People also seem to forget the Viper was a properly successful racing car in the late 90s, wrapping up three consecutive GT class wins at Le Mans, multiple 24-hour overall victories at Spa, Daytona and Nurburgring and series titles in FIA GT and ALMS. Like the Cobra and GT40 before it, the Viper’s international success benefitted from European expertise too, Reynard in the UK laying down the core of the car before Oreca in France completed the assembly and managed the factory effort.
The racing cars were based on the GTS coupe and, accordingly, if I were to have a Viper this is the version I’d be after. With stripes. It’d have to have stripes, no car having worn this classic American racing livery better since the Shelby era.
100 GTS-R road cars were built in 1998 and these get lovely BBS wheels and a fixed rear wing like the race version. These are properly collectible, though and I think I’d be happy with a ‘standard’ one, the relatively lazy 450hp probably enough to be going on with. All things relative they’re not actually that expensive either, even a run-out 654hp SRT10 just £90,000. This early model 1996 GTS appears totally out of place on a distinctly unglamorous used car lot in Warwickshire but has my preferred white stripes on blue paint combo and seems an absolute bargain at £40,000. Looks like it could use a bit of love though, this late model, UK-market, one-owner GTS more appealing and looking seriously menacing in black with silver stripes. It’s up for ‘offers invited’ but if we consider equivalently aged 911 GT3s are at least £60,000 it makes for an interesting and unapologetic alternative. And if any Porsche fans sneer just remind them no 911 could touch the Viper in its racing heyday. Before giving that V10 a blip and disappearing in a cloud of tyre smoke.