REPORT - 2008 Viper

Scotty & I had the fortunate experience to see the new 2008 Viper (and
even sit in it) plus see the new engine and even talk to the engineers at
the technology center, it is going to be a great car! Everything from the
engine to rear-end has been improved on the power train to support the 600
hp and improve drivability. Some benefits include smoother idle, shorter
shifts and less pedal effort on the clutch, it even has brand new tires
specially designed by Michelin for this car plus it revs faster and higher
than the 2006 version and only weighs 3 more pounds! We even saw a BOLT ON
package that gets the car to 675 hp, 650 lb-ft of torque.

The new 8.4 liter V10 engine employs new technology to become the first
Variable Valve Technology pushrod engine. They have created a way to move
the timing of exhaust lobes relative to the crank position to smooth out
idle and allow overlap for a more radical power band. To control the new
motor a new ECU that is over 10x as powerful was developed and over 300,000
lines of software were written. The advantage of this is that changes can be
made to the camshaft position in less than a millisecond and engine misfires
are now down from an industry typical 3-3.5% to about 1% at idle. Also gone
are the lifter noise that was intentionally designed into the old engine to
help idle quality. This again leads to better performance and even better
gas mileage to go with the additional power in the new engine! So you ask
why change the displacement, well because the cast pistons in the 8.3 motor
were only 1 mm smaller than the new high tech ones developed for the 6.1
liter Hemi motor that use a floating pin. The new block was designed to
improve cooling as well. Gone is the exhaust cross over and run flat tires,
added are even more color choices for 2008.
They have run the new engine through a simulated race season on their dyno
equipment (using actual race data from competition coupes) and even run the
engine at peak power output for 200 hours straight. They also have run
several engines at peak load until they broke just to find the weakest part
and make it stronger, some very cool technology in this engine. Many of the
upgrades on the 2008 have been designed to retrofit into previous models as
well!

Its a good day in Viperland....

James Retych
Director At Large - Western Zone
Viper Club of America