Green With Envy 2009 SSG Coupe

[wakebum2507]

Lets start at the beginning

This thread is going to be an ongoing story of a new to me Gen IV SSG coupe. I've followed a number of you on this forum, Facebook, Instagram, and various other boards. One of my favorite cars has been, and is, Mr. SneakySnakes' old VVO Viper. For years, I lusted for that car. Being from Houston orignally (OKC now), I knew of Alex's car pretty well. I followed his thread, kept track of the updates he had made, how the car was cared for, and the modifications he had been doing.

I'm a computer science guy, a security engineer for a large oil and gas company, a mechanically minded individual, and a thinker. I tend to challenge existing processes and efficiency (or lack thereof), in order to built/automate new/better strategies, which has somehow led me to where I am now, in my professional career.

I've had a number of fast and/or fun cars, most notably a 1300+ WHP coyote, that went through a number of iterations. After that was a gen III viper vert, an E92 M3 optioned fantastically, a few jeeps, etc etc. you know how it is.

Some of you are friends or acquaintances through Houston, Dallas, the Texas Invitational, Runway Rivalry, and some tollway's here and there.

A few months ago, I began to kick around the idea of getting back into something fun. The things I look for in a car have changed over the years, from wanting to be the fastest in a straight line, to the fastest around a track, to not caring about speed at all, but having something different. Like many of you, i've always liked vipers. It was a childhood dream, and when I bought my last one, it was really great. The Gen 3 was fun, but I didn't love it.

I wanted something different. I knew I wanted a gen IV, because the gen V's in the colors I want/wanted were above what I was willing to spend, for a toy. That being a limiting factor, brought my choices down. I knew I wanted a VVO, SSG, or GTS blue car. I preferred them stripeless as well, which narrowed the search down even more. I had my mind set on tracking down the owner of Alex's old car, which I did, luckily. We exchanged a few messages, and he wasn't ready to sell at the time. I was sad to say the least, because that car embodied everything I wanted in a Gen IV. The mods were chosen well, the car was cared for meticulously, the maintenance was detailed, and the history was there.

I started my search looking for VVO cars. I messaged a few of you on here that I knew owned the stripe delete cars, with no luck. I looked at one in Dallas, one in Tennessee, one in Cali. I posted some ISO threads, with no luck there either. The cars i'm finding aren't in the condition I wanted, with lack of history, etc etc.
After failing at finding a VVO car, I started looking for SSG and GTS Blue cars. I messaged people I knew had owned the cars in the past, searching for current owners' numbers, to see if they'd want to sell. This helped a little but still no bites.

Fast forward a little bit, and I came across a one-owner SSG coupe. The car was all stock, had a clear bra on it from day 1, 21K miles on the ticker, with some upgrades like stainless brake lines, stoptech rotors with stoptech pads, new brake fluid, and a spare set of SW2 wheels and tires. needless to say, i'm interested.

I reach out to the owner, whom isn't too talkative, or willing to give up too much info on the car. Odd for someone interested in re-homing their vehicle. We go back and fourth for a few weeks, and I make an offer. He accepted, not convinced I was real.

I arranged transport with Frank Barba, whom I had heard good things about from Calvo, and a few others. We discussed the timeline, picked a day and went from there. Chicago got hammered with snow, ice, and all around bad weather, and the pick up was delayed more than a week. Sadness sets in. I walk to my garage a few nights a week to find nothing but my daily driver in there.


Today is the day

The car was delivered by Frank this morning around 10AM, and I couldn't be happier. Its everything the seller said it was, and the transaction went relatively smoothly, all things considered.

Now like most of you, I believe cars are great from the factory, but can be made even better by some tweaks. I believe in a "factory ++" mindset, where i'm simply changing the small things.

Over the months that I was looking for a car, I had set my mind on a gen IV. After that happened, the gears started turning. I did some research on suspension, speaking with a number of people that owned coil overs from different brands, and some friends that I had gone to the track with, and that raced...lots.
I was using Alex's old car as a play-book for what I wanted to do, since his worked so well, for so long. The hard part was done, I just needed to buy.

I knew what I wanted:
-Wheels
-Suspension
-Exhaust
-Gen V intake
-Arrow/ACRX ECU
-3.55's in the rear.

I pulled the trigger on some coil overs, smooth tubes, full Belanger exhaust with Random technology high flow cats, and the newer 3" side pipes.

I also found myself sourcing some Forgelines, which I had always loved. The color was wrong for the cars I was looking at, but that's simple to fix.

Parts started to arrive before the car was here, which only made me want the car more, even though its been 30-50 degrees in okc, and no one is really doing car things at the moment.


On to the good stuff...
viper1.jpg
viper4.jpg
viper5.jpg

I backed it off the trailer, into the garage, and put it on stands

viper6.jpg