Next January’s Detroit Auto Show will mark the 20th anniversary of the Viper’s debut as a concept. Back then, every car in Chrysler’s lineup was still derived from the K-Car. The K-cars saved Chrysler from the jaws of bankruptcy, but an executive named Lutz decided the automaker needed a new halo car to generate some excitement as a new decade dawned. Another old guy named Carroll Shelby was sprucing up Daytonas and Omnis at the time, so they decided to revive an idea from earlier in his career. Together they created a minimalistic two-seater with a humongous engine that became an instant American classic. That basic premise lives on today in the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT-10 with only slightly less minimalism. Read on to find out what it’s like to live with a snake for a week.

Chrysler gave us the keys to a convertible Viper SRT-10 in what is arguably the best color ever applied to the V10 sports car. Snakeskin Green was a new color added for the 2008 model year update and our tester also had the optional painted-on bumper to bumper black stripes. Everyone who laid eyes on it loved the green and it literally shimmered in sunlight. Since we had the convertible instead of the coupe and it wasn’t raining, the first thing to do was drop the top. Aside from having to open the trunk, lowering the top of a Viper is nearly as simple as that of a Miata.

A single latch in the middle of the windshield header releases the roof and it drops down in one smooth motion. Close the the trunk and you’re done. There are no motors or actuators involved, and the top stows and raises without having to press anything down or snap anything in place. It’s very simple, just like everything else about the Viper.

This iteration of the Viper was developed when Chrysler was owned by Daimler, and in many ways it’s the polar opposite of a Mercedes-Benz. While cars like the AMG S63 and the SL550 are both ridiculously fast, they are also enormously complex. Even with all the power they possess, stability control systems tend to sap away their liveliness and, with everything actuated electronically, the cars feel synthetic.

There is nothing synthetic about a Viper. It is one of the loudest, most raucous cars in the world. With the top up, you have to duck down to get in as you step over the wide sill. With the top down, you just step over and fall into the seat. The Corvette ZR1 we recently drove has one serious flaw: its seats. Here the Viper wins hands down. These SRT seats are well bolstered and hold you firmly in position. Unfortunately, the Viper’s packaging means the position of the steering wheel and pedals relative to that amazing seat is slightly less than ideal.

The Viper’s 600-hp 8.4L V10 is set well back in the chassis with its 6-speed gear box directly behind it. That means there’s a wide tunnel that offsets the pedals slightly to the left. The steering wheel, however, is offset slightly to the right of the seat’s center line. None of the offsets are enough to detract from operating the car, but they are noticeable. The Viper was one of the first cars offered with adjustable pedals and they are fortunately retained on the current model. The shift lever, meanwhile, sits directly atop the gearbox and works best with deliberate but not forced manipulation. Like the ZR1, the Viper has a twin disc clutch that provides the necessary torque transmission capacity without requiring excessive force on the clutch pedal.

One of the characteristics we mentioned recently about the Porsche Carrera was how small it felt in comparison to other cars. Precisely the opposite is true of the Viper. The Dodge and Porsche only differ in overall length by 1.3 inches yet the Viper feels huge in comparison. Its hood stretches way out in front while the Porsche seems to disappear around you. The feeling of driving these two sports cars couldn’t be more different.


Besides smoke, the Viper also generates a lot of heat. The massive hood vents that were added for 2008 are definitely functional. You can see heat waves emanating from the engine compartment while sitting at a red light. When a redesigned Viper debuted in 2003, Dodge reverted back to side exhausts like on the early cars. Along with those came a large warning sticker on the rear of the door openings that cautions occupants to take care when exiting so as not to burn their legs on the hot sill.

Fortunately, the huge Michelin Pilot Sport tires provide grip commensurate with their size. Compared to the new Pilot Sport 2s on the ZR1, the Viper tires don’t break away quite as progressively, but they are still fairly manageable. Even without fancy stuff like magneto-rheological shocks or active steering, the Viper’s suspension is remarkably well sorted. The chassis feels stiff and solid and never exhibits signs of flexibility. Cowl shake was non-existent even on what they claim is a “road” in front of my son’s middle school. Speaking of which, dropping off your 13-year-old son at school in a Snakeskin Green Viper is just the way to get on his good side.

No one driving a Viper will ever confuse it for a luxury car. You feel every interaction between the road and the rubber, and that’s a good thing for a car like this. The ride is fairly stiff, more so than a new ZR1 with its MR damping system in Comfort mode. The Viper is not a car that should be chosen for daily driving duties, but it does a decent enough job that you won’t mind taking it out to for errands when the mood strikes you.

