1999 Dodge Viper RT/10
Discussion
Introducing my 1999 Dodge Viper RT/10.
Let's start by rewinding some about 30 years. Waking up early to Transworld Sport and seeing GT racing. Playing Viper Racing on PC or going to my mates house to watch him play Gran Turismo and grind through the driving licenses to unlock the special cars. I loved the look of the car and it seemed crazy with it's 8 litre V10. Soon after a family friend moved to Ohio and went into the Dodge dealer. They kindly sent a brochure over to the UK for me and between memorising every page and spending my pocket money on the clumsy Bburago die-casts I had my dream car firmly chosen.
I had the brochure in a box of stuff under my bed still!
A little history...
Passing my test at 17 it wouldn't be until 21 that I bought my first car with a £1,000 budget. The car was a Porsche 924 (there is a thread here somewhere starting late 2010!) which was a fantastic experience and introduced me to some life long friends as we began our automotive journeys. This was a great choice for a young driver too, practical, reasonable to run and rear wheel drive with no driving assists to speak of. I really learned a lot of basics which helped me when I stepped up to a 924 Turbo. It was no ordinary 924 Turbo but a Carrera GT replica. Built from a written off CGT it had the proper ECU, bumpers, top mount intercooler etc. The turbo lag was significant but I wasn't at the right stage to really own it, trying to use it as a daily car and worrying about it staying in top condition. I made a bit of a sideways move to a 1988 924S, the final year of 924 production, benefitting from the high compression pistons the 944 had. This gave 944 power but in a smaller, lighter car. And it had power steering! I found some 3 piece magnesium wheels for very cheap, fitted the sports seats and some Bilstein shocks. It was probably the best of the bunch but lacking some excitement after the turbo. I test drove a 2.7 Cayman but that felt very similar in performance with worse build quality. An early 996 but that just felt old but not retro. So when I saw a 6 speed Corvette C4 at a car meet in Bristol I bought that the next day instead. This ratcheted up the car another level for me. A 5.7L V8 with 350ftlbs and a wheelbase the same as a Z4 or Cayman. Again it took time to get comfortable with a bigger engine and left hand drive. I owned the C4 for about 7 years and it taught me a huge amount. In Covid I rebuilt the cylinder heads, changed the intake manifold and even tuned the engine with PROM chips! By the time I sold the car I had replaced the whole interior and just about everything mechanical aside from the gearbox and bottom end of the engine. The car was pretty quick, doing 0-60 in 5 seconds easily on the street. I'd put about 50k miles on it in my ownership too. I had liked the idea of a Corvette C6 Z06 but at the time didn't want to sell the C4 first to make the move. My student loan paid off I did some man maths and bought a Corvette C6 6 speed convertible. I'd never had a convertible and thought that I would always have the option to put the roof down if I wanted. The C6 had some tweaks and was tuned to 458bhp. This let it easily do a 4 second run to 60 and it was very fast and useable. I went on some European road trips with it and carried out some tasteful upgrades, wheels, C6 Z06 brakes and exhaust. I was fortunate enough to spend quite a bit of seat time in Fishy Dave's C6, Clive, which we drove to the Sahara desert and later the arctic. Once again I'd made a jump to another level and a Corvette C6 is a fantastic car to own and drive. However by this point I'd been saving up for a few years and in my heart I didn't look at the narrow body C6 as I did my C4. With ET79 rear wheels it was impossible to get some tasty looking dishy wheels and a bit like a 911 there's always a better model out there on the internet making yours seem somehow lacking.
The viewing
Back in 2016 when I bought my C4 I was thinking perhaps I would look at a Viper in a few years, however, much like house prices they seemed to only be going up. Now a second gen GTS would probably buy a house back in 2016. Idly browsing the classifieds and usual auction sites there were few cars to choose from. Last autumn there was a 99 RT10 which sold at auction. Interesting, a 3 owner UK car from new, and it wasn't red. I called the auction house who told me it sold for an undisclosed sum outside of the bidding process. The same car appeared in Auto trader last December and I thought perhaps it was being flipped by a dealer or wasn't what the buyer expected. A couple of weeks ago I decided to call, just to hear the seller and get a better picture. The car was in Chelsea in London and it turns out he was the person who had put it up for auction but the sale fell through. A recent move to the centre of London meant a lack of storage space and it lost out to a Ford Thunderbird and Aston Martin Vanquish. Okay then, I organise a day to view it and decide to drive the Corvette there, both to use as a comparison and also to show I had at least some familiarity of American cars here, even if I'd never sat in a Viper.
