With what I'm willing to spend toward the end of the year, it looks like an older Viper could be in the conversation.
How are they reliability/maintenance wise?
With what I'm willing to spend toward the end of the year, it looks like an older Viper could be in the conversation.
How are they reliability/maintenance wise?
In reply to z31maniac :
I heard that if you have to ask, then you cannot afford them 
Just get the P car!
Head gaskets from what I have heard are something that needs attention but I guess the actual job is not that bad.
Cayman to new BRZ to Viper!
Just get a car with some power buddy. You know you want to :)
Come join us at ViperAlley! You will THEN know what internet forums are all about ;)
Please know that this comes from a wholly uninformed place, but I feel like the cooling systems are inadequate on the first generation Vipers.
The cams have no bearings, at least on the earlier ones. They just ride in aluminum bores in the block. From what I understand it's not a huge reliability issue, but it does make the need for a certain religiousness about oil health. To the best of my knowledge, there is exactly one machine shop that developed a means of boring and honing the cam journals for installation of cam bearings from some other motor... BBF maybe? Someone spent millions developing the system for a limited audience, so I would imagine the cost is intense.
The aftermarket also has cams with larger journals for an overbore, but it still requires the overbore part.
They're one of the coolest cars ever, and that is about all that matters.
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
I'd be a little surprised if they didn't adapt something from a small block Mopar, considering the origins of the Viper engine (take a magnum 5.9/360, add 2 cylinders and a longer stroke to get the 8 liter truck V10, then re-make it in aluminum with some performance mods and an LA style valvetrain to get the original Viper V10).
They have a killer street presence and the coupe just keeps going up in price. There was a salvage titled GTS for sale a month ago about an hour away from me that was super tempting
I've always thought that they were neat looking cars with oddly low output engines. The 1991 Mk 1 put out 400 bhp from 8.0 liters or 50 bhp/liter. That is exactly 1/2 of the specific output of a 1991 Honda Civic.....
wspohn said:I've always thought that they were neat looking cars with oddly low output engines. The 1991 Mk 1 put out 400 bhp from 8.0 liters or 50 bhp/liter. That is exactly 1/2 of the specific output of a 1991 Honda Civic.....
Hmmm ... 108/1.6= 67.5 ...
mr2s2000elise said:Cayman to new BRZ to Viper!
Just get a car with some power buddy. You know you want to :)
Come join us at ViperAlley! You will THEN know what internet forums are all about ;)
ViperAlley makes the rest rest of the net look like a community park. They are the 8chan of the viper world. Still love them though.
Just buy a clean one that you fit in and have fun you will not lose money and they are dead simply to repair and maintain.
Damn. I was hoping to fact dump on you about the F-16.
I would sure like to get a 2009-2017 SRT or GTS version.. But then I would have to sell all of my slant sixes and only have a few cars left.
I don't know much about them but there is always a good representation of them at Carlisle. The Early ones were quite crude but functional for 1992.
Lots of interior bits and other things were shared with the corporate parts bin back then. I think that they have come a long way since the first gen 1992 models.
Greg
The first gens demand your respect. No electronic nannies and a whole heap of torque.
Just don't burn your leg on the exhaust when you get out.
wearymicrobe said:mr2s2000elise said:Cayman to new BRZ to Viper!
Just get a car with some power buddy. You know you want to :)
Come join us at ViperAlley! You will THEN know what internet forums are all about ;)
ViperAlley makes the rest rest of the net look like a community park. They are the 8chan of the viper world. Still love them though.
Just buy a clean one that you fit in and have fun you will not lose money and they are dead simply to repair and maintain.
Truth! Agreed!
In reply to Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) :
One of the machine shops in the US that handles classic car engines (can't remember which one now) has a repair that involves hogging out the alloy block and installing proper cam bearings.
Thanks to handling straight eight engines, they have the boring bars long enough to line-bore V10s
Just did a quick search and this is what I found:
Depreciation Station: 2003-'06 Dodge Viper SRT-10
Slippery said:In reply to z31maniac :
I heard that if you have to ask, then you cannot afford them
Just get the P car!
I knew I liked you!
It's just ideas at the moment. The lady and I both WFH permanently, so the idea of getting something a bit ridiculous is getting stronger. Which explains me looking at silly stuff like a Boxster S or a Viper.
We have the proper, responsible car in the '18 Mazda 3. So now we are looking at getting something silly.
If you can rent something similar to what you are thinking of for a weekend it is probably a good idea (Turo?). They are very different to a Porsche which is a good thing for some people and a bad thing for others. Dad brought a second generation convertible to the cottage a few years ago for the weekend and both of us would have taken a Boxster over it.
A guy I work with has an '04 Viper. He drives it everyday just like a normal car. In two years it has had no issues. Of course he also has a '70 Hemi Challenger convt., as well as a Hemi Challanger drag car with over 1000 hp, so he's not short on straight line fast things. I've driven Vipers on track and am always impressed. What's not to like?
I've only driven Vipers on track; despite there reputation on find them user friendly, even the 700hp version. They have big wide tires so when they let go they really let go. They also have gobs of torque.
I do remember some of the owners saying they weren't great if you had big feet, other than that I can't recall much bad about them.
I drove an '03 or '04 at Skip Barber at the Limerock short auto-x type track and absolutely loved it. As much power as they have, I thought it was pretty docile. I would definitely consider one as a three seasons DD. I think the tunnel gets hot (as well as the side pipes), but that's nothing that some additional insulation can't fix (in the case of the tunnel). You'll probably be a lot more careful around the side pipes after you get your first burn.
I'm a big fan of Cobras (the kit variety is all I can hope to afford), but I think a Viper would be a far better DD than a Cobra with a soft top.
I'm an instructor for a viper club, I've spent more time on track in vipers than most viper owners have spent in their cars at all. I think they're basically a miata for people who like power, and that they're way more dynamic than they get credit for. In all my time with the club, I've seen very very few failures, a door handle malfunction and one check engine light for an o2 sensor, dont know how that worked out but it was a tuned car with no cats so who knows. They're way better cars than I ever would have imagined coming from dodge (I'm not usually a fan).
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