The 2013 SRT Viper and Viper GTS are sure to wow the crowds at this year’s New York Auto Show, but they won’t be alone as the street-legal versions are joined at Chrysler’s stand by the GTS-R racing model.
Almost all race fans know that the previous generation Vipers have a long history on the tracks, which begun back in 1996 with the original GTS-R that won the 1997-1999 FIA GT championships along with five international GT titles and was the first-ever production-based American car to win the 24 Hours of Daytona in 2000.
This is the first time the competition model has been unveiled alongside the road version in the same venue.
Designed to participate in the 2012 American Le Mans Series, the Viper GTS-R has been developed by SRT Motorsports in cooperation with Riley technologies. SRT will field two cars in the production-based GT class and has already signed four drivers.
“I don’t think it’s possible to overstate the significance of the SRT Viper returning to the top level of professional sports car racing”, said President and CEO of the ALMS Scott Atherton.
“The Chrysler Group has a long, storied and very successful history of competing with the American Le Mans Series. The fact that they’re coming back concurrently with the introduction of the new production car and doing it simultaneously, we would be hard-pressed to come up with a better-case scenario.”
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