The Viper has been the benchmark for in-your-face American performance for over 20 years already, but in the Chrysler stable, its horsepower has been superseded by the Hellcat Challenger and Charger. Can we expect something brewing for the Viper?
That’s the query posed by Allpar.com, who has received two reports of supercharged V10 Vipers. A supercharger would help the V10 surpass 707 horsepower with ease, which could help Viper’s lagging sales although admittedly the Viper is much more of a niche product than other sports cars.
While the Viper is lighter than the Hellcats and its V10 has more low-end torque than the supercharged Hemi, people’s eyes will continue to glaze over when they read the 707 horsepower rating. Sure, the 2015 Viper’s 645 is nothing to sneeze at, but the 2015 Corvette Z06 is hot on the tail of the Viper too.
Allpar.com is even going as far as to suggest, “Why not shoot for, say, a stunning 1,000 horsepower, one may ask? Because that would require a new and expensive transmission and differential, more substantial cooling upgrades, much more incoming air, and quite possibly a new body to deal with the added stresses.” So is 800 horsepower possible without having to upgrade the block, internal parts, transmission, and body?
Right now, no one knows, but something exciting is going on at Auburn Hills at this very moment . . .
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