Buy a Rare Piece of Early Dodge Viper Racing History
Autoform Viper race car is one of just four remaining and this one won the 1998 One Lap of America.
The Dodge Viper is one of the most legendary American road cars, but it also one of the most successful nameplates in road racing around the world. From the time that the Viper first went on sale in the early-1990s, companies have been transforming them into race cars that have won on just about every track in the world. From LeMans to Laguna Seca and everywhere in between, the Dodge Viper dominated many forms of road racing in the 1990s and 2000s.
One of the first companies to offer elaborate race-ready builds for the early Dodge supercar is Autoform Viper, and while they didn’t build many of them, their package was very successful. In fact, the first car that they built won the 1998 One Lap of America with Ron Adee at the helm and right now, you can buy that exact Viper race car from The Dealership in Missouri.
Autoform Viper
This 1996 Dodge Viper was one of six built by Autoform for club racing events, with this was the first one that they built. This car was owned and raced by Ron Adee and in 1998, he and Robert Renc won the One Lap of America event while competing in the SSGT1 class. Today, only four of these Viper race cars are known to exist, with two being located in Europe while the other two – this being one of them – are in the United States.
Under the hood is a 1998 Viper V10 engine, equipped with a carbon fiber air intake system, a 708 camshaft, headers, cat-less exhaust and a tune from Roe Racing. We don’t know how much the output has been increased from the stock 1998 figures of 450 horsepower and 490 lb-ft of torque, but the for sale listing on Facebook says that the engine is “very healthy”.
In addition to the modified engine, the 1996 Viper features upgraded Koni shocks, Delrin bushings, a four-point safety cage, a four-point safety harness for the driver, chassis reinforcements, 3.55 gears and a few unique carbon fiber bits, including the wheel wells and the windshield cowl. The factory air conditioning system has been removed, but the factory radio remains and works, but the speedometer only works “when it wants to”.
Finally, the outside of this 1996 Viper has been upgraded with some unique body bits including the huge rear wing, hood, side skirts, front splitter and more. Also, the 18-inch CCW wheels are one-off custom items, made to look like a center-lug design while still retaining the Viper’s factory six-lug pattern.
Rare and Fairly Expensive
This Dodge Viper race car is listed by The Dealership for $65,000. It has 44,000 miles on the odometer, but that number could be incorrect, seeing as how the speedometer doesn’t always work. However, anyone buying this championship-winning race car is unlikely to care about mileage. The car appears to be in great shape inside and out, and it is clearly in proper running order. The Dealership went so far as to make a video of this Viper doing donuts to finish off an old set of tires, allowing us to hear the modified V10 roar. You can check that video out below.
While $65,000 might seem like a high price for a 1996 Viper with at least 44,000 miles and a non-numbers-matching engine, this car is far from your average Dodge supercar. Not only is it heavily modified inside and out, but it has an impressive history of racing excellence. This would be a great piece for any collector who wants to go racing or anyone who wants to show up to the local Cars and Coffee event with a cool piece of Viper racing history.
Click here for a look at more pictures of this Dodge Viper race car and check out the video below to hear the beast in action.
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