Dodge The Viper

So, you're on the internet, browsing car sites. That's how you've ended up on TyreRoar. If you regularly indulge your petrolhead online then you'll most likely be aware of the site WreckedExotics.com. This now world-famous domain centres around our morbid fascination with what happens when those can afford the very cream of the car world's crop appear to lack the ability to drive it.

In short, its an frequently updated and perfectly catalogued collection of heart-breakingly broken sports cars, arranged for your viewing (dis)pleasure. Even in difficult economic times, there's clearly no shortage of willing volunteers who overdrive their priceless motors and end up with an large dent in their no claims bonus and their moment of embarrassment immortalised on the world's best car crash website.

There was however a notable absentee from this week's batch of sorry state supercars. For the first time in quite a while, there were no wrecked Dodge Vipers amongst the latest crashes to adorn the site. The reason this caught my eye is simply that almost every other week, several Vipers are to be found in extremely poor condition after terrifying looking accidents.

WreckedExotics conveniently provides an explanation to every picture on each page, and while some cars are the victims of vandalism, poor maintenance, or freak weather conditions, the Viper is an unequivocal shrine to its devilish, downright dangerous demeanour. At the current count, there are 23 pages of archived Viper crash photos. And the descriptions display a clear relationship...

"Hydroplaned, spun 3 times, then flipped end over end down a 60 foot cliff. Ended upside down in a riverbed. Driver and passenger were uninjured."


"Tires spun out while going around a curve, slammed into a palm tree"


"Lost control on the highway as car was entering traffic. Crashed into the guardrail, then flipped over"


"Dealer took soon to be owner for a ride but didn't make it more than 200 yards from the dealership."

Of course there's no telling what manner of driving the Vipers were being subjected to at the time of their deaths, but there's a definite parallel in that a lot of these ex-Vipers met their end during fairly routine manoeuvres. Although the car has now ended production it seems amazing that this 8.4 litre V10 monster, eventually with 600 brake horsepower, only rear wheel drive and little in the way of sophisticated electronic assistance was able, allowed even, to carry on for so long, At relatively bargain prices in the US, compared to equivalently powerful European exotics, the Viper was a huge hit, so there's plenty out there, ready to be in the hands of a very large customer pool.

The Viper is also enormous. Having seen one yesterday at a sports car meet, it dwarked the Porsches nearby witha footprint larger than a BMW 5 Series. A wieldy sports car it is not; everything about its being is massive. Check out the size of the rear tyre in the photo on the left. As was said during the car's Top Gear track test, with tyres so enormous providing your lifeline, the speeds you'll be going when the Viper overcomes grip limits are way beyond what the vast majority of drivers can be expected to handle. In the US, home of the modern suing culture, how has the Viper now been given the same health warnings as cigarettes or Jackass?

As a last thorn in the side of the health and safety obsessed, nanny state, the Dodge Viper is a quite incredible car. The final generation's stats are pretty terrifying. An engine twice the capacity of an Audi R8. Nigh-on identical power to a Ferrari 599 GTB. 0-60 in 3.4 seconds, faster than a Porsche 997 GT2 RS. Top speed of 202mph for the coupé, and 5mph less for the roadster. That's leaving behind Lexus LFAs and Lamborghini Gallardos.

With vitals like that, it seems predictable that the Viper will continue to be a regular customer on Wrecked Exotics. Here's hoping a few manage not to bite back and live on to demonstrate to the EVs and hybrids of the near and distant future, just how awe-inspring and raw a road legal can can be.

 As an aside, I think it's important to say I'm not trying to make light of the fact than people have been injured and killed in accidents in these cars, just as others have unfortunately suffered in other stereotypical 'widowmakers' like old 911s or TVRs. Also, I'm not attempting to label Dodge irresponsible for their creation of the Viper. This is simply a commentary on how one car has become infamous, perhaps endearingly so, in such an otherwise safety centric context.

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