Chrysler Orders 93 Rare Vipers Destroyed by Crusher

[White & Nerdy]

Hey Chrysler Corp.,

My driveway and yard can potentially hold about 20 of these cars once the snow clears. Don't worry about the neighbors or the homeowner's assn., they never do anything anyway.

If I wreck one, I won't sue you, because I'm not that kind of person.

Think about it.

 

[ildd]

Hey Chrysler Corp.,
My driveway can hold 5 Vipers and backyard can hold at least 22 of these cars at any time of year. Don't worry about the neighbors or the homeowner's assn., they never do anything anyway.
If I wreck one, I won't sue you, because I still have another 25 to drive.
Think about it. You can just give me the engines, if you want.

 

[playnthru]

Every teaching program and Auto manufacture does this. Because liability.. Cars get donated with the written consent they never ever be driven on the roads. And when their usefulness as a teaching aid is done, they get destroyed.

 

[LamborghiniSV]

Well if they didn't want them they should have donated them to car museums or something. Just plain silly.

Exactly what I was going to say.

They should donate them to car museums all over the world at least.

 

[BKGlover]

Hey Chrysler Corp.,

My driveway and yard can potentially hold about 20 of these cars once the snow clears. Don't worry about the neighbors or the homeowner's assn., they never do anything anyway.

If I wreck one, I won't sue you, because I'm not that kind of person.

Think about it.

Hey Chrysler Corp.,
My driveway can hold 5 Vipers and backyard can hold at least 22 of these cars at any time of year. Don't worry about the neighbors or the homeowner's assn., they never do anything anyway.
If I wreck one, I won't sue you, because I still have another 25 to drive.
Think about it. You can just give me the engines, if you want.

Firstly, I am a cynical bastard, so I call BS due to the human nature I know. You say you won't sue, but the first opportunity that you can make easy money, one of those cars would end up in a junkyard by your hand.

Secondly, after looking at the still image for ONE of the videos, the wheels are not right. The car in video #1 had a mixed set on, what else was not pristine. What else was replaced on those cars, what didn't work right after 10 years of raw kids fiddling with it, and what would be prone to failing if driven after said situations.

And for those screaming "DONATE THEM." Why? Firstly, they are the first cars by VIN. The prototype has value and significance, a GTS-R has value and significance, the 2000 Concept, and you can go on. Second, these were TRAINERS. These cars were sent out for the specific purpose of being taken apart and put back together, what collector or museum want's something that has 10 years of wear from TRAINING! Third, Stop screaming and look at something. The two videos posted here are GTS Vipers, solid roof Gen 1-Series 2 cars. You know why you're screaming? Because Car #004. That's it.

 

[Joey D]

I think people are misunderstanding what pre-production and prototype means.

This is the prototype Viper, it's still in Chrysler's collection in Auburn Hills:

Although it's not visible to the public anymore due to Chrysler closing their collection except for brief periods throughout the year.

These are pre-production Viper's:

 

[Slash]

That is one interesting front end design.

 

[playnthru]

Just to be clear, I'm not screaming donate them?!?

I'm saying they already were donated..Mission complete.👍

 

[05XR8]

 

[Kent]

Just to be clear, I'm not screaming donate them?!?

I'm saying they already were donated..Mission complete.👍

No actually they were loaned.

 

[LMSCorvetteGT2]

I'm surprised they don't at least try to save the rarer models & place them in the museum. That prototype according to the article was a coupe that predated the actual production car by 3 or so years.

I hear they looked into a museum but they were warned about sink holes, so they thought they'd destroy them before those dirty sink holes could.

Also the video of them being destroyed made me think "where is Jay Leno when you need him?"

The laughter of those destroying them makes me pretty mad.

I see a lot of people are going ape for something that could have been avoided had things been left alone. Road & Track are also covering this, and they stated that two of these pre-production cars were driven on public roads. They were then, predictably, crashed, and because Chrysler Corp still owns them by law, they were slapped with lawsuits.

Yes, were. CC is already having to shell out money because the Idiot 1%, as opposed to the Rich 1%, have to make daily life absolute hell for the rest of us. You want to be pissed at someone, go after the morons. I don't like what's being done, but I don't like to think of all those old Motorama show cars that were destroyed eons ago.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but Chrysler is doing the SMART thing here. By destroying the cars, they don't have to worry about an instructor going soft and giving into the student's incessant prodding to take one for a spin. Also, lets be clear here, these cars are pre-production models with no smog stuff or a governor, but they are not road legal and are not instrumental in the development of the car like the prototype would be. These cars ARE worthless. You get a Viper, you aren't gonna park it in the garage for 50 years and never drive it like people do Ferarris.

Trust me there are some crazy people that do that with these older Vipers, especially R/T10 and original GTS as well as GTS ACR

 

[GTPorsche]

They would have been destroyed at some point anyway. The lawsuit just sped the process up.

 

[Azure Flare]

Hey Chrysler!

If you still have one of those "worthless" Vipers left, I will gladly trade you a 2009 Kia Spectra. It may have over 100,000 (was like that when it was bought) miles on it, but it is maintained well (enough)!

 

[GTPorsche]

I don't see how trading a road legal everyday driving car, for a car that in no way could ever be road legal would be a good plan...

 

[Azure Flare]

Just buy a new car with a parted-out Viper! (Yes, I know it would be a stupid idea in the first place, but I was just parodying the Cool Wall overlord.)

That is one interesting front end design.

That was a development prototype for the SLS AMG. So the big-ass V10 and 6-speed probably was replaced with the 6.2L V8 and 7-speed DCT in the production car.

 

[BKGlover]

Just to be clear, I'm not screaming donate them?!?

