WATCH  2017  Dodge Viper GTC Review
Channel: Auto Today
Date: 04/01/2017

Truly unique cars are few and far between these days. Every manufacturer is finding new ways to share components. And most models’ color combinations are limited to shades of silver with tones of beige or gray inside. It’s a miracle the Dodge Viper’s low-volume Detroit, Michigan, assembly line continues to birth snakes with a 645-hp pushrod V-10 heart, an engine that is, for all intents, unique. One has to imagine that if Mr. Marchionne had his way with a merger, the Viper’s near-nonexistent capability for sharing would relegate the American anti-Corvette to the scrap heap for good.

For now at least, the Viper carries on. Our newest test example wore a custom interior and paint designed by a guy named “Sneaky Pete,” or so says a badge on the dash. Mr. Pete chose a beautiful multidimensional silver paint and an all-red interior for this GTC model. But this car’s hierarchical place in the Viper pit is a little confusing. The GTC is above the base Viper SRT and the next-up GT and below the GTS model, but both the GTC and GT wear “GT” badges on their front fenders.

To add to the confusion, Sneaky, as friends call him, added the GTS interior package ($8500), bringing a full leather cockpit. Does this make the car a GTS? No, not really. The Time Attack Group 2.0 package ($8700) was also fitted. So this is a TA 2.0, right? Not quite. True TAs are built on the base SRT and come with cloth seats and a plastic dash. The Time Attack Groups (both the 1.0 and the winged 2.0, like this one) include the majority of the TA’s go-fast bits—suspension, wing/spoiler, splitters, brakes—but not all of them. Two notables missing are the SRT hood (six hood vents versus the GTS hood’s two) and the carbon-fiber X-brace (a really fancy strut-tower brace that saves 2.9 pounds over the standard brace), although both of those were added back into this car, for $500 and $2800. It wouldn’t be totally incorrect to call Pete’s car the nicest TA 2.0 out there.

“Sneaky Pete” is actually the nickname of the original 1990s Viper logo and not a person, and it is the name Dodge picked to apply to this example of the Viper’s new custom process called “1 of 1.” The program offers more than 50 million possible combinations of paint, interior, and stripe color. Dodge also limits the color combos to first come, first serve. To ensure each “1 of 1” is unique, Dodge will make you wait for the following model year if, for example, you want a white-on-white Viper with an off-white stripe and an identical one was already ordered. Pick your own hues here.

With a few other line items, this Pete-designed Viper totaled $126,085. It’s capable of accelerating to 130 mph in an 11.5-second quarter-mile. That, my friends, is smoking fast. A Chevy Corvette Z06 manual will match its time in the quarter, but the Vette is traveling 5 mph slower. By 150 mph, the Chevy lags by 1.3 seconds. First gear in the Viper is good for 60 mph. Each shift feels like you’re flipping the world’s heaviest light switch. The shifter snaps into place just after entering each gate. If you’re missing shifts in this car, you’re likely driving with one hand on top of the wheel, too.

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