Driving from Cardiff to London is at best contemplative, with 150 miles of the M4 book ended by some traffic. At this point I was really just curious to see if I could fit in the car (6”2 extra medium build) and if it was in good working order. Previous MOT's suggested it had been driven to an MOT each year but little else. Reassuringly it didn't just pass each one and had little bits of work done between to keep it in good order. With the car out of the garage we proceeded to look with increasing urgency for a petrol station as the ¼ tank was quickly dismissed in London traffic. The car all seemed to be working ok and after talking cars with the owner he let me drive it back. I couldn't get the seat to adjust properly so it my knee was up against the dash whilst I tried to operate the clutch in a cramped and offset pedal box. Everything on the car worked and it was generally hot, strange smelling and awkward. Back at the sellers house I spoke to a long term UK Viper owner who was extremely helpful giving advice and some things to check whilst I was with the car. I couldn't find anything untoward with my amateur eyes. For a moment I stood outside looking at the car and it felt like a bird in the hand. I know it will be objectively worse than the Corvette in many ways but it's a Viper! I walked inside to negotiate on the price a little and placed a deposit. I drove home and over the next few days I think I went through 7 stages of grief with my decision. The Corvette sold in just 3 days to a third year student. This was a great feeling, I'm sure he'll enjoy the car for what it is a bit like when I had my 924 at that age, only a few steps above!
Collection day
I asked on an American Viper page on Facebook about driving the car in the winter and was met with outrage. Unfortunately it was a public page so anyone could pile in and a few friends then saw what I'd done. With the next move out of the bag I organised to collect it with my Dad. I wanted someone just to follow me out of London in case there was any drama and I'm of the outlook that anything is a good story, just sometimes it takes a bit of time until you can look back on it like that. It was great to share the moment of collecting it with him and after a brief stop to brim the tank it was time to get it back home to Wales!
The MOT wasn't due until April but I asked the seller to put a new MOT on there so I was good to use the car for a year without worrying about it. It had passed with no issues but I was aware the tyres were from 2008. Soon we were on the A4 heading for the M4 and I was anxious to know if any issues would appear as I took the car over 30mph for the first time. It was driving straight, good oil pressure, no funny business from the coolant temp and I started to settle in. Later we were through the 50mph section and after staying put in the inside lane I tried shifting down a gear or two and just getting my speed up to 70 to see how it felt. Everything was good and so I tried the period Alpine stereo. Classic FM crystal clear. I hopped stations, with Ed Sheeran's new song following me as I tuned in to different ones. Back to the gearbox whine I'm starting to hear and squeaks of the dash then. Driving it is very busy. There is feedback from everything, the tyres rumbling along, the gearbox whining, the whoosh of the air intake, the symphony of dash plastics colliding. The steering is very direct and the throttle razor sharp. The engine dominates the car and you're holding it back every mile. We stopped at services for a meal deal sandwich and quick check of the vitals. Everything still in order I headed for home and my Dad peeled off back to his about half way there. I made it home with no issues, my first proper drive in a Viper being a cold January day with tyres old enough to be served alcohol. Straight back into work on 12hr shifts I glanced at the car as I came and went in the dark. Finally I've got a day off to write this up and receive the various parts I've ordered.
The car
Much like any car the Viper has been through different stages and there are some big differences each series and even model year. The 1st gen with 3 spoke wheels doesn't have any door locks or fixed windows. The suspension comprises of steel wishbones and a 400bhp engine. In 96 the 2nd gen came out with the blue & white stripes coupe. The RT/10 model continued at a similar price point. It shared the mechanicals of the coupe, new suspension geometry, aluminium wishbones and a fully forged V10 with 450bhp. By 99 there are some nice revisions, with a better dashboard (textured plastic instead of shiny plastic) and some aluminium embellishments in the interior from the door handles to the gauges. A year later the engine is diluted with cast pistons and a more modest cam, then came ABS. To me 99 is a real sweet spot, the best improvements but still with the best mechanicals. The car has been in the UK since new with one owner having it a few months between two long term owners. It has a mere 19k miles on the clock with full history.
Future Plans
The black wheels are going! Tyre choice is very limited if you want E marked 335/30/18 tyres. I have chosen the retro Pirelli P Zero as a period correct look and hedge against the weather in South Wales. I don't think the Corsa would be up to a useful temp on the road often and track day tyres would be fantastic in the dry but too limiting otherwise. I'm going to change all fluids/filters/ignition to start from a clean slate and know what it has. 10 litres of 0w40 engine oil, 4 litres of gearbox oil and 2 litres of diff oil. Rockauto is reasonable for service items from the US, 10 spark plugs costing £10 and a set of HT leads £25. There are two coils, one from a V6 people carrier and another from a 4 pot because 6+4=10. The exhaust isn't the main event and in the future I'd like to get high flow cats to alleviate the heat in the sills. I picked up a retro style Pioneer stereo with DAB and Bluetooth to replace the old Alpine too.
A very expensive set of tyres!
I'm hoping to enjoy the car for a few years to tick it off my bucket list and be sympathetic with any improvements. Now we'll find out what happens if you buy a Dodge Viper and start driving it!
