Viper Quits Racing

[JB400]

http://blackflag.jalopnik.com/breaking-the-dodge-viper-is-finished-with-racing-after-1642959863/+pgeorge


Win the championship and then quit.

[polywideblock]

that way you go out on top

[Bobs69]

Quitters.

[Ghoste]

Thats unfortunate, with the gradual bleeding away of SRT (or at least thats what it looks like to me) and the execs probably asking each other how many cars did they really sell on the back of Viper IMSA wins it isn't a surprise. 
They've pulled out of NASCAR, minimized their drag presence to almost nothing, allowed Mopar Performance to to wither on the vine and now this.
We are either going to get nothing but boring little cars soon or there is a major performance revamp coming.

[1974dodgecharger]

isn't the goal is to get down to 5 cars only and each car has a SRT treatment and everything in between with the engine combos for each car 2.7, 3.5, 5.7, 6.4L etc.?  Makes car building simple for them...you have to figure they now have fiat also to make cars for that can overlap sales hence NO 2 door charger will overlap challenger sales. 

[Mytur Binsdirti]

The Challenger will be picking up the slack.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/dodge-challenger-srt-makes-trans-am-debut/


With Viper sales the way they are, it wouldn't surprise me that it goes bye bye for good.

[Ghoste]

And Challenger in Trans Am may well have better sales draw for the Dodge nameplate overall.  Perhaps Challenger is to be the new halo?

[War wagon]

With the corvette becoming a mid engine supercar in 2017 I don't see the viper continuing production much longer in its current configuration.
It would only make sense to refocus their efforts on the Challenger and trans am racing as well as NHRA events with their new drag pack cars.
Don't be surprised if a new Challenger T/A appears in the near future to compete with the Z28

[Ghoste]

Makes much more sense than competing with Corvette (where the buyers are largely an established and fiercely loyal bunch), especially in a corporate structure that already sees their golden child as the only true sports car producer on the globe.

[Mike DC]

   
The Viper is a halo product.  It was never financially justifiable, it was just about prestige for the brand.

[Mytur Binsdirti]

   
It was never financially justifiable, it was just about prestige for the brand.

The key word is "was".

[Aero426]

that way you go out on top

When Penske won the NASCAR title for Dodge after the company announced withdrawal,  Chrysler pretty much swept that under the rug as fast as they could.     With the Viper,  announcing the bad news two days after winning a major championship is not exactly a "feel good" move either.   Some folks have said the handwriting was on the wall when they elected to skip Lemans this year.   That was back in June.  

Business decision or not,  professional racing on the world stage proves that "you belong".

[Moparman01]

that way you go out on top

When Penske won the NASCAR title for Dodge after the company announced withdrawal,  Chrysler pretty much swept that under the rug as fast as they could.     With the Viper,  announcing the bad news two days after winning a major championship is not exactly a "feel good" move either.   Some folks have said the handwriting was on the wall when they elected to skip Lemans this year.   That was back in June.  

Business decision or not,  professional racing on the world stage proves that "you belong".

Correct me if i'm wrong, but didn't Penske back stab...er...i mean choose to switch to ford thus leaving Dodge with out a team (competitive) to even run in the series? If that A-hole penske hadn't slapped us fans in the face and stayed with Dodge they would still be in NASCAR, maybe even bringing along another team or 2 after winning that Championship. I have pretty much 0 respect for penske, win a major championship (2 if you count Brad K's Busch Series Title in a Challenger), your first and only championships in the series, then leave the make that got you there for another company, stupid! You don't see Hendricks doing that... Dodge was forced out of Nascar unfortunately, i understand why they didn't even try to pick up a small team (read underfunded, under engineered, non competitve) that would run 2 laps down and finish 26th all the time (like Danica LOL).   

[Aero426]

I believe that Penske wanted a deal that was more than Dodge was willing to commit to.    Penske had become the one stop shop for anything Dodge.     Chrysler had all their eggs in that one basket.   That's part is on them.  

I also believe that the new management at Chrysler did not really want to be in NASCAR.     Other teams (not necessarily from NASCAR) were interested in taking over the program "if the money was right".     This one was also called a "business decision".  

Was Penske a bad guy?    He still won Dodge a championship.     He has two drivers contending for another right now.     To your point about running two laps down,  Penske was not willing to take a deal from Chrysler if they were not "all in".    

[Aero426]

Interesting article.

http://www.allpar.com/news/index.php/2014/10/leaving-tudor-behind-the-scenes

[68blue]

Sad, I really like the Gen 4s, particularly the convertible.

[Moparman01]

I believe that Penske wanted a deal that was more than Dodge was willing to commit to.    Penske had become the one stop shop for anything Dodge.     Chrysler had all their eggs in that one basket.   That's part is on them.  

I also believe that the new management at Chrysler did not really want to be in NASCAR.     Other teams (not necessarily from NASCAR) were interested in taking over the program "if the money was right".     This one was also called a "business decision".  

Was Penske a bad guy?    He still won Dodge a championship.     He has two drivers contending for another right now.     To your point about running two laps down,  Penske was not willing to take a deal from Chrysler if they were not "all in".    

Very good points all the way around. I knew that Penske wanted a longer term commitment, like 5 years, and Dodge was only willing to go to 3 years, something like that. I didn't know that meant that Dodge was not "all in", if that was the case. But Penske also wanted the support of other "affiliate" teams like that of Roush Racing, so that was another area that prompted his move. I still don't and never will believe it was the right thing to do on Penske's part, especially when your 2 car Dodge team is beating up on the Hendricks monopoly!! Probably a lot more to the business end of it that i or any of us will ever know, ever since Dodge went out i have payed very very little attention to Nascar since!