TV execs went to great lengths in the early 1990s to draw the young male gaze away from Baywatch, and one of those lengths involved stretching a Dodge Viper RT/10 to create a futuristic crime-fighting sports coupe for cheesy NBC show, Viper.
The good guys drove a regular red RT/10 that could transform into a silver-colored armed assault vehicle called the Defender thanks to some primitive 1990s CGI effects that also let the show’s four-wheeled hero shoot Star Wars-style laser rounds from guns mounted in its sills.
But the Defender wasn’t only based on a Dodge Viper, it was even made with the help of Chrysler’s design team. The job of constructing the cars, however, was left to Unique Movie Cars in Las Vegas, who allegedly created 14 vehicles for filming duties and promotional work, one of which is currently being offered on Bring a Trailer.
Related: Stop What You’re Doing And Watch This 3,300 HP Dodge Viper Do A 6-Second 1/4 Mile Pass
It’s not clear how many of the other cars are still around, but a comment from one auction-watcher suggest not many. He claims that he was present when a haul of crushed red Vipers, grey Defenders and a V10 Ram truck used in the show were shredded at Chrysler’s insistence after the show had wrapped because they didn’t have proper VINs.
This car, which is claimed to be one of the on-screen cars, doesn’t have a VIN, and neither does it have a Viper’s 8.0-liter V10 and six-speed manual transmission. Instead, it’s powered by a classic carb-fed 360-cube (5.9-liter) Chrysler pushrod V8 that drives the fat three-spoke rear wheels via a 727 torqeflite automatic. Hardly sci-fi tech, but it probably made the car cheap, reliable and easy to drive on set, while still making a decent noise.
The fiberglass coupe body features a strange double porthole in the roof and clear styling links to the production Viper, though it’s certainly no clone of the Viper GTS, the real Viper coupe that Chrysler must have been working on in parallel with this car, and which made its debut in 1996.
As for the fancy gadgets seen in the show, forget it. This Defender’s windows are attached with Velcro and it doesn’t have heating, seatbelts or a radio, so you don’t have to get too close to realize that those three digital monitors are fakes.
Comments below the auction list variously describe the show as being a core part of their automotive awakening and utter garbage. Do you remember it? Drop a comment below and give us your judgement on Viper and the Defender. Exactly how bad was it?
