Driving Sports

The New York Times reported last week that GM's new hot rod Camaro is a big hit in its first month on the market. GM dealers have been selling out of the retro-musclemobile and the company has only a six day supply of Camaros in hand right now.

And then Chrysler announced today that the uber-muscle Dodge Viper will live on past its planned December 2009 cutoff, and Chrysler will not sell the Viper production line and trademarks as they had expected. It turns out the new owners at FIAT decided that the Viper is a valuable brand - and they're right.

“The Dodge Viper has successfully captured the hearts and imagination of performance enthusiasts around the globe,” said Mike Accavitti, President and Chief Executive Officer, Dodge Brand. “We’re extremely proud that the ultimate American-built sports car with its world-class performance will live on as the iconic image leader for the Dodge brand."

Introduced as a concept car in 1989 at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, the Dodge Viper was designed and engineered to test public reaction to the concept of a back-to-basics, high-performance, limited production sports car. The reaction was so overwhelming that customer orders began to flow in even before the auto show was over.

For 2009, the Dodge Viper SRT10 offers outrageous power, with an 8.4-liter, 600-horsepower V-10 engine contributing to blistering acceleration (0-60 mph in less than four seconds, 0-100-0 mph in the low 12-second range), setting an American sports car benchmark.

Don't think about fuel economy or greenhouse gases - that's not what the Viper is about. The same goes for the Dodge Challenger, GM's Camaro and Corvette, and Ford's GT500 and Mustang GT. These are all cars that the Big 3 need to produce to generate some excitement about their brands - so the guy driving around in a Cobalt or a Focus can feel a connection to the brand.

I spent the last week driving a new 2010 Dodge Challenger SRT8 - and I'll post a complete review of that car later today. But for right now, I want to focus on the challenges and opportunities ahead for the American auto industry. Yes, they absolutely have to deliver high-quality fuel efficient small cars in large numbers. They need to keep current with the state of the art in hybrids, plug-in hybrids, battery-electric vehicles, flex-fuel and clean diesel technology. They need to do all that responsible stuff, but they also need to be cool. They need to have something sexy and altogether rakish in their lineups to capture people's imaginations, and that's what these unapologetic muscle cars can do for them. These cars are produced in very low numbers - since 1992 only 25,000 Vipers have been made!  But they send a message to the world that Detroit can produce a car that will take your breath away - and they need that to succeed.