The first Viper GTS R

[AviP]

I came across this article and thought I'd share. Apologies if it was posted before.

https://www.moparaction.com/2019/07/24/the-first-viper-gts-r/

[RedTanRT/10]

Great story and great find!! Thanks

[outnumbered]

I saw that car at the Charlotte Auto Fair event and talked to the owner. At that time, the car was for sale. Not sure if he still has it.

[Viperenvy]

Thank you for posting.

This article was a reprint of the original which was originally published in 2016, I think.

Has not been posted here.

[RedTanRT/10]

Thank you for posting.

This article was a reprint of the original which was originally published in 2016, I think.

Has not been posted here.


Hey Brian, add this to your GT2 Trivia, not all factory built Championship Edition cars have sequential vin numbers!

[GTS Dean]

Thanks for the link to the article. A very interesting read! One minor quibble - I wish people wouldn't refer to these as GTS-Rs because those are pure racecars. These limited edition cars are GT-2 Championship commemorative models.

[JonB ~ PartsRack]

Note: Invoice shows "PLANT" in upper left and states "NEW MACK."

New Mack was closed in 1996.....all G1 Vipers were built at NEW MACK.

GT-2 and its prototypes were built at CONNER AVE


I am reading from a 1998 TSB, that reads "Viper GTS-GT2 Champion Edition Viper" in 3 places on Page 1 of the doc.

The C-pillar US Flag decal states FIA GT2 CHAMPION

Another quibble: the GT-2 Vipers all came with the ORECA-badged MOMO 5-pt harnesses. They were all Legit FIA Certified (vs SFI) and not merely 'designed to look like' race belts as that article incorrectly states.

Despite this, the GT-2 and ACR OE harnesses from 98-2000 were all recalled. PartsRack was an authorized warranty-replacement outlet. We did almost 300 of them because Mopar and dealers had NO STOCK! MOMO backed out. All of the remaining Mopar "Service" parts [MSRP $1700ea.] recalled ORECA harnesses were returned to MOMO.

dont know of ANY GT-2 Owner who 'surrendered' their FIA-ORECA Momo belts to get non-badged free replacements as Dodge Dealers required. PartsRack was exempt from returning the OE cores!

[Viperenvy]

Thanks JonB for the continued history lesson!

[JonB ~ PartsRack]

While researching the trivia tidbits above, I re-located the 1998 GT-2 Dealer Ordering list!!

Not all of the 1500 Dodge dealers in USA were allowed to order a GT2. The honor was given to the top-50 Viper-selling US dealers. You would be surprised at who is NOT on the list, as well as how many of those 50 are now GONE.

At the time, Dodge Marketing ASSumed that the top 50 would all quickly take their max of 2 cars. NOPE! Most expensive MSRP of any Domestic mfr...Quite a few on the list took NONE, allowing for the list to quickly circle back to the top a few times til all 100 were sold. [ I actually helped Dodge Marketing in calling / alerting some of the non-responder dealers on that list!]

Forward thinkers like Fitzgerald and Roanoke, and Claude Short [Dan Cragin!] got more than two.....4 was tops as the list circled back 2.5 times.

When Dan Fitzgerald finally decided to sell 001, it was PartsRack that bought it !

Ah, the good-ole-days

[pastohio]

Jon....thanks for reminising...I have 067 and have for years....used to belong to "Gee's" but no idea if they are still around the Viper world...I find it strange that the resale is flat on these cars...but the GTSR really looks good being pulled by my 2005 Ram SRT-10 truck, take care and appreciate all you do.did do for the viper nation...."pastohio" ( Denny )

[FrankBarba]

I'd say a big mistake taking my profits and running on the GT 2 Car. 2nd mistake I made
was not checking my old email address for something else.

[Mbccenter]

Very cool article.. I feel fortunate to own the Gen V version of this :)

[Drummerviper]

While researching the trivia tidbits above, I re-located the 1998 GT-2 Dealer Ordering list!!

Not all of the 1500 Dodge dealers in USA were allowed to order a GT2. The honor was given to the top-50 Viper-selling US dealers. You would be surprised at who is NOT on the list, as well as how many of those 50 are now GONE.

At the time, Dodge Marketing ASSumed that the top 50 would all quickly take their max of 2 cars. NOPE! Most expensive MSRP of any Domestic mfr...Quite a few on the list took NONE, allowing for the list to quickly circle back to the top a few times til all 100 were sold. [ I actually helped Dodge Marketing in calling / alerting some of the non-responder dealers on that list!]

Forward thinkers like Fitzgerald and Roanoke, and Claude Short [Dan Cragin!] got more than two.....4 was tops as the list circled back 2.5 times.

When Dan Fitzgerald finally decided to sell 001, it was PartsRack that bought it !

Ah, the good-ole-days


Remember well . Jon is the Viper big brain