The new 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 boasts more of what performance aficionados crave: kick-in-the-pants, throw-back-in-the-seat power, combined with benchmark braking, world-class ride and handling, a race-inspired interior and bold exterior styling.

While every SRT vehicle offers balanced, overall performance, the heart and soul of the new 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 is its standout powertrain. For 2008, SRT ups the ante with a new, 8.4-liter aluminum V-10 engine that produces an astounding 600 horsepower and 560 lb-ft of torque.

Standout Powertrain

Working with specialists from McLaren Performance Technologies and Ricardo, Inc., SRT engineers began by following the racer’s basic formula for more power: bigger displacement, more efficient breathing and higher engine speed.

The new Dodge Viper SRT10’s deep-skirted V-10 aluminum engine block was revised for a 1-millimeter larger bore, raising the displacement to 8.4 liters from 8.3 liters. The two-piece intake manifold combines a cast aluminum lower with smooth runners for better air flow, bolted to a die-cast aluminum upper plenum. A revised air-cleaner box with a low-restriction filter sends air through a dual electronic throttle control into the intake module.

Spent gases exit through tubular air-gap headers, which not only improve exhaust flow, but also ensure quick catalyst light-off for improved emission control. The headers’ stamped stainless-steel outer shell acts as a thermal heat shield for the individual stainless-steel runners that contribute to better flow separation and exhaust tuning.

World-class Ride and Handling

The ride and handling of the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 is defined by a race-bred, fully independent, four-wheel suspension featuring lightweight, high-performance aluminum control arms and knuckles, damped by lightweight coil-over shock absorbers.

Where the power goes right to the road, SRT engineers retained the tried-and-true Dana M44-4 rear axle and outfitted it with a new GKN Visco-Lok speed-sensing limited-slip differential for improved traction.

The Dodge Viper SRT10 rides on polished, forged aluminum, 18 x 10-inch front and 19 x 13-inch rear wheels now available in three styles: the five-spoke, the H-spoke and the all-new Razor wheel with five U-shaped spokes. The wheels are clad in Michelin® Pilot® Sport PS2 tires. The four-groove tread-design tires provide maximum grip, reduced road noise and superior handling in both wet and dry conditions.

Bold Exterior Styling

The 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 remains available in two body styles – Roadster and Coupe. Both feature a dramatic new hood with a larger, more efficient hood scoop for air induction and larger, functional hood louvers to facilitate a greater cooling effect for the more powerful 8.4-liter, 600-horsepower V-10 engine underneath.

The Dodge Viper SRT10 Coupe’s hard top with its “double bubble” styling makes it even more torsionally stiff than the Roadster. The 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 Coupe offers increased downforce and high-speed stability with its sloping roofline and deck-lid spoiler. Plus, the Dodge Viper SRT10 Coupe has an additional 6.25 cubic feet of trunk space than the Viper SRT10 Roadster, for a total of 14.65 cubic feet. The roof and headliner structure offer more room to accommodate a safety cage, while maintaining as much headroom as possible.

Race-inspired Interior Design

The 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 cockpit retains its characteristic red push-button starter and performance-oriented, highly functional instrument panel with center-mounted tachometer and 220-mph speedometer.

The new 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 will arrive in Dodge showrooms in North America this summer with a new level of customization options, including five new exterior colors, four new interior color combinations and a new wheel design.

AutoWeek may have broken the story on the Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR, but we're now allowed to bring you the full gamut of pics and info straight from the horse's mouth. As Drew mentioned earlier, we haven't had an ACR version of the Viper since 1999, so the return of Dodge's street-legal track car is significant news. The ACR is built around the standard Viper's stout 8.4L aluminum V10 that remains essentially unchanged – not that a 600-hp, 560 lb-ft motor needs much improvement. Instead, Dodge focused on other areas of the car to transform the Viper into a run-what-you-brung bonafide track special racer.

Since Drew hit the high points in our previous post, we won't reiterate them here. If you want more, you can read about every detail that makes this Viper SRT10 ACR special in Dodge's official press release after the jump and check out the gallery of high-res pics below. We'll be at the LA Auto Show next week to bring you live shots of the car after it debuts, as well.