Let's start by rewinding some about 30 years. Waking up early to Transworld Sport and seeing GT racing. Playing Viper Racing on PC or going to my mates house to watch him play Gran Turismo and grind through the driving licenses to unlock the special cars. I loved the look of the car and it seemed crazy with it's 8 litre V10. Soon after a family friend moved to Ohio and went into the Dodge dealer. They kindly sent a brochure over to the UK for me and between memorising every page and spending my pocket money on the clumsy Bburago die-casts I had my dream car firmly chosen.
I had the brochure in a box of stuff under my bed still!
A little history...
Passing my test at 17 it wouldn't be until 21 that I bought my first car with a £1,000 budget. The car was a Porsche 924 (there is a thread here somewhere starting late 2010!) which was a fantastic experience and introduced me to some life long friends as we began our automotive journeys. This was a great choice for a young driver too, practical, reasonable to run and rear wheel drive with no driving assists to speak of. I really learned a lot of basics which helped me when I stepped up to a 924 Turbo. It was no ordinary 924 Turbo but a Carrera GT replica. Built from a written off CGT it had the proper ECU, bumpers, top mount intercooler etc. The turbo lag was significant but I wasn't at the right stage to really own it, trying to use it as a daily car and worrying about it staying in top condition. I made a bit of a sideways move to a 1988 924S, the final year of 924 production, benefitting from the high compression pistons the 944 had. This gave 944 power but in a smaller, lighter car. And it had power steering! I found some 3 piece magnesium wheels for very cheap, fitted the sports seats and some Bilstein shocks. It was probably the best of the bunch but lacking some excitement after the turbo. I test drove a 2.7 Cayman but that felt very similar in performance with worse build quality. An early 996 but that just felt old but not retro. So when I saw a 6 speed Corvette C4 at a car meet in Bristol I bought that the next day instead. This ratcheted up the car another level for me. A 5.7L V8 with 350ftlbs and a wheelbase the same as a Z4 or Cayman. Again it took time to get comfortable with a bigger engine and left hand drive. I owned the C4 for about 7 years and it taught me a huge amount. In Covid I rebuilt the cylinder heads, changed the intake manifold and even tuned the engine with PROM chips! By the time I sold the car I had replaced the whole interior and just about everything mechanical aside from the gearbox and bottom end of the engine. The car was pretty quick, doing 0-60 in 5 seconds easily on the street. I'd put about 50k miles on it in my ownership too. I had liked the idea of a Corvette C6 Z06 but at the time didn't want to sell the C4 first to make the move. My student loan paid off I did some man maths and bought a Corvette C6 6 speed convertible. I'd never had a convertible and thought that I would always have the option to put the roof down if I wanted. The C6 had some tweaks and was tuned to 458bhp. This let it easily do a 4 second run to 60 and it was very fast and useable. I went on some European road trips with it and carried out some tasteful upgrades, wheels, C6 Z06 brakes and exhaust. I was fortunate enough to spend quite a bit of seat time in Fishy Dave's C6, Clive, which we drove to the Sahara desert and later the arctic. Once again I'd made a jump to another level and a Corvette C6 is a fantastic car to own and drive. However by this point I'd been saving up for a few years and in my heart I didn't look at the narrow body C6 as I did my C4. With ET79 rear wheels it was impossible to get some tasty looking dishy wheels and a bit like a 911 there's always a better model out there on the internet making yours seem somehow lacking.
The viewing
Back in 2016 when I bought my C4 I was thinking perhaps I would look at a Viper in a few years, however, much like house prices they seemed to only be going up. Now a second gen GTS would probably buy a house back in 2016. Idly browsing the classifieds and usual auction sites there were few cars to choose from. Last autumn there was a 99 RT10 which sold at auction. Interesting, a 3 owner UK car from new, and it wasn't red. I called the auction house who told me it sold for an undisclosed sum outside of the bidding process. The same car appeared in Auto trader last December and I thought perhaps it was being flipped by a dealer or wasn't what the buyer expected. A couple of weeks ago I decided to call, just to hear the seller and get a better picture. The car was in Chelsea in London and it turns out he was the person who had put it up for auction but the sale fell through. A recent move to the centre of London meant a lack of storage space and it lost out to a Ford Thunderbird and Aston Martin Vanquish. Okay then, I organise a day to view it and decide to drive the Corvette there, both to use as a comparison and also to show I had at least some familiarity of American cars here, even if I'd never sat in a Viper.
