With the current Dodge Viper SRT10 facing the chop—production ends next year with just 500 model-year 2010 cars to be built—Dodge has decided to give it a smokey sendoff with some tweaks to the ACR package which on Tuesday helped set an unofficial production-car lap record at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Meanwhile, rumors continue that the Viper is being considered for a relaunch sometime in the next few years, possibly leveraging components from Fiat Group’s Ferrari and Maserati subsidiaries.

“We’re going to keep Dodge’s performance icon alive and well by not only producing some of the most special Vipers ever built, but we’re also investigating what the next-generation Viper is going to be,” said Ralph Gilles, president and CEO, Dodge Brand and senior vice president, product design office, Chrysler Group LLC. “When we have partners across the ocean who are known as the best sports-car makers in the world, the future opportunities are huge.”

So far neither Chrysler nor Fiat have elaborated. With Ferrari fully transitioned to all-aluminum spaceframe construction, it’s hard to imagine a Ferrari-based Viper appearing at anywhere near the $92,735 base price of the 2009 Viper SRT10 coupe. More likely is a Viper spun off of an all-steel platform as currently used by Maserati. Chrysler explored broadening the Viper range a few years ago with its Firepower concept, which mated a 6.2-liter Hemi V-8 to the Viper chassis as a less-expensive Corvette competitor. It never happened.

Full Story Via CarandDriver.com

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