YouTuber’s ‘Beater’ ’95 Viper Still Running Strong After Year One
After a year of ownership, Hoovies Garage comes to his senses about selling his Viper thanks to technology marching on.
It’s been a couple of years since the last Viper left the assembly line. Dodge’s beloved supercar woke up the brand when it debuted in concept form in 1989, took the world by storm in January of 1992, and left its bite mark on the world that has yet to heal, and may never will.
A year ago, a 1995 Viper that had seen better days wound up in the ownership of YouTuber Tyler Hoover of Hoovies Garage. We talked about his acquisition before, especially how it scared him to drive due to the car’s original tires. He had even thought of selling the car, but through the march of time, something changed his mind along the way.
“It’s hard to believe, but it’s been one year since I bought the cheapest Dodge Viper in the U.S.A. on my reality show,” said Hoover. “And since shooting the episode, I got it home and had to fix a bunch of things… Since doing that and sorting the car out mostly, it’s sat. And that’s just because I found the car totally terrifying to drive.”
Despite the lack of things like ABS, traction control, and the other things that make other cars civilized, Hoover says that one “little, easy thing that wasn’t all that expensive would actually transform [the Viper]” into a machine he’d actually want to keep around.
“Little did I know that all I needed to do was put on a set of modern performance tires, and it would completely transform this Viper,” Hoover says. “Tire technology has come a long way since 1995, and these Michelin Pilot Sports that I put on this thing, they were expensive at $1,300.”
Though he put off buying and putting on the Michelins due to things like Kansas winters and him not being sure it would be worth spending the money for the new tires (and the fact Michelin is the only company making tires for his Viper), Hoover found the investment well worth the cash outlay. As he now says, the Viper “stays planted the whole time [and] it actually feels kind of civilized.”
“I can’t believe I was scared of this car and never drove it and thought I was gonna sell it because it’s great now,” Hoover says. “It’s smooth and comfortable. Now, it actually hooks up. I’m really impressed. Now, I need to fix the one last thing that I don’t like about this Viper — especially if I’m keeping it — and that’s the exhaust.”
Alas, his Viper does more hissing than roaring through its old exhaust, but thankfully, his local muffler shop fab’d a solution for a lower price “than [buying] some performance exhaust made from some company, some kid or whatever.” The new side pipes come with a glasspack cherry bomb muffler per pipe, guaranteed to improve the sound of the snake.
“It’s perfect. It’s absolutely perfect,” said Hoover, “because it’s not too loud and droney, like when I’m driving normally. But when I get on it, I can actually hear the V10 now. The Viper is roaring, which is exactly what I wanted.”
Of course, like with his other cars, it’s still a hooptie, overheating due to issues with the cooling system. But as he says, “everyone should have a Viper,” as it’s “the most affordable poster supercar there is.” And he’s not wrong: Classic on Autotrader has a handful between $30,000 and $39,000, and even one for $21,000 as of this writing.
Photos: Screenshots
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