The Dodge Viper may not be much longer for this world, but that’s not about to stop the ten-cylinder beast from setting more lap records. And the latest fell at Carolina Motorsports Park – not at the hands of a factory team, but those of a noteworthy local dealership.
Now officially confirmed, the team from Gerry Wood Dodge took a Viper ACR from the showroom in Salisbury, North Carolina, across the state line to CMP in Kershaw, South Carolina, and shattered the production-car lap record.
Whatever the time at which the previous record stood, the Viper broke it with a hot lap clocked at 1:37.04, which track officials confirmed was the fastest they’ve ever seen in a road car. “Congratulations on it, that’s a damn good lap time in any car,” said CMP’s David Watkins, “and you did it in a production car so my hat’s off to you sir!”
One of the largest outlets for the Mopar supercar, Gerry Wood Dodge sells more Vipers than any other dealer in the Southeast region – possibly the world. If the name rings a bell, it’s likely from the headlines it made late last year when the dealership ordered 135 of Dodge’s flagship model before FCA closed the order books. It currently has 70 of them listed for sale in its inventory.
Its achievement at CMP is just the latest in a long line of lap records claimed by the Viper ACR. The factory team took the track-focused (but still street-legal) model to 13 tracks over the course of 2015, taking with it the production-car lap records at Laguna Seca, Road Atlanta, Gingerman Raceway, VIR, Willow Springs, Buttonwillow, and seven other tracks across America to cement its place in the annals of history. A crowdfunded endeavor is also underway to pursue the lap record at the Nürburgring as well, which would be a very large cherry indeed atop that particular sundae.