Reports began swirling on t'internet last week that a number of Dodge Viper sports cars (original models, with the 8.0-litre V10 engine) were being lined up to be destroyed. Needless to say, the panic from various true blue car nuts hit the rev limiter. This was sacrilege! An outrage! Won't someone please think of the children?!?! Actually, it was the kids that Chrysler was expressly thinking of. You see, the Vipers in question were originally donated by the company to various schools and technical colleges around the USA to act as working demonstration videos for the next generation of car mechanics and engineers. A nice little bit of corporate-social responsibility. Now though, the cars are due to be junked and the online motoring community was quick to mob together to decry the action and to point the finger at Chrysler for allowing part of its sacred heritage to be summarily destroyed. Not so, says Chrysler. "Chrysler Group fully understands and appreciates the historical significance of the Viper and is very active in preserving many of its legendary models and designs for historic purposes. However, none of these vehicles fit into this category" said Chrysler in a statement.
In fact the cars are all pre-production and prototype mules, the sort of vehicles that wearily rack up data-logging test mileage before a new car is ready to be launched to the public. None are production vehicles and certainly none are of any especial historical significance. Indeed, the law says that no matter what the circumstances, such cars can never be fully registered as road-legal; they're not properly homologated.
"As part of the donation process, it is standard procedure - and stipulated in our agreements - that whenever vehicles are donated to institutions for education purposes that they are to be destroyed when they are no longer needed for their intended educational purposes. With advancements in automotive technology over the past decade, it is unlikely that these vehicles offer any educational value to students."
So there you go. Not priceless historical vehicular monuments. Just some old cut-and-shut prototypes with a decade of being fiddled with by student mechanics behind them. Panic over?
Anything else?
Yes. Can we at least have one of the V10s to turn into a coffee table?