The SRT Viper will remain as it is. And the company is not going to abandon its principles. It concerns both the specifications and the price of the sports car. It was stated by the company’s head Ralph Gilles. Let us remind, that apart from the famous sports car, SRT also produces “loaded” versions of Dodge and Chrysler.
After the launch of sales in spring 2013 only 600 sports cars were sold, though the planned figures were at least three times higher and included around 2,000 vehicles. But even such failure, or in other words lack of success, did not change his determination and Ralph Gilles still denies any possibilities to make Viper more popular. In his interview to Edmunds he highlighted that the supercar will neither have automatic transmission, nor a more powerful engine. The latter might have seriously reduced the price of Viper thus resulting in higher sales. Chrysler, for instance, is fitted with a 6.4-litre V8 which could become the heart of a more affordable modification but the SRT management insists on keeping the unique status of the supercar.
«The people who buy the Viper relish the manual, they relish the driver's car, the raw connections to the vehicle. That is what it is about. So we are not chasing rainbows here,” Ralph Gilles stated. »What is unique about the Viper is that engine is in nothing else. It is only in the Viper. We don't use an engine out of a truck or a passenger car and stick it in our sports car. It is unique to itself."
Chevrolet Corvette, which is the major competitor of Viper in the USA, can be ordered both with a relatively affordable V8 engine and the six-speed automatic transmission. But Ralph Gilles does not consider Corvette to be a real competitor for the SRT Viper.
SRT Viper is fitted with a 10-cylinder naturally-aspirated 8.4-litre engine producing 640 hp and is considered to be the only stock car using such large engine displacement.
