I would buy the rights tot he design of the motor and the name, but not much else.

 

Chrysler has sold the last generation of the Sebring/Stratus (the JR) to the Russians (AutoVAZ?).
All the tooling for the car went to them. They are now building that car (albeit with some minor changes) in Russia for their market.

And wasn't it just said that there are a couple of Arabic companies interested in Hummer?

 

There doesnt seem to be much of a market for an $85,000, 10 mpg car. I think the $75,000 Z06 can keep with it and the $105,000 ZR1 could spank it like a circus monkey.

 

I don't know, I think there's more to the Viper than just speed. Personally, I think the exotic, muscular look makes up for whatever performance it might lack in comparison to the Vette. A Z06 and a ZR1 are similar in appearance to the regular C6, and those non-enthusiasts who don't live and breathe cars might not even spot the difference. There is no mistaking a Viper when it passes you though.

 

On a similar note - maybe Ford wasn't so stupid for not spending money on a replacement for the GT40 (Ford GT) back in 2004/2005. Seems a shame they developed the Cobra V10 and the GR1 both for shows and never did anything with them, and I certainly like the idea of a company having a halo car to showcase itself, but if it means taking yourself to bankruptcy that much faster then it's probably not a good thing to do. I bet Dodge sure would like to have all the money back that they spent on the Viper re-do 2 years ago and the Ram SRT development.

So if Dodge drops the toothy rat-eater, Chevrolet will be the only one left with a low-volume, limited run, high-powered halo car these days.
Can I do a and a both at the same time?!?!

Would be interesting to go back to say 2003 or 2005 and look at the array of performance cars available, and then look at what is available today. Methinks we are getting deep enough into the slide to see some quantitative trends now.

 

Not hard to miss a clown shoe either. Chrysler did up the power 100 horses without adding weight and they are to be commended for that.

 

It seems industry persons like Lutz can make a viable business case from such a great car when they were at the helm... but this new company can't. Surely, high fuel prices have nothing to do with the lower sales?

 

You must have missed the part where Viper sales are up 111% from last year.

 

+1

 

I got $5.00 who wants to chip in and buy Viper??

 

Lets face it...Chrysler wants to make sure it survives. Viper, I am confident, adds little if anything to the bottom line. And if it can be sold and cash banked? All the better. Even as a Chrysler dealer GSM, I must say for me, from a day-to-day standpoint, this is a total non-event. Take the $1B of unearning assets, sell them for 50 cents on the dollar, and give me a Sebring worth a damn.

THAT will earn everyone some money...

 

I suspect that much of the problem with the Viper is that there are only so many people that want one. Ford has been fairly intelligent with all of their SVO/SVT products in that they only sell a model for three years or so; just enough to satisfy the appetite of the core enthusiasts without saturating the market.

Another problem with the Viper, IMO, is that the brand and the product suffers from the lack of a factory racing effort. Both the Viper and the Corvette benefited tremendously from world-class competition, but I think that one company's decision to continue on while the other retreated to the sidelines has created a noticeable performance gap. Yeah, I know that the ACR Coupe is fast, but go put the Z06 on similar tires and see what happens...

It is interesting that the Viper business is being carved out as a separate piece, but it makes sense - the car has a dedicated platform, its own engine, and its own "assembly plant". I could see someone like Roush or Saleen picking up the business and making something of it.

 

That I did.

Then the news is even more sad!!!

 

I believe this is going to be the last year for the Viper as well. People are trying to get one while they can.

 

http://www.motortrend.com/features/p...ord/index.html

Better put those tires on a ZR1

*edit* ACR beat ZR1 time by 4 seconds. Stock except for racing seat/harness. Granted, I'd prefer the 'luxuries' of a ZR1 over a no radio, no sound deadening, no rear carpet viper.