Viper Brand For Sale, who should buy it?

Think I'll call the bank and see if I can buy it. Maybe swing a little extra cash for a new G-550, a home in Vail to entertain prospective customers, suite at Le Mans... and a $30 mil year end bonus, no matter how bad my business model might be. Crap, if it doesn't work, I am sure the Federal government will bail me out- it's the new American way.

 

would have worked last year...

 

LOL that's awesome!!

RMX

 

Probably toyota will make a play on it. With no plans in the future for a Supra I could see them bringing out a Viper to challenge the Corvette in the future.

 

Sooo sad. I actually teared up! I thought the Viper line was actually profitable? They said at the factory they were only makingabout 2000 year and they were all soldout for this model year?

 

I agree with most of you about this being very sad for Chrysler and losing their halo car. That what you get when you put the guy in charge from Home Depot... instead of a car guy like Bob Lutz.

I wouldn't speculate that Steve Saleen or Hennessey could do this on their own. Saleen was going broke running his own company into the ground (before Hancock Park bailed him out) and Hennessey has had 3 companies go belly up under his watch... and had the US Attorneys investigating him.

My guess is that Hancock Park would have a good shot at buying the Viper brand because they already own Saleen and ASC (who by the way has the final designs for the Gen 4 Viper already done)... The new powerplant was already designed by McLaren (I don't believe that it is the UK based McLaren). Up until a few months ago, Paul Wilbur was the CEO and President of ASC and Saleen.. he was the ex-VP of Marketing for Team Viper under Lutz.

I would also think that Roush might be a player for this, along with potential investors like:
- Tom Gale
- Wolfgang Barnhard
- Shelby
- Rousch
- I wouldn't be surprised if Bob Woodhouse got a piece of this action... he owns several car dealerships in the Mid West and is the #1 seller of Vipers in the country.

Panoz wouldn't be a good fit because he has been married to Ford from the begining.

I've heard rumors that Daimler is interested in buying the Viper brand. There have been some camoflauge photos of the new SL coming out that looks exactly like a an SRT-10 Viper roadster in camoflauge.

I would think that another viable company would be the Audi/ VW/ Porsche/ Lamborghini/ Bentley/ Bugatti consortium. If there is one thing that they are committed to is building the fastest street and race cars on earth.

Before Daimler came in to do the unfriendly takeover of Chrysler, BMW was talking about merging with Chrysler (which was being driven by Bob Lutz before the Daimler Germans had him canned). The Mini-Cooper was the car hat was to be the first project that they did together... and it still has a majority of Chrysler drivetrain form the Chrysler World Car to this day...

That's my $.02

Brad

 

Chrysler was bought by a private equity firm. They don't give a crap about anything but making money. They will spin off / sell off anything including employees, etc. I don't see why anyone would buy Viper. There is little chance of making money on it. Maybe they can convince the Chinese as they've bought just about everything else.

 

If this is the case, then how do you explain Hancock Park buying Saleen and ASC? I know one of the principals at Hancock Park and they are not car guys... and yet they expanded their automotive portfolio.

If Cerebus had put car people in charge then maybe there would be some hope for them. Jim Press has been a non-issue since coming on board. I will agree with you that Cerebus is looking pretty sad as far as vision and direction (sort of like George Bush IMO... and I am a Republican).

Brad

 

Brad, I'll answer but to me it's obvious......... Viper is not Saleen.

My point about Chrysler and Cerebus was, IMO, just that there are so many back door deals to break it up and profit that China is the biggest buyer with the labor force taking the brunt of it. I'm not worried at all about Cerebus.

 

It will be built in the good old USA...and owned by a couple of good old Americans. Look for a known figure to come out of retirement to head it up.

 

Dam nice job!! LMAO.

 

Shelby ? That would rock

 

Na, he too would just milk it for all its worth, and end up in some stupid lawsuit with the Viper Club of America, like he did with SAAC.

 

Lamborghini needs the Viper!

After that horrid concept that just came out man they could use Americas supercar to cover that thing up

 

I saw your car on SVTP its a good looking car. Im glad its staying in America's hands.