Viper ACR Leaves Deep Bite Marks Upon History’s Racetrack
Four years after the Viper ACR merged with the winds of history, Throttle House experiences why its likes will never return.
From 1992 to 2017, Dodge built the ultimate muscle sports car: the Viper. Up front lived a big V10, linked to the fat rear meats via a six-speed manual. Two seats and a trunk for your balls of steel tied the car together. One of the most brutal machines to ever grace the road, the Viper in all its forms commanded respect. Otherwise, it would straight up slit your throat, leaving you to die in the desert.
One of most hardcore versions of the Viper was the American Club Racing trim, or ACR. The final version smashed through 14 track lap records, and even placed itself among the ‘Ring legends with a time of 7:01.30 in 2017. And today, Thomas Holland and James Engelsman of Throttle House experience what makes the last Viper ACR so badass, and why we’ll never see its likes again.
“Ask a Viper ACR, a car made by Dodge, why its used value has gone up enough to match the price of a new Lamborghini Huracan, and it will tell you to shut your commie mouth […]” said Engelsman. “They say this car is capable of 1.5 lateral Gs, thanks to the ridiculous downforce coming from the aero, and the grip from these tires. What a serious machine!”
Combined with the 8.4-liter, 645-horsepower V10 and six-speed manual, the Viper ACR is unlike anything else on the track. While other machines are happy to sing melody, the all-American nightmare is atonal chaos barely on the edge of self-destruction. Yet, it handles the track unlike any street or race car, ever.
“I was dead, dummied,” said Holland. “Adrenaline like I’ve never felt before. This thing is capable of utterly insane performance. Performance that I did not think was even possible from not-a-race-car.”
The Viper ACR can claim another lap record, too. It beat all of the normal street cars Throttle House has thrashed around on hot laps with a time of 1:07.55. The only car above it? The 1:07.52 BAC Mono, a track-only single-seater. This alone tells you all you need to know about why the Viper ACR was the way it was, and still is.
“It is one of the most shocking cars that I think I’ve ever driven,” said Holland. “It’s worthy of the lap time that it’s set down. I’m so happy that we got it on the leaderboard. Cars like this, we can say this with utter and complete confidence, will never exist again.”
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