What is it?
2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR

What's special about it?
With its optional "Hard Core" package, it's pretty easy to figure out the idea behind the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR. This is one for the serious knuckle-draggers, the guys who somehow feel like a standard Viper with its 600-horsepower V10 engine just isn't extreme enough. They want more, although in this case they actually get less, as the ACR is essentially a lightweight, track-ready version of the standard car.

We're only talking about a 40-pound weight reduction here, so the changes aren't dramatic. Forged-aluminum Sidewinder wheels are one of the more noticeable upgrades. Dodge says it used finite element analysis to optimize the design of the wheels to achieve a lower unsprung weight, so if you curb one it will be a very expensive mistake.

Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires remain the rubber of choice, although the cross-section width in front is up 20mm to 295/30R18. The rears are still 345/30R19s; it's not like you need a bigger contact patch in back.

Suspension upgrades include new KW Suspension coil-over dampers that are adjustable for both rebound and compression. There's also a new front antiroll bar for increased stiffness. StopTech brake rotors are another significant upgrade. The two-piece slotted discs are not only lighter but also feature curved fins for better cooling than the stock units.

If the 40 pounds Dodge shaved here for the ACR doesn't sound like enough, you can always opt for the appropriately named Hard Core package. It reduces the ACR's weight by another 40 pounds by eliminating pansy stuff like the underhood silencer pad and carpeting in the trunk. The radio gets pulled as well, replaced by a cover where you can mount the lap timer that comes with the package.

Since there is the possibility that buyers of the Viper SRT10 ACR might not actually take their cars to the track, there are several exterior changes to let the world know that this is no ordinary $80,000 Viper. There's a new variable-geometry front aero splitter complete with removable wear strips that are sure to get a workout with every handoff to the local valet. Also included is a removable central extension piece for track days only. Once in place, the piece reduces drag and increases downforce by a third. Gone are the standard foglights, replaced by lightweight filler panels.

Then there's that rear spoiler. It's adjustable, made of carbon fiber and astonishingly large. And if that's not attention-grabbing enough, there's the optional two-tone paint scheme that features a full-length, driver-side stripe and unfinished carbon-fiber pieces. There are also the traditional dual Viper stripes with a fully painted body if you want a more subtle 600-hp supercar.

Yes, just 600 hp in play here, as there are no mechanical modifications to the standard drivetrain.

What's Edmunds' take?
We picked the Viper SRT10 over the Corvette Z06 in a recent comparison test because it had a few rough edges that made it a true supercar. This ACR version takes this idea one step further, and we like it. — Ed Hellwig, Senior Editor

600 Horses Take Wing

By Ken Field, Contributor Email
Date posted: 01-29-2008


There are two places on the long track at Willow Springs International Raceway where you can clearly feel the difference between the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR and any other Viper.

One is at the turn-in point of Turn 8, a fast right-hand sweeper that is entered at a very high speed, where a decent front-to-rear handling balance is necessary to swing the nose to the apex without losing the tail. The other is at the exit of Turn 2, where you come off the corner hard on the power to squirt down the short chute to Turn 3's tricky uphill left-hander.

In both of these places, the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR feels noticeably better pinned to the asphalt than not only the current Viper SRT10 but also any other Viper we've ever driven.

We're grateful. We can remember hammering that first 1992 Viper roadster down into Turn 8 at 120 mph all those years ago and it felt like an airplane crash in the making, as if it was going to take off and smash itself to pieces in the desert.

May the Downforce Be With You
This improvement is not surprising given that the high-flying carbon-fiber rear wing unique to the ACR (American Club Racer) provides around 1,000 pounds of downforce at 150 mph, according to Dodge aerodynamics engineer Mike Shineling. Not only that, there's an equally prominent carbon-fiber front aero splitter that helps suck the nose downward, plus a full complement of various underbody aero kick-ups and fender-mounted aero dive planes.