The Viper is a toy, and in many ways it is the anti-Tesla Roadster. Like the Roadster (at least when the updated Drivetrain 1.5 is installed), the Viper is absurdly fast and has limited utility. But where the Tesla is whisper quiet, the Viper is constantly rumbling along. At low speeds and part throttle it doesn’t sound particularly impressive, but it absolutely roars when opened up. Visibility is mediocre with the top up, and even with the top down the windshield header is rather low and makes it difficult to see traffic lights. Without any wind blocker available, there is plenty of buffeting in the cockpit even with the side windows up.

But none of this matters much because the Viper is about the open road where such mundane concerns are meaningless. Put on a ball cap, or better yet a helmet, and take the Viper out to play. At $93,000 including a gas guzzler tax and those $3,000 stripes, you won’t really care about its thirst for premium gasoline anyway.

Last month we noted that Citroen was gearing up to celebrate the 60th anniversary of its most iconic model, the 2CV. For those not familiar with the 2CV, it is to France what the Beetle was to Germany or the Cinquecento was to Italy. Although some suggested that Citroen could be preparing to resurrect the model with a retro throwback of its own, it now appears the French automaker has had its hands full preparing the Hypnos concept, the C6 Office and the new C3 Picasso. So to mark the 2CV’s birthday, Citroen is launching a special edition of its quirky little convertible called the C3 Pluriel Charleston.

The special edition takes the same name and paint scheme as the original 2CV 6 Charleston, but that only begs the question as to why a French automaker has named a French car for the French market after a city in South Carolina that the French can’t even pronounce. The Pluriel, now on the market since 2003, features an awkward multi-function roof that can be deployed in different configurations… a setup we hope Fiat manages to improve on with the upcoming 500 Cabrio Coach. The Charleston edition, meanwhile, upgrades with a leather interior, chrome trim, 15-inch alloys (don’t get too excited now) and a special interior.

There are many European cars we wish we could get in the United States. We’ll let the French keep this one.

Mercedes-Benz may decide to call a coupe a coupe starting next year. If you want a CLK after 2009, you might have to settle for an E-Class Coupe or E-Class Convertible. Want a 2-door S-Class around the same time? Then you’re after the S-Class Coupe. We don’t know the reason for the potential name changes, especially since the cars have such great equity — and taking eight minutes to say E-Class Coupe Black Series doesn’t have nearly the to-the-point hotness of CLK Black Series, even though it’s the same number of “syllables”. The CL change might make more sense as the car wasn’t a huge sales success, but drop those letters in conversation and you still get a forceful point across. We can only hope that the bard was right, and that a rose by any other name…

Hooray – the Saab 9-3 2.0T Sport is getting XWD, the Swedish automaker’s cross-wheel-drive system. Boo – you’re going to pay more for your Saab whether or not you get XWD. The rear-wheel-driving traction-enhancer was previously available only on upper crust models like the Aero and SportCombi, but Saab has announced it will hobnob with the hoi polloi on the 2.0T for 2009.

Any XWD models will also come with a moonroof, the Winter Package and an automatic transmission, though a 6-speed manual is also available. The Convertible will not be offered with XWD, since its platform can’t accommodate the necessary mechanicals.

As we mentioned, the Saab range also gets price bumps. A new 9-3 2.0T Sport Sedan (without XWD) goes up $420, to $29,610, while the 9-3 SportCombi adds $680 to hit $31,040. General Motors did not list a price for the XWD option alone, but it appears to add a hefty $5,000 surcharge – the 9-3 2.0T XWD Sport Sedan will run you $34,870, and the 9-3 Aero V6T XWD Sport Sedan will list for $41,885.

Norris Cadiere and his family were among the thousands who evacuated their New Orleans-area homes ahead of Hurricane Gustav last week. The Cadieres, who waited out the storm in Georgia, decided to stop at the Hollywood Casino in Bay St. Louis, MS on the way back to their home in Marrero, which is around 10 miles outside New Orleans. Norris was playing the maximum bet on one of the casino’s nickel slots when he got lucky, and the slot machine started going berserk. Cadiere thought he had won himself a thousand bucks or so, but he soon learned that, in fact, he had won a $30,000 2008 Mustang convertible (we’re assuming it’s a GT, given that price). All too often, violent storms like this result in a loss of some kind for those affected by them. In the Cadieres’ case, not only did they wind up with a brand new car, but their house escaped the storm unscathed as well. Little did they know that when they took their unplanned (and almost certainly unwanted) road trip last week, Lady Luck would be riding shotgun the whole time.