Driving from Cardiff to London is at best contemplative, with 150 miles of the M4 book ended by some traffic. At this point I was really just curious to see if I could fit in the car (6”2 extra medium build) and if it was in good working order. Previous MOT's suggested it had been driven to an MOT each year but little else. Reassuringly it didn't just pass each one and had little bits of work done between to keep it in good order. With the car out of the garage we proceeded to look with increasing urgency for a petrol station as the ¼ tank was quickly dismissed in London traffic. The car all seemed to be working ok and after talking cars with the owner he let me drive it back. I couldn't get the seat to adjust properly so it my knee was up against the dash whilst I tried to operate the clutch in a cramped and offset pedal box. Everything on the car worked and it was generally hot, strange smelling and awkward. Back at the sellers house I spoke to a long term UK Viper owner who was extremely helpful giving advice and some things to check whilst I was with the car. I couldn't find anything untoward with my amateur eyes. For a moment I stood outside looking at the car and it felt like a bird in the hand. I know it will be objectively worse than the Corvette in many ways but it's a Viper! I walked inside to negotiate on the price a little and placed a deposit. I drove home and over the next few days I think I went through 7 stages of grief with my decision. The Corvette sold in just 3 days to a third year student. This was a great feeling, I'm sure he'll enjoy the car for what it is a bit like when I had my 924 at that age, only a few steps above!
Collection day
I asked on an American Viper page on Facebook about driving the car in the winter and was met with outrage. Unfortunately it was a public page so anyone could pile in and a few friends then saw what I'd done. With the next move out of the bag I organised to collect it with my Dad. I wanted someone just to follow me out of London in case there was any drama and I'm of the outlook that anything is a good story, just sometimes it takes a bit of time until you can look back on it like that. It was great to share the moment of collecting it with him and after a brief stop to brim the tank it was time to get it back home to Wales!
The MOT wasn't due until April but I asked the seller to put a new MOT on there so I was good to use the car for a year without worrying about it. It had passed with no issues but I was aware the tyres were from 2008. Soon we were on the A4 heading for the M4 and I was anxious to know if any issues would appear as I took the car over 30mph for the first time. It was driving straight, good oil pressure, no funny business from the coolant temp and I started to settle in. Later we were through the 50mph section and after staying put in the inside lane I tried shifting down a gear or two and just getting my speed up to 70 to see how it felt. Everything was good and so I tried the period Alpine stereo. Classic FM crystal clear. I hopped stations, with Ed Sheeran's new song following me as I tuned in to different ones. Back to the gearbox whine I'm starting to hear and squeaks of the dash then. Driving it is very busy. There is feedback from everything, the tyres rumbling along, the gearbox whining, the whoosh of the air intake, the symphony of dash plastics colliding. The steering is very direct and the throttle razor sharp. The engine dominates the car and you're holding it back every mile. We stopped at services for a meal deal sandwich and quick check of the vitals. Everything still in order I headed for home and my Dad peeled off back to his about half way there. I made it home with no issues, my first proper drive in a Viper being a cold January day with tyres old enough to be served alcohol. Straight back into work on 12hr shifts I glanced at the car as I came and went in the dark. Finally I've got a day off to write this up and receive the various parts I've ordered.
The car
Much like any car the Viper has been through different stages and there are some big differences each series and even model year. The 1st gen with 3 spoke wheels doesn't have any door locks or fixed windows. The suspension comprises of steel wishbones and a 400bhp engine. In 96 the 2nd gen came out with the blue & white stripes coupe. The RT/10 model continued at a similar price point. It shared the mechanicals of the coupe, new suspension geometry, aluminium wishbones and a fully forged V10 with 450bhp. By 99 there are some nice revisions, with a better dashboard (textured plastic instead of shiny plastic) and some aluminium embellishments in the interior from the door handles to the gauges. A year later the engine is diluted with cast pistons and a more modest cam, then came ABS. To me 99 is a real sweet spot, the best improvements but still with the best mechanicals. The car has been in the UK since new with one owner having it a few months between two long term owners. It has a mere 19k miles on the clock with full history.
Future Plans
The black wheels are going! Tyre choice is very limited if you want E marked 335/30/18 tyres. I have chosen the retro Pirelli P Zero as a period correct look and hedge against the weather in South Wales. I don't think the Corsa would be up to a useful temp on the road often and track day tyres would be fantastic in the dry but too limiting otherwise. I'm going to change all fluids/filters/ignition to start from a clean slate and know what it has. 10 litres of 0w40 engine oil, 4 litres of gearbox oil and 2 litres of diff oil. Rockauto is reasonable for service items from the US, 10 spark plugs costing £10 and a set of HT leads £25. There are two coils, one from a V6 people carrier and another from a 4 pot because 6+4=10. The exhaust isn't the main event and in the future I'd like to get high flow cats to alleviate the heat in the sills. I picked up a retro style Pioneer stereo with DAB and Bluetooth to replace the old Alpine too.
A very expensive set of tyres!
I'm hoping to enjoy the car for a few years to tick it off my bucket list and be sympathetic with any improvements. Now we'll find out what happens if you buy a Dodge Viper and start driving it!
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