The dive planes are said to account for more than 20 percent of the overall front downforce, generating aero vortices along the sides of the car to enhance air extraction through the wheelwells and help reduce turbulence.

A lot of midnight oil has been burned to get the ACR's setup just right. The SRT engineers used CFD (computational fluid dynamics) to help get the shape of the wing just right, and the Chrysler wind tunnel is in such huge demand for other vehicle projects that sometimes it is literally only available in the wee hours.

Enough Is Enough
Obviously, aerodynamics played a big part in the ACR's development. And for a car with 600 horsepower on tap that's intended for track work in the hands of not only professional racers but also Viper club owners, it should. After all, power just takes care of the acceleration. Afterwards you still have traction and cornering grip to think about.

Of course, the standard-issue 2008 Viper also has 600 hp, and when we first heard that the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR had an identical amount of power we were a little disappointed. Previous editions of the Viper ACR have offered a little more power than their more street-oriented siblings.

But Viper chief engineer Herb Helbig offers a reasonable explanation. "It costs the corporation millions to certify a new powertrain," he says. "And we'd just upgraded the engine significantly for all 2008 Vipers."

Besides, 600 hp is more than most drivers can exploit. So for the ACR, Dodge's SRT engineers have concentrated instead on weight reduction and high-speed handling, the very characteristics you'd expect from a vehicle intended to spend a lot of its time at the track.

Making It Turn
When it came to trimming weight, the SRT team started with the wheels, the most beneficial place they could think of. By adopting two-piece StopTech brake rotors and using forged-alloy Sidewinder wheels, the team slashed 60 pounds at a stroke, and all of it in unsprung weight. (Of course 20 pounds have been added back to the car by the specific ACR aero bits.)

Then the SRT engineers went hunting for good suspension pieces, finding race-specification dampers from KW Suspension to be just about exactly what they had in mind. These shocks are 14-way adjustable in compression and rebound, and they permit ride-height adjustment as well, so the car can be lowered right down to 3 inches of ground clearance.

With spring rates that are about twice as firm as the standard Viper and a front antiroll bar some 20 percent stiffer, the ACR Viper rides pretty hard, yet it didn't feel too jarring to us at Willow Springs. Other than a couple of bumpy points on the track where the car would bounce slightly off course, the Viper circulated surprisingly smoothly. Despite a fairly serious lecture from chief engineer Helbig about not crashing, we discovered to our relief that this 600-hp car with a big racy wing is actually pretty easy to drive.

Now We Drive It
We were suited up for track driving in fireproof gear and a helmet, and it took a bit of doing to squirm past this ACR's roll cage and buckle into the seat's five-point harness. Because so many owners of previous Viper ACRs have replaced the car's seat harness with their own preferred brand, Dodge has decided to supply the 2008 ACR model with the same three-point belts as in the standard street Viper. Don't fret; every Viper has mountings for a five-point harness anyway.

Once lashed in, we had the usual smallish wheel and tall center console to remind us what this car is about, so further orientation takes very little time. The 8.4-liter V10 pours torque down the tunnel at almost any rpm, so moving off from rest is easily managed. The new twin-plate clutch is not particularly heavy, and communicates its engagement point fairly well.

Out on the track, the ACR Viper comes into its own. The stiffer suspension feels better as the aero devices start to add downforce, and the lack of body motion helps you better assess the level of tire grip in corners. Michelin Pilot Sport Cup tires are unique to the ACR, with 30-series rubber all around on 18-inch front and 19-inch rear rims. The 295/30R18 front tires are 20mm wider, while the 345/30R19 rear tires remain the same. The tires grip with considerable tenacity, since they're blessed with a shallow tread pattern and contact patches the size of small farms.

The fluid supply of thrust from the V10 doesn't hurt, either. Although earlier examples of the Vipers have been known for the occasional episode of tail-happiness when you get on the gas, the ACR seems easy to read, and it can be booted out of corners with a long, linear surge of power without the threat of undue vehicular rotation. While you never want to mash the gas pedal in a strong car like this one, the ACR doesn't seem easily upset by big applications of throttle.

