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*Click on the above
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Additional Details:
(VIN:
1B3JR65Z73V501349), Viper silver clearcoat / black leather seats with
suede inserts, / black soft top, 11,790 original miles, Tremec
T56 6-spd. manual trans., built 06/2003, in-service date of approx.
04/16/2004, sold new in Merrillville, IN, 3,411 pound dry weight, 8.3L
(505 cu. in.) all aluminium OHV V10 with sequential multi-point
electronic fuel injection, 2-valves per cylinder, 500 hp. @ 5,500 rpm.,
525
lb.-ft. torque @ 1,500 - 5,600 rpm., bore x stroke: 102.4 mm x 100.6
mm, 9.6:1 compression ratio, 3.07:1 axle ratio, 12" clutch, cast
aluminum
cylinder block has interference-fit cast-iron liners, six main bearing
crankshaft with increased stroke length and cross-bolted main caps,
redesigned semi-permanent mold (SPM) 356 T6 aluminum cylinder heads
with improved intake port, exhaust port and combustion chamber
cooling, lower-profile die-cast magnesium cylinder head covers with
steel internal baffles and anti-slosh foam, engine oil cooler, all-new
cast aluminum alloy pistons weigh slightly less than prior years, new
cracked-steel connecting rods are lighter, but stronger, single-piece,
central dual-plenum, cast aluminum intake manifold, shorter runners and
a single, non-staged two-barrel throttle body provide higher peak
horsepower RPM, the intake manifold is an all-inclusive Integrated Air
and Fuel Module (IAFM) with tubular fuel rails, injectors, sensors,
wiring and throttle body - delivered assembled and pre-tested, new
power assisted four wheel ventilated disc brakes consist of Brembo
calipers and 14-inch rotors at the front and rear and 4-wheel ABS,
black brake calipers, tubular space frame with center spine structure,
stainless steel side exit dual exhaust, composite body panels with
fibre reinforced skin, rear hinged ventilated hood, dual airbags and 2-
passenger 3-point safety belts with pre-tensioners, dual multistage
airbags, passenger side airbag defeat switch, LATCH child seat anchor
system, 4-wheel independent sport suspension with unequal length upper
& lower control arms and coil over shocks, double acting gas
shocks with rebound adjustment, tubular design front & rear sway
bars, 40% limited slip differential, power assisted rack & pinion
steering,
energy absorbing tilt steering column, adjustable pedals, power trunk
lid release, red engine starter button, suede seat inserts, Options:
Customer Preferred Package 21A, high intensity discharge projector beam
twin bulb aero-poly ellipsoid / halogen headlamps, fog lamps
with removable lens covers, bold graphic white-faced analog gauges with
220 mph. speedometer, tachometer, oil pressure, voltage
coolant temp. and fuel level gauges, keyless entry (2 keys and 2
remotes) with alarm system and engine immobilizer, variable intermittent
windshield wipers, factory premium sound system with AM/FM stereo &
in-dash 6CD changer, Alpine speakers, 310W amp and 7-speakers
incl. subwoofer, CFC free a/c, premium leather high back manual adjust
sport seats with manual lumbar support and leather covered roll
bars, power & heated ext. mirrors, windshield and windshield washer
nozzles, power windows with one-touch down feature, black cloth
convertible soft top with glass rear window (manual operation),
interior courtesy lights, map lights on the interior rearview mirror,
polished
18x10f & 19x13r forged aluminum split-5-spoke rims with 6-bolt
mounting flange and low-pressure sensors in the valve stems, Schumacher
battery tender installed, Michelin Pilot Sport Zero pressure tires
(275/35-18f & 345/30-19r) with Tread Depth Measurements: DF: 8/32,
PF:
8/32, DR: 10/32, PR: 10/32 (10/32 is new tire tread depth), all
services and recalls performed, checks out via Dodge N.A., 2 owners
since
new (BMI sold to the most recent owner in 12/2006), recently serviced,
no known or detectable paintwork, paint is almost flawless, interior
looks new, clean CarFax and AutoCheck reports, never smoked in, all
books and manuals, great looking color combo, new MSRP of
approx. $79,995.00.
Dodge Viper
SRT-10 - Road Test
BY JOHN PHILLIPS
November 2002
The Viper is now 10 years old. During that span, there have been three
major flavors: the original 400-hp RT/10, with its little-loved "sport
bar" toupee; the 1996 450-horse GTS coupe, which helped Dodge bag three
FIA GT2 titles; and now the SRT-10, whose V-10 has been bored and
stroked for an extra 17 cubes and a bonus 50 ponies. Yeah. That's what
it needed. More power.
The car is now a true convertible, with a glass backlight and a
clamshell lid that's easy to lower. Flip one central latch on the
windshield header, then shove the whole works backward into a dedicated
bin. The leading edge of the cloth roof remains exposed but is
sufficiently rigid to look like and act as a hard tonneau. Very
existential.
