2021 the day I learned that Vipers didnt have door handles.
Just never noticed.
Later models did, but gen 1 did not.
Tom1200 said:I've only driven them on track; 3 or 4 stock ones as well as a couple of 700+ horsepower versions. Ironically I don't find them scary.
I've always been intrigued about this. Some people swear they're homicidal death traps that want to send you backwards to your doom in a hedge, other people say they drive like scaled up miatas with torque.
fatallightning said:Tom1200 said:I've only driven them on track; 3 or 4 stock ones as well as a couple of 700+ horsepower versions. Ironically I don't find them scary.
I've always been intrigued about this. Some people swear they're homicidal death traps that want to send you backwards to your doom in a hedge, other people say they drive like scaled up miatas with torque.
I've never driven one, but from what I've read this comes down to it being an "analog" RWD car with a ton of torque, you have to treat it with respect and know how to drive it. Stability control, traction control, ABS are all the responsibility of the driver, not of the electronics. If you drive it stupidly you'll crash.
The 1st gen RT/10s never did much for more, but I like the late 90s GTSes a lot. The ones they raced at Le Mans. :)
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