It Took $500K to build a Viper to Take Down the Fastest Lamborghini
Builder of this Lambo hunter Viper spent so much money that he could have bought a new Aventador instead.
News Flash! Racing is expensive! If you want to compete on the big stage and win drag races against the fastest cars and the fastest drivers it is going to take a lot of skill and a lot of cash. Andy Nelson was sick of not getting the respect on the drag strip, so he was hellbent on going after the big game. When he was racing the quickest cars on the strip were the Lamborghinis. He knew that if he wanted the respect that is what he would have to beat. So, he built his twin turbo Viper as a Lambo hunter.
A video was posted recently on the VINwiki YouTube channel as part of the Car Stories series. Nelson and his racing career are the subject of the video. And while he talks about his C5 Corvette and how that got him started, the bulk of the discussion is around his crazy Lambo hunter twin turbo Viper build. If you are interested in racing at a high level, you probably want to watch this. You will learn that it takes not just hard work on the track. But hard work in business so you can make the piles of money that you need in order to build and maintain a topflight drag car.
$1,600 per Mile
Over the years Nelson spent $500,000 building and maintaining his Viper. And it was not a streetcar. He only raced it on the dragstrip maybe five or six weekends per year. So, when he did the math, he figured it cost him $1,600 per mile for his Viper. One thousand six hundred dollars per mile. Wrap your head around that for a moment.
As of 2020 the average salary in the U.S. was $56,310 per year. So, if you made that, and didn’t pay any taxes, you would be totally broke after driving this Viper for only 35 miles. That is truly staggering, but if you have a strong enough desire to win, then you do whatever it takes to get there. In the case of Nelson, he worked 80 hours per week and poured every dime he made into his car. Would you be willing to do the same?
Money Well Spent
Nelson was able to eventually beat the big Lambos and he got the respect at the track that he wanted so badly to earn. The money spent was worth it to him. But what would you do? If you worked around the clock just for a car, would you buy a racing Viper like this?
Or would you buy something more exotic to just cruise the streets? Most of us already spend too much money on our cars but would you be willing to go to these extremes?
Dodge vs the World
Another great part to the story is that a Dodge is able to take down an Italian exotic. Sure, the Dodge is heavily modified, but the Lambo is far from stock as well. You can’t help but feel a little bit proud when you see a Viper taking down the big game from all over the world.
That Dodge badge might not have the snob appeal that some of the European brands do. But when it comes to outright speed a Dodge can beat whatever you throw at it. All it takes is money.
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