A couple of weeks ago, Dodge brought its street-legal, but now discontinued, 2010 Viper SRT10 ACR to the Nürburgring racetrack to set the record straight – literally.

In 2008, while the sports car was still in production, the Viper SRT10 ACR turned the ‘Ring in 7:22.10, which at the time made it the fifth fastest production car in the world, according to the figures listed on Wikipedia.

Since then, however, many production vehicles posted better times including the Lexus LFA Nürburgring Edition with 7:14.64 on August 31, 2011, which placed it in fourth position behind the Radical SR8 LM (6:48), Radical SR8 (6:55) and the Gumpert Apollo Sport (7:11.57).

But even though production of the Viper came to an end in 2010, Dodge believed that the SRT10 ACR had potential to improve its ‘Ring lap time. And on September 14, they decided to give it another try.

The Detroit automaker obtained two new 2010 Dodge Viper ACR’s off the showroom floors of the Tomball Dodge team from Tomball, Texas. The differences between the 2008MY and 2010MY Viper SRT10 ACR include a shorter fifth gear ratio (changing from 0.74 to 0.80) for improved high-speed acceleration and higher straightaway speeds, and revised aero bits.

With veteran GT driver Dominik Farnbacher sitting behind the wheel of the 600-horsepower sports car, the Viper SRT10 ACR lapped the ‘Ring in 7:12.13, or more than 2 seconds faster than the Lexus LFA Nürburgring Edition. The lap time places the Viper in fourth place in the production car segment.

“Our team returned to Germany knowing we’d left some time on the track when we set our first lap record, so this effort shows the incredible depth and capability the Viper ACR has by running a full 10 seconds faster than we did in 2008,” commented Ralph Gilles, CEO of the SRT Brand and Motorsports, Chrysler Group.

The Viper ACR holds benchmark lap times at the following road courses:

  • Autobahn Country Club, Joliet, Ill. 2:37.70
  • Buttonwillow Raceway Park, Buttonwillow, Calif. 1:55.70
  • Gingerman Raceway (1.88-mile original course), South Haven, Mich. 1:26.70
  • Grattan Raceway, Belding, Mich. 1:22.70
  • Laguna Seca Raceway, Salinas, Calif. 1:33.90
  • Miller Motorsport Park (3.05-mile outer loop), Tooele, Utah 1:59.90
  • Monticello Motor Club, Monticello, N.Y. 2:26.37
  • MotorSport Ranch (3.1-mile full course), Cresson, Texas 2:19.00
  • Nelson Ledges Road Course, Garrettsville, Ohio 1:08.90
  • New Jersey Motorsports Park, Millville, N.J. 1:28.08
  • No Problem Raceway, Belle Rose, La. 1:16.90
  • Nürburgring Nordschleife, Nürburg, Germany 7:12.13
  • Putnam Park, Mount Meridian, Ind. 1:12.60
  • Sebring Full Course, Sebring, Fla. 2:19.47
  • Spring Mountain (2.2-mile layout), Pahrump, Nev. 1:45.40
  • Texas World Speedway, College Station, Texas 1:47.56
  • Top Gear USA (El Toro), Irvine, Calif. 1:22.00
  • Virginia International Raceway (3.27-mile full course), Alton, Va. 2:00.63
  • Willow Springs Raceway, Rosamond, Calif. 1:26.00

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