Used 1993 Dodge Viper for Sale near Whitby, ON

I’ve owned other vipers but there nothing like a gen 1 viper

Having just purchased the car less than a week ago, I was unsure. After driving it for just a few times, I am estatic that I have it parked in my garage. With no frills, just basic equipment, the car is made for true fans of speed, handling and stopping power, both literally and figuratively.

Once upon a time, there was an automotive writer in Germany who wanted to get his hands on as many test cars as possible. Since he mostly drove and wrote about old cars, he hardly ever had a chance to really wring them out because their owners wanted their darlings treated gently. No tire-burning quarter-mile runs, no top speed tryouts, no nothing. In order to fry the pavement at least once in a while in someone else's car and get paid for it, he devised a cunning plan and called it "Classics of Tomorrow". This clever scheme allowed him to bum exotic brand-new test cars from auto industry PR departments hungering for news coverage for their products, and bum he did. On one such occasion, he successfully conned Chrysler Corporation's German subsidiary out of their one and only Dodge Viper test car for a full two weeks and squeezed as much fun into those precious days as possible. The summer of 1993 in Munich, Bavaria, was the perfect setting for his endeavor: Reliably hot and sunny, the city streets full of life around the clock, with car owners parading their more or less impressive rides along the boulevards. And suddenly, there was our writer, smack dab in the middle of this automotive catwalk with his fiery red Dodge Viper R/T10, a vehicle that had hit the market only a year ago and was little-known outside the U.S. at the time. Dodge Division had burned a lot of midnight oil to make the Viper a real standout and it showed immediately. Its super-low, ultra-wide, no-nonsense appearance made Porsches, Jaguars and even exotic Italian sports cars (not to mention their owners) look soft and wimpy. One couldn't help but love a car that could accomplish that by just being there. The Dodge Viper, however, was a great deal more than just a looker, even though that was a vital part of its appeal. Beneath that macho surface lay a personality to match, first and foremost a huge, powerful engine - 488 cubic inches or eight liters and an even 400 horsepower, outrageous for 1993. This was the largest-displacement passenger car engine worldwide since the famed 500 CID V8 that powered Cadillac Eldorados from 1970-76 and other Cads from '74 to '76. Two big differences set the Dodge engine apart, though: First, it was not a V8, but a V10, basically a hopped-up light truck engine from Dodge's Ram Series pickups. Second, while Cadillac's 500 CID V8 was a rather sedate and successively detuned luxury car engine that never exceeded 400 gross horsepower, the Dodge V10 started out at 400 net horsepower in the Viper and makes more than 500 today. In spite of its truck origin, it's a genuine high-performance engine. So, when said automotive writer took his first drive in the Viper, he couldn't wait to really push the red monster convertible hard. First, however, he had to learn to manage the somewhat quirky six-speed manual transmission during downshifts. Having mastered this feat, he took a few easy cruises around town to show off his ride to jaded Munichers, most of whom had no idea what this car was. He got a lot of stares from drivers and pedestrians alike. Needless to say, appreciative looks from the fair sex were more than welcome but, being a professional and a man of principle, he never took advantage of such female admiration (which, in all likelihood, was directed at the car and not the driver, anyway). At a stoplight, a BMW 7-series driver in the next lane asked what car that was, and the writer answered "Dodge Viper" truthfully, even though the vehicle was marketed as a Chrysler in Germany because most Fatherlanders were unfamiliar with the very name of Dodge, let alone the products. After bathing in sunshine and admiration, the writer decided to call it a day. The Viper had performed exceedingly well in dense city traffic with none of the nervous peculiarities usually associated with pure-bred sports cars driven in stop-and-go traffic. No overheating, no rough idle, no nothing. The mighty Dodge ran as smooth as tonic on a bald man's skull, to steal a phrase from every automotive writer's granddaddy, "Uncle" Tom McCahill. In order to conduct the performance segment of the car test with a minimum of fuss, the writer and a colleague got up very early in the morning to take the Viper out to some deserted country roads to see how he (thinking of a Viper as anything other than a hairy-chested male is inconceivable) handled in the curves. The simple answer was: Like a good old-fashioned sports car, with a solid dose of controllable oversteer. Good. Unlike his European counterparts, the 3,500-pound Viper was no airy lightweight, but would always feel - and stay - firmly planted in the pavement. With every mile, the writer's admiration for the car and its makers grew. After all, Dodge had never made a sports car before and, for a first try, this was pure dynamite. The way back to Munich on the autobahn was the perfect opportunity for top speed tryouts, which revealed that the fifth and sixth gear of the transmission were obviously designed to meet California emissions test standards. Performancewise, they served no practical purpose whatsoever. As citybound traffic on the autobahn became denser with commuters, our testers had to go easy on the big V10. Dawdling along in the left lane at 110 mph in sixth gear, the big eight-liter engine turned a mere 3,000 revs. Then, an S-Class Mercedes appeared in the rearview mirror, furiously blinking his headlights to indicate the Viper was supposed to make way, and fast. The Benz came close to rearending the Viper, but to no avail since the right lane was packed. Opportunity knocked. Suddenly, the left lane cleared as far as the eye could see. The writer, determined to teach the Benz driver a lesson, downshifted into third. The engine roared, the rear tires squealed, and the Viper began to accelerate with a violent jolt. In what seemed like the blink of a eyelid, the Dodge reached 140 mph and the Benz looked smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror. The last glimpse of the Mercedes's driver's face showed an expression of utter disbelief, something the writer and his colleague would never forget as they drove towards town, grinning like madmen. Of course, like any car, the Viper wasn't perfect: The 6'4" writer could have used more headroom with the top down. One one occasion, when wearing shorts, he burned his left calf on the hot exposed sidepipe underneath the doorsill. Finally, the Viper had no sound. A musclecar like this with macho looks, power galore, but no exhaust note to match. Disappointing. Other than that, the two weeks with the Viper were some of the most pleasant days in the humdrum life of this automotive writer who often relives that particular summer when taking a trip down Memory Lane.

all around great performance, tight to work on under the hood, interior could be more stylish, gets good highway mileage, maintenance is simple, and the car is an absolute joy to drive, in nice weather. everyone should drive one at least once.