Bellanger long-tube headers, 300-horsepower nitrous nozzles and a custom tune make this GTS a land missile.
The Dodge Viper is one of the most powerful American production road cars of all time, with the 8.4-liter V10 delivering 640 horsepower and 600 lb-ft of torque at the crankshaft. While it is a beast in stock form, many owners like to add more power simply because it is so easy to beef up to V10 engine.
One of those owners is Kevin Hodge, General Motors of Interstate Dodge in West Monroe, Louisiana. Hodge recently added headers, nitrous and a tune to his 2013 Viper and he hit the dyno to see how much of an impact made. As it turns out, these relatively simple, common upgrades added more than 300 horsepower and 380 lb-ft of torque at the wheels.
Build
The car in action above from the wheelie151 YouTube channel is a 2013 Dodge Viper GTS. The 8.4-liter V10 has been equipped with a set of Bellanger long-tube headers, a Nitrous Outlet plate kit with 300-horsepower nozzles, a Promax progressive nitrous controller and a remote custom engine tune by Ken Bjonnes at Palm Beach Dyno on Madtunes Racing Dynojet. So, headers, a nitrous system and a tune come together as a fairly brief modification list, but these things make a big difference on the big Dodge V10 engine.
Dyno Numbers
Based on the stock engine power figures of 640 horsepower and 600 lb-ft of torque, this car is “losing” about 16 percent of its horsepower and 17 percent of its torque between the crankshaft and the wheels.
In the video, we watch a no-nitrous pull in which the car makes 554.62 horsepower at the rear wheels, but Hodge pointed out that the best figures with just the headers and the tune were 573 horsepower and 549 lb-ft of torque. That means that the Dodge supercar picked up 37 horsepower and 51 lb-ft of torque at the wheels from just the headers and tune.
Finally, the Viper makes a run on the rollers with the nitrous system engaged, at which point we get the big numbers. This Viper laid down 838.87 horsepower and 879.63 lb-ft of torque at the wheels, increases of 302 horsepower and 381 lb-ft of torque. Those are increases of 47 percent in horsepower and 64 percent in torque compared to stock.
As you might imagine, the bottled Viper with long-tube headers sounds incredible while stretching its legs on the dyno, so crank up your speakers and enjoy.
"Before I was old enough to walk, my dad was taking me to various types of racing events, from local drag racing to the Daytona 500," says Patrick Rall, a lifetime automotive expert, diehard Dodge fan, and respected auto journalist for over 10 years. "He owned a repair shop and had a variety of performance cars when I was young, but by the time I was 16, he was ready to build me my first drag car – a 1983 Dodge Mirada that ran low 12s. I spent 10 years traveling around the country, racing with my dad by my side. While we live in different areas of the country, my dad still drag races at 80 years old in the car that he built when I was 16 while I race other vehicles, including my 2017 Dodge Challenger SRT Hellcat and my 1972 Dodge Demon 340.
"Although I went to college for accounting, my time in my dad’s shop growing up allowed me the knowledge to spend time working as a mechanic before getting my accounting degree, at which point I worked in the office of a dealership group. While I was working in the accounting world, I continued racing and taking pictures of cars at the track. Over time, I began showing off those pictures online and that led to my writing.
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"My experience drag racing for more than 20 years coupled with a newfound interest in road racing over the past decade allows me to push performance cars to their limit, while my role as a horse stable manager gives me vast experience towing and hauling with all of the newest trucks on the market today.
