Dodge Viper ACR Extreme Attempts Nürburgring Record

Documentary detailing the Dodge Viper ACR Extreme’s Nürburgring record attempt is chock-full of great clips…and tragedy.

Last year, a group of Dodge Viper enthusiasts created a team tasked with taking the Mopar supercar to the German Nürburgring to make an attempt at the production road car world record. This crowd-sourced record attempt fell just short, with the team turning in a best lap time of 7:01, but it was still a remarkable effort by everyone involved.

To showcase the work that went into getting to that 7:01 lap, the group filmed a documentary during the record attempts and late last week, that doc, The Story of Viper’s Return to the Green Hell, finally arrived online from FoxPro Films. You can watch the entire video above, but below, we have detailed the key portions of the action for those who want to jump through to the good stuff—and the bad news.

Why the Run Happened

Before getting to the actual record attempts in Germany, the Dodge Viper’s Nürburgring documentary begins with a collection of the men involved with effort talking about the car, the track and why they wanted to make this happen.

Organizer Russ Oasis explained that after the previous generation car set the old record back in 2011, it created a ton of excitement in the Viper community. With the Gen V car coming to an end this year, Oasis wanted to recreate that excitement before the Dodge supercar raced off into the sunset. Prefix CEO Kim Zeile, Viper Exchange partner Bernie Katz and Bridge to Gantry editor Dale Lomas all talked about the record attempt, with Lomas offering the most interesting comment.

Lomas points out that for an “outsider” who comes to the track every seven years to expect to arrive at the Nurburgring for a few days and set a record is “ambitious at best, bordering at lunatic at worst.”

This first segment includes input from former Viper engineer Matt Bejnarowicz, former Viper lead engineer Richard Winkles and record-attempt driver Luca Stolz—who praised the downforce and high-speed grip of the ACR Extreme package.

Finally, driver Dominik Farnbacher talked about how the weather can affect the track, serving as some unfortunate foreshadowing to the rest of the documentary.

Rain Hits Germany

After scheduling private lap time some six months in advance, the Dodge Viper ACR record team headed to Germany with a pair of cars, a pair of drivers and a support team hoping to watch history in the making. The first session was scheduled for July 25 and on that day in Nurburg, Germany, it poured down rain. Due to the wet track, the team couldn’t make a record run, but they got some on-track footage of the Viper ACRs while giving the drivers a chance to get a feel for the cars, even if only on the wet track.

Patrick Rall

"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.

"Ten years ago, I left the accounting world to become a full-time automotive writer and I am living proof that if you love what you do, you will never “work” a day in your life," adds Rall, who has clocked in time as an auto mechanic, longtime drag racer and now automotive journalist who contributes to nearly a dozen popular auto websites dedicated to fellow enthusiasts.

"I love covering the automotive industry and everything involved with the job. I was fortunate to turn my love of the automotive world into a hobby that led to an exciting career, with my past of working as a mechanic and as an accountant in the automotive world provides me with a unique perspective of the industry.

"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.

"Being based on Detroit," says Rall, "I never miss the North American International Auto Show, the Woodward Dream Cruise and Roadkill Nights, along with spending plenty of time raising hell on Detroit's Woodward Avenue with the best muscle car crowd in the world.

Rall can be contacted at QuickMirada@Yahoo.com

Facebook   Twitter