V8 powered GTS-R, Viper Race History

[str5010]

I stumbled across the following last week and was amazed I had never heard about it previously. I would love to see any pictures out there of these cars with this unique power plant and hear more about them.

I believe the following originates from a post on the viper alley forum by a user named Exotic Engine Dev.

"Only one place on earth, one time a year do 260 entries take the green flag for 24 hours of racing. The 24 Hours of Nurburgring in Germany is the ultimate test of team, man and Machine. Two Dodge Viper GTS-R race cars took the green flag. The #3 Zakspeed Dodge Viper GTS-R powered by a very unique Exotic Engine Development V8 / 10 engine started from the front row. The #33 team Zakspeed team car started in the twelve position. The # 3 car driven by Peter Zakowski, Sascha Bert, Patrick Huismann, and Hans Peter-Hypertnieder started from the front row and ran in the top three for 15 hours before retiring with a major gearbox failure. The #33 Dodge Viper GTS-R V8 / 10 of Christopher Gerhard, Dirk Riebensahm, Werner Mohr and Peter-Hans Huppertnieder finished in the third position overall, first in Class SP-8. The #33 car finished the 24 hour race traveling at a top speed of 295 KPH and covering 2415 miles. Both cars are powered by an Exotic Engine Development V8 / 10 with JM Striker Cylinder Heads. These engines are 6.2 Liter V8's built within the Dodge Viper GTS-R V-10 architecture. The front two cylinders are not functional. Very unique, very powerfull and very reliable endurance racing engines.

The engine is basically a small block V8 built within the GTS-R V10. The crankshaft is built as a V8 with a shaft only passing through the front two cylinders, Same with the camshaft. No rods, no pistons, valves with springs to plug the holes. There are plugs in the lifter bores. The engine is 6.2 liters (378 cubic inches). It makes near 650 horsepower at 6900 rpm. Engine management is Motec. The engine has JM Striker race heads. These heads are good for an additional 40 horsepower on this engine. We have a little more development planned to improve torque and fuel consumption.

Everybody asks why? In the FIA GT or FFSA GT we have to run two 33.4mm air restrictors on the 8.0 liter V-10. Power falls from 830-850 HP down to a meek 580-620 HP. The rules state that we must use the original cylinder block, but it does say we have to use all ten cylinders.

There are no rocker arms on the front two cylinders (1&2)V10. Peak power is at 6950 rpm, they shift right around 7100."

Here's a video of one of the cars:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROFhMsk2-9U

I even found the car on the Forza Motorsport video game and sure enough it has that V8 sound just like the video.

Anyone else have any association/history with these engines?

[BlknBlu]

very bizzare, why have the extra weight of the 2 unused cylinders.

Bruce

[str5010]

very bizzare, why have the extra weight of the 2 unused cylinders.

Bruce

The rules required that the original block be utilized.

[ACRucrazy]

Awesome sound

[13COBRA]

That's wild. Never heard of that before.

[City]

Great watch! They are hauling Arce! Thanks for the post and link.

[Joel]

But wait, we must have 10 cylinders to be a Viper. I guess that qualifies. V8 sound 10 cylinder block. LOL Imagine what the old NASCAR Dodge style V8's could do or a late model Hemi a la Hellcat. But that is heresy!!!

[Heysie]

I thought they had to disable 2 cilinders, because Porsche protested. The Viper was too fast for them.

[City]

I thought they had to disable 2 cilinders, because Porsche protested. The Viper was too fast for them.

Under comments:

These V8 Vipers still used a V10 block...they just left two holes empty and ran a V8 crank with a straight shaft going between the journals for the unused cylinders!

[serpent]

I thought they had to disable 2 cilinders, because Porsche protested. The Viper was too fast for them.

Lol, I remember when the M3 GTR was dominating the GT class in ALMS back in the early 2000's.
Porsche protested that the M3 having a v8 was unfair so I forgot if BMW pulled out or went to a 6 cylinder setup.

[str5010]

In car video:
https://youtu.be/HmrytGHYqho

[Fatboy 18]

Coor, great videos, awesome driving!

[City]

Hole crap! That's mesmerizing! The speed differential between the Viper and the other cars on the track looks like it's triple digits! Thanks for the link.

[RedTanRT/10]

str5010, thanks for posting!!! The glory years of Viper racing!!!

[str5010]

str5010, thanks for posting!!! The glory years of Viper racing!!!

You're welcome. I wasn't sure how many people would be all that interested in this stuff.

So anyone have more info or pictures of these V8/10 variants?

[str5010]

There must be somebody out there who has some pictures of these cars up close or maybe some additional insight on their development, right?

[str5010]

Additional info on the V8 cars.

http://www.dailysportscar.com/2017/0...peed-saga.html

[Bill Pemberton]

What a find ! Thanks a bunch for posting!

[Arizona Vipers]

Fascinating!

[Boosted Motorsports]

Man that is a cool story! Crazy how much they were trying to penalize the Viper!

[uberpube]

The sounds reminds me of the Aston Martin that was racing in Super GT , Gt300 class.

[ViperVic]

Thats a cool story........racers will always find away around the rule books

[AndBL]

I was working at Caldwell Development, Inc. when the idea was first explored for the V10 engine to be transformed into a V8. Zakspeed called us looking for a Chrysler engine that would fit in the Viper because of the rules change that made the V10 uncompetitive. There was no engine that fit the bill without a major redesign of the Viper's frame and suspension. I thought of the conversion of the V10 to a V8 in a flash of whimsy but then when I looked into the rules and thought about it some I realized that it wasn't such a foolish idea. I talked to John Caldwell and others about it and at first they thought I was crazy but after a day of thinking about it everyone realized that it was technically possible to do. I called Zakspeed back and told them I had a crazy idea but not to reject it until they had thought about it for a day. They called back the next day to give the go ahead for the project. It was one of the last development projects done at Caldwell before John decided to close the doors.

[str5010]

I was working at Caldwell Development, Inc. when the idea was first explored for the V10 engine to be transformed into a V8. Zakspeed called us looking for a Chrysler engine that would fit in the Viper because of the rules change that made the V10 uncompetitive. There was no engine that fit the bill without a major redesign of the Viper's frame and suspension. I thought of the conversion of the V10 to a V8 in a flash of whimsy but then when I looked into the rules and thought about it some I realized that it wasn't such a foolish idea. I talked to John Caldwell and others about it and at first they thought I was crazy but after a day of thinking about it everyone realized that it was technically possible to do. I called Zakspeed back and told them I had a crazy idea but not to reject it until they had thought about it for a day. They called back the next day to give the go ahead for the project. It was one of the last development projects done at Caldwell before John decided to close the doors.

Thank you for sharing! I'm sending you a private message.

[PkB2014]

Wow, this is so neat. I can't believe I never heard of this before either. Thanks for sharing this story!