Dodge Viper

About

As of 2026, it's 35 years old.

The Viper is what happens when a car company decides safety committees are for cowards. Conceived in the late 1980s as a modern Shelby Cobra, the 1992 RT/10 arrived with no traction control, no anti-lock brakes, no airbags, no exterior door handles, and side pipes hot enough to brand your calf. It was less a car than a dare.

At its heart was an 8.0-liter V10, the first production V10 in any car, period, and a block reportedly massaged by Lamborghini (then Chrysler-owned). It made 400 hp and a colossal 465 lb-ft of torque, hurling the bare-bones roadster to 60 in 4.5 seconds and on to 165 mph, all while doing its level best to kill the inexperienced.

Priced at $50,000-ish but flipped by dealers for double, the Viper became the 1990s American supercar, the homegrown answer to imported exotics that cost three times as much. It paced the Indy 500, terrorized racetracks, and looked like a doorstop designed by a shark.

Over five generations the Viper got more civilized, eventually gaining the brakes and airbags it once scorned, and even won at Le Mans. But the original RT/10 remains the purest expression of the idea: huge engine, light body, no nannies, infinite attitude.

Dodge Viper through the years