The Dodge Viper is on its deathbed. Sure, we’ve been here before, and the Super Snake has made its comeback time and again. And it may once more. But the more likely outcome has it down for the count.
So what gives? That’s a question to ask of the Mopar supercar’s father: the inimitable Bob Lutz. And ask him someone did.
The former Chrysler chief and GM vice chairman fields a regular Q&A column for Road & Track, and among this month’s questions concerned the fate of the Viper that Maximum Bob ushered from concept to reality.
“What do you have to say about Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) killing the Viper after 25 years?” asked one guy from Ohio. Bob’s answer? “The Viper ran out of good reasons to live.”
“The original premise,” wrote Lutz, “was ‘more power and speed than anyone else.’ But the Viper was, in recent years, trumped by the Corvette ZR1 and Z06 and even in its own family by the Hellcat.”
A former BMW executive veep, Lutz also had to say this month that Bimmers have lost their dynamic edge (relative to the competition), that wagons have effectively been replaced by crossovers, and that public demand is making cars too complicated. Bob’s always been one to speak his mind.
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