I'm saying they already were donated..Mission complete.👍

I was wondering why you said this, then I looked at my past again. My bad, I was trying to quote ildd, but for some reason it quoted your post instead. Sorry.

 

[playnthru]

No actually they were loaned.

Fair enough 👍 I mis-spoke.


I should have said they were loaned with the intent of someday being destroyed, not donated. I meant the same thing just mis-spoke, sorry.

 

[JMoney]

Chrysler has now dipped below Hyundai as my least favorite auto maker. Why do they care if the cars offer no educational value?

Why did they try to make the Ram it's own brand, apart from Dodge? I'm still going to refer to them as Dodge Rams.

I just noticed the other day a Grand Caravan with it's windows whited out, wearing a "RAM" logo. They are selling regular caravans as Dodges, but windowless caravans as Rams.

They are also making crappy, FWD-based Jeeps!

The thing that really pisses me off, though, is that Chryslers are sold in Europe as Lancias, my favorite historical brand. Those cars are American, not Itailian!

Absolute and utter nonsense...

And I thought Infiniti renaming all of their cars, "Q" was bad.

 

[Azure Flare]

"The only thing constant in life is change" - François de La Rochefoucauld.

 

[BKGlover]

Chrysler has now dipped below Hyundai as my least favorite auto maker. Why do they care if the cars offer no educational value?

Why did they try to make the Ram it's own brand, apart from Dodge? I'm still going to refer to them as Dodge Rams.

I just noticed the other day a Grand Caravan with it's windows whited out, wearing a "RAM" logo. They are selling regular caravans as Dodges, but windowless caravans as Rams.

They are also making crappy, FWD-based Jeeps!

The thing that really pisses me off, though, is that Chryslers are sold in Europe as Lancias, my favorite historical brand. Those cars are American, not Itailian!

Absolute and utter nonsense...

And I thought Infiniti renaming all of their cars, "Q" was bad.

If this is all you've got, get something to drop your blood pressure because all of this is a snowflake in the Antarctic of Automotive BS. Do enough browsing on Wikipedia, and RAM, Qs, and the Caravan/Tradesman will be insignificant specs on the surface. BTW, the Tradesman has metal panels where the windows went, also has no rear seats, and carpet is an option IIRC.

 

[niky]

Chrysler has now dipped below Hyundai as my least favorite auto maker. Why do they care if the cars offer no educational value?

Because lawsuit.

If you put a fifty-foot deep pit full of vipers (snakes, not cars) on your property and people fall in and sort of, well, die... even if you have warning signs out, you can be held legally liable.

Engineering mules and prototypes are viper's nests of cobbled-together wiring, non-emissions compliant engines, tacked-together bodies that have been stress- and age-tested and non-final suspension settings that could or could not kill you if you look at them crossways.

If some enterprising soul were to buy one of these and actually drive it on the street and kill himself, Chrysler can and will be found liable. If they were to do that and not get killed, Chrysler can and will be found liable for selling non-emissions compliant and non-federal safety regulations compliant cars to people.

This is not the very first production Viper we're talking about... these are 93 pre-production cars. You could conceivably take one or two and send them to a museum, but the rest are absolutely worthless from a historical standpoint. There aren't enough dedicated automotive museums to take all those cars.

 

[Slash]

Then save a couple.

 

[niky]

Then save a couple.

Suffice to say, all the museums that want Vipers most likely already have Vipers. Prettier Vipers without dings and dents from being worked on for twenty years. Vipers with Viper body panels and not kludgy disguises and mismatched panels.

 

[BKGlover]

Even a couple, they risk someone going soft or stupid. Again, the only reason people are upset is because of VIN 004. Even if Chrysler leaves that one be, what is the school gonna do with a two ton paperweight. I don't know the condition of it, but as I said earlier, and niky just now, if it has been used as was intended, then there's 10-20 years of raw wrenching abuse on the car, something a museum won't think highly of, not even Chrysler's own.

 

[ildd]

Do the preproduction Vipers have the same body panels/suspension/etc as the production ones? If so they could part out...

 

[BKGlover]

Even if they did, would you want to use them? What is this obsession with "parting-out" cars? Salvage Yards usually pull anything worth while off the cars when they get them, and they have acres of space to put things, any time I see someone "parting-out" their cars they are either totaled, toast, or in a few cases stolen. I've heard of one case where selling parts did well for someone, and that was when Clarkson sold bits of a 928 for a challenge after he killed it.

 

[ildd]

Yes I'd use them If they're in better condition than mine. I have a crack in my windshield...I get one for 1/2 price than new because it's "used." My rear Fender has a dent. I get it half price because it's "used."

 

[Slash]

Even if they did, would you want to use them? What is this obsession with "parting-out" cars? Salvage Yards usually pull anything worth while off the cars when they get them, and they have acres of space to put things, any time I see someone "parting-out" their cars they are either totaled, toast, or in a few cases stolen. I've heard of one case where selling parts did well for someone, and that was when Clarkson sold bits of a 928 for a challenge after he killed it.

Ever hear of something called repairs an restorations? Parting out is a big deal.

 

[BKGlover]

I get that, but I'm looking at it as one is a place where cars go when they aren't wanted or can't be fixed properly and is run by people who usually know what they're doing, and the other could be some kid who hasn't used a wrench in their life. Around here, there are enough pull-it-yourself scrapyards that it is option #1, #2 is calling every salvage place from here to the borders, #3 is ordering through magazines, LMC for example. Only after all this do people going the restoration route find yard-parters.

Perhaps it's because there aren't many around here who part things themselves, most get kept as "projects".

 

[Zenith]

Ever hear of something called repairs an restorations? Parting out is a big deal.

Cars used for educational purposes with student engineers? Yeah those parts would be more worn out than whatever they're replacing.