Rubber Side Down, Please
Since we were trying to bear in mind Helbig's advice, we didn't really expect to take this track-tuned supercar to its ultimate limits. Even finding them in a car with this much aero assistance would prove an interesting exercise in technique (and bravery), but we were interested that Helbig insists the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR is 2 seconds a lap quicker than its wingless stablemate.

Yet the ACR is still very much a Viper. Getting in means vaulting the wide sill and sinking down into the deep bucket seat. The shift lever is perched high on the tunnel, and requires a firm hand to guide it from gear to gear. The engine still has the unusual 10-cylinder growl and that surprisingly supple power delivery that completely understates its potential.

Once you're out on the track, the engine gets a serious, hard-edged tone to it as you wind it past 6,000 rpm, but it never feels over-stressed. It just gobbles one gear after another, effortlessly propelling the car to high speed. Six-hundred horses shouldn't feel this lazy, somehow, but it does, and you're glad the brakes are as strong as they are when you warp past your braking point.

$10,000 Per Cylinder
The 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR's signature paint scheme is a two-tone treatment with a variety of special Viper colors complemented by a black center stripe. There's a Hard Core package for pure racers that deletes the audio system (replaced by a cover where you can mount the lap timer that comes with the package), the tire inflator, the underhood acoustic pad and the trunk carpeting to reduce overall weight by a further 40 pounds.

The bottom line is a price of $98,810, including delivery. While one could argue that the standard Viper offers all the power and pretty good dynamics for $12,050 less, it's clear that a track-ready 600-hp sports car at under a $100 grand is better than anybody else can manage right now.

According to Jalopnik, yes. We reported yesterday that as a part of Project Genesis, Chrysler was planning to cut more models in addition to the PT Cruiser Convertible, Pacifica, Crossfire and Magnum. Jalopnik is reporting that, according to several of its sources, the decision has already been made that the Dodge Viper SRT10 will be cancelled, as well. The decision was reportedly made after Cerberus took control of Chrysler and was not part of the automaker's future product plans prior to its split with Daimler.

While the current 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 just received an update for 2008 that includes a new version of its iconic V10 engine capable of producing 600 horsepower and a track-ready ACR model, it was only ever meant to be on the market for another two years until the fully redesigned next-gen Viper bowed. Since that's reportedly not going to happen, the Viper will reportedly be sold as is through the 2011 model year.

The Viper has never been a cheap car to build, being assembled by hand at the automaker's Connor Avenue Assembly Plant. The obvious argument for killing the halo car is that money spent on developing the next-generation Viper could go towards better interiors and more appealing designs for bread and butter models, the sales of which keep the lights on at the company's Auburn Hills, MI headquarters. The Viper, however, has always been more than just a halo car for Chrysler, it's been a symbol of what the company can do when it's firing on all cylinders. If this report is true, to see it cancelled indicates just how lean these times really are for Chrysler under its new management.

chrysler is apparently considering selling the dodge viper high-performance sports car to a third party in order to raise cash and focus on chrysler’s core business of high-profit, high-volume cars, according to company chairman and ceo bob nardelli.

Viper, which has been a part of chrysler since the first show car was unveiled at the north american international auto show in detroit in 1989, could become a piece of history for chrysler.

“this strategic review comes as the company focuses on enhancing its core business and leveraging its assets,” said a press release from chrysler.

We have been approached by third parties who are interested in exploring future possibilities for viper,” said nardelli.

He continued, “as the company evaluates strategic options to maximize core operations and leverage its assets, we have agreed to listen to these parties. We will do so keeping in mind the best interests of those who have shown tremendous support for the vehicle- including employees, suppliers, dealers and a worldwide group of loyal viper owners and enthusiasts.

“viper is an integral part of this company’s heritage. While this is a strategic review, our intent would be to offer strong operational and financial support during any potential transaction, in order to ensure a future for the viper business and perpetuate the legacy of this great vehicle.”

chrysler was quick to point out that no definitive timetable or decisions have been made and that the automaker is reviewing all possible options in its strategic review. The review is unique to the viper and is not being conducted on other chrysler products.