To make the droptop work, however, Dodge had to expand the car's
wheelbase 2.6 inches. In the ensuing overhaul, the engineers added
sharper-edged bodywork, a dead pedal, a red starter button, and bigger
brakes—bread-loaf-size Brembos gripping 14-inch rotors. Still no cruise
control. No backup radar. Just the basics. Even the trunk is finished
in raw sheet-molding compound that smells like Vicks VapoRub and looks
like the inside of a battery.
The V-10 now idles like an In-Sink-Erator filled with bottle caps. It
will put whitecaps on your mocha latte. Of course, no one much cares,
because power is available at almost any rpm you care to stipulate.
Want to start in second gear? Not even your passenger will notice. Want
to shift into third at 5 mph, then nail the throttle at 1000 rpm just
to see what happens? Brace yourself. A full-throttle launch? You sure
that's what you want? If so, treat the Viper like a loaded gun. First
find an open, unpeopled place — an abandoned Air Force base in a desert
would be good — then aim the thing carefully, like Sammy the Bull
whacking a witness in a casino. Drop the clutch at 3000 rpm and the
rear Michelins will gladly autograph 10 feet of roadway. Traction
control isn't on the menu. When full hookup commences, the accelerative
thrust is just this side of delusionary, like two consecutive weeks of
spring break in Daytona. It's as if someone slapped you in the chest
with a geology textbook. In fact, you'll sometimes notice later that
you can't breathe. This is because your body gets compressed in the
seat, then the seatbelt reacts by cinching up, as if you suddenly lost
a third of your beer gut. Talk about your will to power.
The trip to 60 mph takes 3.9 seconds. It feels as if you could
accomplish this in the parking lot behind Denny's. Along the way, you
may notice the Viper isn't entirely in the lane you originally
selected. Wait, now it is. Hold on. Now it isn't.
Here's how fast the Viper is: real goddamn fast. It reaches 100 mph in
8.5 seconds, 0.7 second sooner than a Corvette Z06. It's also 0.3
second quicker and 5 mph faster than a Z06 through the quarter-mile.
Compared with the original RT/10, this latest Viper is a half-second
quicker to 60 mph and a whole second snappier through the quarter-mile.
In a drag race against the old car, you'll save so much time that you
can glance back to count how many center cones you've toppled.
Here's another colorful way to demonstrate the Viper's derring-do:
Hammer the throttle in first gear and hold your foot flat until the rev
limiter expresses its outrage at 6000 rpm. When forward momentum
briefly relents, your upper torso just slams into the shoulder belt,
and your passenger will wonder if you've parked inside a moose. Mind
you, the first time I tried this, I thought I'd snapped the crankshaft.
Did I mention that this V-10 appears to be as long as some entry-level
Lincolns?
In impromptu street races, the SRT-10 has little to fear from
production cars. Well, it should fear a Porsche 911 GT2. And maybe a
Lamborghini Murciélago. We say "maybe" because our test Lambo's
shift linkage fell apart and we're still trying to convince Lamborghini
that we didn't do it on purpose. We ran this Viper harder than we ran
the Lambo. The Dodge didn't break.
It may impress you to learn that the SRT-10 (which stands for either
"Street and Racing Technology" or "Sometimes Really Terrifying") costs
about $100,000 less than a Porsche GT2 and will also outbrake it from
70 mph. How anything weighing more than Jimmy Spencer's Winston Cup
Dodge can stop in 153 feet is a reversal of physics that Jimmy would
like to have explained at the nearest Hooters. What's more, this Viper,
at least on the skidpad, will also outgrip a GT2. The last production
car we tested that surpassed 1.00 g was an SVT Mustang Cobra R. It felt
just like a Trans-Am car on Michigan Avenue, too
On local byways, the SRT-10's grip is so vast that you won't climb out
and say, "Well, she understeers." Instead, you'll climb out and say,
"I'm not sure I even got the tires to squeal." All we know for sure is
that your right foot can create oversteer any time it wants. Inside
your garage. On the way to the mailbox. The whole length of Hardee's
drive-through.
Here's something that will amuse your neighbors: Out of its twin sewer
mains, the Viper emits 91 dBA of racket at wide-open whack. It's still
a gassy, whooshy eructation, the sort of rumbling you might expect from
a Douglas DC-3 plus a swamp boat plus an Allis-Chalmers corn thresher
with a built-in CD player. You won't willingly cruise above 3,000 rpm
for more than 30 seconds. We know this new Viper has a great stereo. We
once heard it while searching for the starter button.
On Michigan's ruined roads, the SRT-10 rides like a Nathan's hot-dog
cart. It bangs and crashes as if jumping curbs. Some of the fiercer
impacts cause your voice to quaver, suggesting an unsteady passage
through puberty. Bumps cause the car to talk. First the dash croaks out
its name, then the convertible top, then the center console, then the
bulkhead behind your back. Middle-aged men with unsightly deposits of
personal suet will notice their breasts jiggling like turkey wattles.
Not that we know any middle-aged men like that. Gross.
The steering's weight and accuracy are appropriate to the Viper's
hunter-killer mission, but the front tires aren't to be trusted when
they first introduce themselves to ruts, grooves, crowns, and
corrugations. Like teenage NBA groupies, they'll follow any tall
transient that happens along. Do not drive this car without both hands
on the wheel, especially at night, when authorities abaft will surmise
you're an Everclear addict.
