The Dodge Viper is already a wild car but slap some bespoke suspension parts on it, a 12-inch lift kit, and some mud-terrain tires and it’s downright crazy. That’s exactly what one man has done though and the process has been extremely intricate. In his latest video, he details what it’s taken just to get this off-road-focused Viper back on the road safely.
The man in question is Matt Brown who is the face of the YouTube channel SuperFastMatt. This off-road Viper project began early in 2023 and Brown detailed his goals and thoughts in March of the same year. In that video, he described his intention to make this a “rally Viper”. Essentially, it’s not just a “Safari” version or a Viper body on a truck frame but is instead mostly Viper with serious rally capability mixed in.
A new video demonstrates what Brown has done just to make the highly modified car road-worthy again. The entire drivetrain had to be tilted downward from front to back and that required cutting and re-welding the frame. He also added droop-limiting straps to his bespoke-designed suspension which consists of bespoke knuckles and control arms.
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The next job on the road-worthiness checklist was bleeding the brakes but that wasn’t simple either. Brown’s power bleeder had the wrong cap fitting so he had to rig up a zip-tie/steel cap situation for that to work in short order. He had to rebuild part of his emergency brake too.
Then he found himself facing a no-start condition that initially appeared to be a dead ECU. That was confusing since he hasn’t actually modified the engine itself in any way. Thankfully, the real problem was a wire he’d disconnected in the past and left unplugged not realizing how vital it was.
Once the Viper was running, Brown tested out the fuel pressure, fixed an old Schrader valve, and turned his attention to the exhaust. Since the drivetrain is tilted the exhaust normally would be too. To fix this issue, Brown bored out the mounting holes so that there was some flexibility in the joint. He used steel wire to support the rear of the exhaust until the proper hangers were installed.
Then he added a new shifter complete with a bespoke knob from a subscriber only to realize that the shifter linkage was faulty. So back went the original shifter and the off-road Viper was finally ready for its first on-road voyage.
To put it simply, it was short, but it was also a success, and not long after he went out for a second drive. Now, we’ll just have to wait for him to find time to take it off-road. One imagines it’ll require even more custom work. Well worth it for a labor of love.