What do you think about Chrysler sending 93 Viper prototypes to college to be crushed? Prime example of the money thrown away in the U.S.
Chrysler's legal order to destroy its rare Dodge Viper within two weeks. Students from a small community college in Olympia, Washington must destroy 93 Dodge Viper GTS Coupes, by order of Chrysler.
This is not just any Viper GTS coupe, either — it’s the fourth Viper model that's off the production line, and they've been sitting for the past seven years at South Puget Sound Community College. 93 pre-production Vipers were donated, by Chrysler to technical schools nationwide that offer automotive programs.
According to professor Norm Chapman, despite the fact that these Vipers were educational tools, they were never meant to be on the public roads. A couple of them "got loose". Obviously enough, for a car with no traction control and a 8.0-liter V10 underhood and no ABS to speak of, they were involved in accidents.
Now, in order to mitigate lawsuits, this mint condition-like proto you see before you with VIN number 4 is going to be gone. This beauty has a 600-horsepower V10 engine, a 2,200-pound fiberglass body with a "makeshift hard-top," according to the Tacoma News Tribune.
When the GTS debuted in 1996, it came with a 450-horsepower V10 and more conventional body construction and heavier.This model Viper, while appearing to be a stock GTS coupe, is a prototype from 1992. Pre-production cars (particularly ones dating from the early ‘90’s, namely those donated to schools or given away to race teams, were never built for public highways in the first place.
The industry's slang term for these cars, often released before they are able to meet safety or emissions standards, is “crusher,” because they were destined for the crusher from the get go. What a terrible waste, Shame on you Chrysler! Students, Cierra Thomas, along with former student Stormy Hudson-Renstrom, have started a petition online to keep the Vipers from being destroyed. Ref The Seattle Times
Article Image by Rob Hakemo from Pixabay
