Chrysler will stop building the current Viper in July 2010, but has officially confirmed the launch of a replacement model in 2012.
The announcement came during a Chrysler press conference this morning in which the next 5 years of the company's future under new owners FIAT was spelled out. FIAT had been thinking of selling off the Viper brand as part of Chrysler's restructuring, but decided against the move back in July.
The fourth-generation Viper will expire next year with a final run of 500 cars. But according to Dodge's CEO Ralph Giles, the final fleet (it may interest you to know that there is no collective noun for snakes) will all be special editions to sign the model off - so we're crossing our fingers for something appropriately insane.
Original still looks awesome
In the same press conference Chrysler explained that the Viper is shifting to make way for a replacement in 2012, and speculation on the influence of new owners Fiat on the new car is rife.
However, with just 2 years to launch we can't see them finding too much time to influence the replacement greatly. But who knows what they'll come up with. Cue the Viper Scuderia et al...