1993 Dodge Viper RT/10 Roadster

Description

Perhaps the closest America has come to building a successor to the legendary Shelby Cobra, the Dodge Viper was a supercar developed by Chrysler with input from Carroll Shelby himself in the late 1980s. The aggressive shape certainly captured something of the Cobra's brutal beauty - from the side pipes to the huge 17-inch rims, the Viper definitely looked the part when it wowed the public as a concept at the 1989 Detroit Auto Show and little changed from the original prototype to the first production model of 1992. Boasting an all-alloy 8-litre V10 developed by Lamborghini (then owned by Chrysler) under the hood, with 400 bhp at 4600 rpm and 465 lbs/ft of torque at 3600 rpm the Viper could certainly get up and move. A 0 to 60 mph time of 4.6 seconds and top speed of 165 mph put the Dodge firmly in the big league in terms of outright performance. The Viper wasn't all brute power though, employing race car technology - the structure was a tubular space frame, with composite body panels, suspension was full independent, with coil springs and wishbones all round and the transmission was a Borg-Warner T56 six-speed manual. Other notable features included electronic direct ignition and sequential multipoint fuel injection, vented, four pot disc brakes and a limited-slip diff. Inside the Viper boasted creature comforts the Cobra driver could only dream of, including power steering, a leather steering wheel, premium stereo and air conditioning. Even the folding roof and tonneau kept the elements out and was easy to install. Always built in limited numbers (just 1,043 rolled off the production line in 1993), the Dodge Viper is already regarded as a modern classic and look set to follow the original Cobra's exalted road to collector car status in the not too distant future.