What are the new owners of Chrysler going to do with the Viper? | FerrariChat

What are the new owners of Chrysler going to do with the Viper?

Discussion in 'American Muscle' started by bitzman, Oct 15, 2009.

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  1. bitzman

    bitzman F1 Rookie
    BANNED

    Feb 15, 2008
    3,287
    Ontario, CA
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    wallace wyss
    #1 bitzman, Oct 15, 2009
    I heard that Chrysler turned out the guy who wanted to buy the Viper design for $20 million (Chrysler wanted $30 milliion) and instead are turning over the car to the new owners (is it still Fiat?) A couple of years ago Chrysler showed a very slick coupe based on the Viper chassis called the Firepower. I thought if properly developed and marketed, it would be a good Aston Martin-Ferrari competitor.And the good part is that the engineering is already done, only the body and interior need refining. Then I heard nothing more of it

    Pics at http://wikicars.org/en/Chrysler_Firepower

    It seems like if Fiat is tied in (or do they own)Ferrari, the first thing they will want to do is deep six the Viper so as not to hurt Ferrari or Maserati sales....
     
  2. Kds

    Kds F1 World Champ

    May 1, 2003
    10,994
    Canada and Brasil...
    #2 Kds, Oct 15, 2009
    Last edited: Oct 15, 2009
    FIAT is a 20% minority shareholder in Chrysler.......for now.

    The US gubmint has 15% and I think Cerebrus, the UAW and Daimler still hold the rest, with Daimler having the smallest portion. Someone please correct me if I am a wrong, a cursory online search found little info.

    FIAT is now in serious trouble too and that puts their whole Chrsyler business plan in jeopardy as well.

    FWIW I don't think Viper hurts Ferrari/Maser sales one bit. Never seen an F-car driver wearing a mullet and his Budweiser baseball hat on backwards yet. ;)
     
  3. Viper 10

    Viper 10 Formula Junior

    Nov 16, 2003
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    Brad Chang
    #3 Viper 10, Oct 22, 2009
    Last edited: Oct 22, 2009
    The Viper stands for things that the Italians hate... the Germans didn't know what to do with the Viper either.

    Development was done on much of the Gen 4 Viper by ASC before they went belly up. The motors that are on the the current Viper and ACR were developed by McLaren... and there are a couple of other versions that have not popped up yet.

    The Firepower was a great V8 Chrysler concept that could easily be built.

    Don't forget the Chrysler ME-412:

    http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/z7770/Chrysler-ME412.aspx

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_ME_Four-Twelve

    This car would have put Chrysler on the map of the exotic world. 3 or 4 were built and tested heavily. I spent a couple of days at SEMA with the test driver. It was a serious driver car.
     

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