The Viper's shifter remains a fairly high-effort, industrial device —
visualize, here, a small oil-drilling rig — and its metal stalk becomes
approximately as hot as ex-congressman Traficant in circuit court.
Abandon first gear prematurely and the skip-shift leads you straight to
fourth, sometimes causing the car to buck like a popular barroom
diversion at Gilley's. Finding reverse is no more difficult than
finding a kimberlite pipe in downtown Akron.
Okay, okay. We're being crusty. There are improvements worth lauding.
The cockpit ergonomics are good, for instance. With so few knobs and
buttons, there was little chance of screwing them up. The white gauge
faces are easy to read. The pedals adjust through four inches of travel
and are no longer as skewed to the left as Ralph Nader's mother. The
seats are narrow but comfortable and are massively bolstered up near
your shoulders. And although the brakes make a shushing sound when the
pedal is depressed — ruder passengers will ask, "Did someone flush a
toilet?" — they are otherwise crisp and quick and as effective as a
Velcro sand trap.
Viper loyalists equate this car's brutality — its roar, its ride, its
heat, its dearth of amenities — with exclusivity and a kind of
back-to-basics purity. Well, fine. Some folks insist that breakfast is
more enjoyable when you slaughter your own hogs. And, hey, we celebrate
anybody who essentially hand-builds a low-volume sports car that causes
even onlooking dogs to smile. But the truth is, a Corvette Z06 — some
$33K less costly — is not only miles more comfy but is more effective
in real-world A-to-B blasts, simply because it's half as difficult to
drive.
Oh, jeez. Here come the letters. We have attorneys, you know. Don't
start with us. Some of us have large dogs.
Counterpoint:
ANDRÉ
IDZIKOWSKI
With its fully convertible top, the new Viper is finally a modern-day
rendition of the 427 AC Cobra. The Viper has always had the brute
acceleration, neck-snapping cornering ability, and eyeball-popping
stopping power of the AC Cobra, but the roadster with its targa top
lacked the wind-in-your-hair sensory overload of a completely open car.
Someone once wrote that driving an AC Cobra flat out was the closest
thing to riding bareback on a big-block V-8. Now the same holds true
with the Viper: Put the pedal to the metal and hold on tight, because
we guarantee you'll swear you're riding bareback on a 500-hp V-10
engine.
AARON ROBINSON
Tired of feeling as if you missed it? Missed the great cars that all
went out with Nixon, the great history — oh, you should have been
there! — written while you were still in swaddling? Stop, because the
Viper is proof that your arrival in this world was right on time.
America's First Supercar conveys star status to whoever drives it, lays
a rubber road right past a Ferrari 360 Modena, and for half the price
can carve up a corner sharper than a Corvette Z06. Heck, it will run
figure eights around any of the iron slabs that were yesterday's muscle
machines. The history books are being written right now, and your
grandchildren will writhe with envy.
CSABA CSERE
The Viper's folding top is a marvel of practicality. Its interior
benefits from more footroom, more logical controls, and a level of
finish infinitely superior to the old car's sub-Rubbermaid execution.
Even the styling is sleekly modern, if still instantly recognizable.
But the new Viper's suspension feels just as unyielding as the old one
over the bumps and grind of Ann Arbor's roads. The heat boiling into
the cockpit from the powertrain and exhaust system could still heat my
house through the coldest winter. And the thrust from the mighty V-10
remains one of the greatest rushes in motoring. In other words, don't
worry that they made the 2003 Viper too civilized.
Picks: Driver front
rim has an indentation from a pothole (but no curb rash and it balances
perfectly), wheels could use a good polishing,
aluminium door sill kick plate has minor surface scuffs from ingress /
egress, touched up scratch on the lower lip of the front spoiler, also
has *very* minor parking block scuffs, leather and carpet are
excellent, paint is very glossy with no dents or
dings, always garaged, a LOT
of
car and eye appeal for the money, nothing else to reasonably fault.
Numerical Condition Evaluation:
(1 denotes Very Poor
/ Item needs
replacement, 10 denotes Excellent / Showroom New)
PAINT: 9
BODY: 9.5
CONV. TOP: 9
RIMS: 7.5
TIRES: 9
WINDSHIELD /
GLASS: 9.5
LEATHER: 10
INT. CARPETING:
10
SERVICE RECORDS /
OWNERSHIP HISTORY: 7.5
*Vehicle is
located at BMI - more information or photographs are available upon on
request. While every reasonable effort has been made
to ensure the
accuracy of the above data,
mistakes regarding hp ratings, options, etc. can be made. I have also
done my best to be very
honest and very
critical about the cosmetic
and mechanical condition of this vehicle. Of course, it is not possible
to pick-up on every single
detail or flaw.
Please keep expectations
realistic as this is a pre-owned vehicle, and I have personally found
blemishes on brand new
undriven vehicles. If
you are an
exceptionally detailed oriented person, please contact me to verify any
information directly, and I will do my
best to specifically
photograph anything you
request and to answer any of your questions to the best of my ability.
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