Wednesday 18th September 2013

Viper's Nest: Time for Tea?

Meet the Rauhs; they like Dodge Vipers. A lot.

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In most of our dream car collections, there's probably more than one example of a particular model; perhaps a 911 GT2 and GT3 for example. And who wouldn't want a CSL to accompany an E30 M3?

But Wayne and D'Ann Rauh have taken their brand fascination to whole new level entirely; they have 65 Dodge Vipers. 65 Vipers. Not only is that an absurd amount of V10 Dodge mayhem, that's only around two thirds of their collection (sadly not discussed in this film).

So this sort of car hoarding requires years of meticulous research, travelling and purchasing, right? Not exactly. Amazingly, the Rauhs only made the decision to buy a Viper in 2006, meaning they've been buying around nine Vipers a year since then. Crazy.

Dan even met the Rauhs at Le Mans this year and it would appear they're just as wonderfully barmy in reality. It's in the last update on the LM Friday liveblog.

The latest addition is a 2013 SRT Viper GTS, but star of the show has to be the SRT/10 ACRX. Even amongst the others, it's a terrifying car. Unfortunately, it isn't road legal and it's only been used on their estate.

This vid doesn't actually feature any driving of the cars, which seems something of an oversight. But that's what the rest of YouTube is for, right? So here is ten minutes of Tom Coronel, Nordschleife and V10 for you.

 

 

 

[fatboy18]

Well what's not to love! Lucky buggers, if only!

[fatboy18]

NGK210 said:

If it were some chisel-jawed, tweedy 70something Italian count with a pile in Tuscany and a barn-full of 60 Fezzas, he'd be deemed a charming car-loving eccentric but if it's a pair of 'yee haw' yanks with 60 Vipers, then their "taste" is questioned

This ^

[fatboy18]

405dogvan said:

A 911 or 3 Series seems to fit the bill in terms of range/longevity/interest level perhaps - 2.7 RS (replica would be fine), a late 80s Carrera, a 964 Turbo Cab, a GT2, a GT3 and a Singer - maybe a Ruf - maybe an FF, of course...

or an E30, CSL, Carbonseries perhaps

A 3 SERIES

[fatboy18]

graeme4130 said:

It's not even that the Viper was ever that great a car

Really..
All aluminium V10 Engine designed by Lamborghini
Massive racing history and many, many wins to its name. Much cheaper than many cars that Automotive journalist's like to compare it to.
Viper ACR Ring record holder, Lemans 24hrs? ONE or two wins there.

Oh yes, silly me its LHD and American, so it must be rubbish.

[fatboy18]

GranCab said:

I've got 65 shirts - does that make me eccentric ?

Yes, can you post a video of them all for the members on here to pick holes in them, thank you

[fatboy18]

Dodge had some ideas on what type of engine they wanted for the Viper and took a Cast Iron truck engine to Lamborghini expressing the length of stroke, low down torque they would like, Lamborghini looked at the cast Iron engine then had to re-design the engine to make it much lighter, in doing this there were compromises that had to be implemented. So what ever way you cut it the engine was re-designed by Lamborghini The GTSR engines were originally designed for F1!

There was recently in the Viper magazine, a full story on the development of the engines, and yes Lamborghini at the time was part of the Chrysler corporation