(For purposes of comparison, the 12-cylinder Ferrari 575M Maranello delivers a mere 434 pounds-feet). The 450-horsepower V-10, derived from a truck engine, has been redesigned to pump out 500 horsepower and peak torque that is simply astounding: 525 pounds-feet. But the 2003 version, formally known as the Viper SRT-10, represents the snake's first real makeover.Īs a sports car, the new Viper is better in every way. The monster got a face lift and a few creature comforts in 1996. Whatever its faults, though, the limited-edition Viper was a marketing coup that let real-world Dodges bask in the reflected glory. In its original 1992 form, the Viper was an overpowered, hard-to-handle monster, a caricature of a sports car.
Start with the two-seat, front-engine, rear-wheel-drive Viper. It also explains why each, in its own way, is priced as a loss leader. That largely explains why Dodge has remade its explosive Viper sports car into an even more explosive sports car - and why the workaday Neon subcompact has been transformed into a fierce street racer that can blow away a Porsche Boxster - at least in a straight line. Indeed, with European and Japanese carmakers flooding showrooms with sleek, potent models designed to bring out the boy in 30-somethings of both sexes, Detroit knows it needs to add pizazz to its own offerings. DETROIT makes its money, when it makes money, on trucks, S.U.V.'s and minivans, but the Big Three's marketing gurus understand that images cannot be built on heavy metal alone.
0 kommentar(er)