So far the only video footage we’ve seen of the new Ferrari California has been either computer animated or sitting still with a giant chin talking. But the fellas over at Autocar magazine in the UK made their way down to Maranello with video cameras in tow for an up-close-and-personal with the newest Prancing Stallion. After the jump you’ll find some focus-changing fun angles of the new California, as well as a brief interview with product development director Roberto Corradi, who amusingly informs us that the car was made easier to drive and more softly styled to accommodate female customers. Seriously. Check it out after the jump… it’s good for a laugh.

The ruthless pruning continues, with GM Inside News reporting that the rear-wheel-drive Kappa II platform has gone to heaven before ever touching this mortal coil. Back in 2004, a vehicle line executive said “The Kappa architecture is a great platform for sporty, driver-oriented applications around the globe.” Apparently, not one for which GM could make enough different models to actually earn some money.Reasons for the sequel platform’s demise are allegedly that the first hydra-formed Kappa is just too expensive to fabricate; the cars based on it use expensive, hydra-formed parts; assembly requires inordinate amounts of human labor; and GM didn’t make its money back fast enough to justify the investment in a new RWD – read: thirstier – platform.

The current Kappa’s suspension and design geometry aren’t shared with any other car;, the platform was created to accept one engine, the Ecotec 4-cylinder; and it served under only four varieties of the same car: the Pontiac Solstice, Saturn Sky, Daewoo G2X and Opel GT. It was a lot to ask such a limited platform to achieve the volume’s GM needed with cars on expensive underpinnings that didn’t demand expensive prices. And if the rumors are true, then your Solstice GXP could be worth more than you expected, and sooner than you expected.

Mazda has confirmed its Paris Motor Show lineup, which will be led by the Kiyora concept, a water-themed, Nagare-styled city car built on a new platform that features a “next generation” direct-injected four-banger. No additional details have been relayed at this time, other than it’s supposed to be lightweight and efficient, in keeping with Mazda’s “Sustainable Zoom-Zoom” approach. (As an aside, you should know that it’s quite amusing to watch grown adults actually say this stuff with a straight face at press conferences.) Also officially confirmed now is the updated MX-5, complete with the new happy face that hit the web on Wednesday. It’s joined by the Mazda6 MZR-CD 2.2L diesel and the Mazda2 MZ-CD 1.6L diesel, both of which are also world premieres. As always, we’ll be in Paris to bring it to you live next month.

Fiat took one of its Fiorino vans, chopped off, well, several of it, and called it the Portofino. Supposedly no a good amount of as opposed to a news story for the Caravan Show such a starts in Dusseldorf later on such a week, the golden, buggy-like conveyance is an homage to the 1960s. In a cycle before Fiat was constructing $200,000 supercars, coachbuilders got putting in open-topped bodies to Fiat chassis desire that for fun in the Italian sun.

To trepidation the beachgoing theme, the Portofino has lumber laminate flooring and innate fibers treated in on a special waterproofing for the interior surfaces. The car can (optimistically) seat five, and the rear seat folds slumping for your surfboards and anchors.

Instead of doors, the Portofino has nautical ropes — that is able to sound risky, but the 12-foot car one and only has 75 horsepower, so you shouldn’t be going to get in too even trouble. Fiat has no plans to issue out the Portofino, but suggests it are able to put up a insured version for conservation from what i read in win and sun.

Some of the more hard-core tifosi have been whining that Ferrari has gone soft with the new California. It’s pretty hard to justify that a car able to hit 60 mph in the three-second range is soft, but so be it. The nay-sayers point to the inclusion of a folding hard-top as a sign that Ferrari has grown more concerned with pleasing its poseur clientele than developing genuine performance vehicles. Never mind that the innovative rapid-deployment roof, according to Ferrari, actually weighs 5kg less than an equivalent soft-top and still only takes 14 seconds to raise or lower.

However, Maranello has not finished development of the California and intends to pacify those malcontents with some new features. For starters, Ferrari says that about 10% of its customers still demand a manual transmission, and so they will have one ready for the California by the time it actually goes on sale about half a year from now. Around the same time, Ferrari will also unveil a new HGTC handling package, like those offered for the 612 Scaglietti and the previous 575 M Maranello, to tighten up the California’s suspension. A new set of lightweight wheels is also in the works, anticipated to shave some 10-12kg off of the unsprung weight. A 430 Scuderia it is not – that’s why Ferrari makes both – but don’t mistake the California for a lazy boulevard cruiser.