This Dodge Viper GTS‑R is your ticket to an 80MM demo

Your own Chrysler Viper GTS-R in other words, in the GT demonstration of the year. And this is not just any Viper but a machine acclaimed as among the fastest and most successful of the American V10 racecars ever to take to the track.

 Bonhams has it for sale at its auction in Paris on February 2. That'll leave its new owner just enough time to get it ready for a starring role in what promises to be one of 80MM’s most memorable demos this year – a whole field of GT1 racecars from a golden period of GT racing. There’s no guarantee of an entry to 80MM of course, but as the blokes in the 80MM competition department tell us, if the new owner doesn’t get on the phone to them the instant they are given the keys there will be hell to pay…

This Viper, so emotive in its white Route 66 livery from Spa 2002, will be right at home in the GT1 demo. It would line up among other supercar-derived race machines like the Aston DBR9, Chevrolet Corvette, Saleen S7-R, Lister Storm and, most potent of all, the Maserati MC12. Along with contenders from Ford, Nissan and Lamborghini among others, the potent machines made GT1 racing in the 2000s totally awesome at tracks from Le Mans to Sebring.

Early in the decade the Viper GTS-R dominated GT racing around the world and the car in the Bonhams sale played a key part in the success. This car’s record speaks for itself:five FIA GT wins; eight second places; two thirds; and five pole positions. Prepared by French race car builder Oreca and run by Team Carsport Holland, it was one of the fastest FIA GT cars in 2000-02, and is acknowledged today as one of the most potent racing Vipers. 

The Viper, developed in secret at a Chrysler skunk works in the late 1980s, was very much the latterday Cobra, an image reinforced when Carroll Shelby drove a pre-production pace car at the '91 Indianapolis 500. Factory GTS-R race versions followed the road car in 1996, one of them coming home 10^th overall on its debut at Le Mans that year. Fifty seven GTS-Rs were built in total, including this one from the year 2000. Some were put together by Chrysler, others by Reynard and some like the car in the sale by Oreca in France. 

Team Carsport Holland owner, Dutch motor sport legend Toine Hezemans, wanted a long list of mods on the car, go-faster tweaks that included a Swiss-built V10 with reprofiled cams, a sequential gearbox, modified suspension, new bonnet vents and aerodynamic changes like a repositioned rear wing and new front splitter modelled on that of the Mercedes GT1 car. 

The end result was a carbon-fibre wide-bodied Viper with the 8.0-litre V10 producing 953PS (711kW) and 1053Nm of torque (in unrestricted form). There’s a six-speed Quaife sequential ’box and all up weight is just under a tonne. As well as the 15 podium places there have been plenty of eventful moments in this Viper’s racing life, including a fiery accident at Spa when it was hit by a back-marker going into Eau Rouge. 

The car was rebuilt from the ground up – and then promptly went on to win the GT race at Donington Park and finish second at Estoril. In 2010, the car was given yet another complete overhaul, including rebuilt engine and gearbox which have been run for just 11 hours since. Sounds like it’s ready to rumble to us… The Viper is being sold by Bonhams at its Les Grandes Marques du Monde sale in Paris on February 2, with a guide price of €455-485,000 (about £400-425,000). 

The GT1 demo at the 80th Goodwood Members' Meeting takes place on April 15 and 16 when, with or without this Viper, the Goodwood Circuit will reverberate to the sound of genuine GT thunder. Will a certain V10 roar be part of it? We certainly hope so.