Rare car to be crushed. :(

[ls1mike]

Originally Posted By: rjundi
It will make a nice fridge or rebar.....

Eh, I don't know, it isn't some Accord, Camary, Grand Prix or the like. It is a Pre production Viper, a little bit of history mixed in with a bit of mystique and a bit of some people's dreams.

 

[Jarlaxle]

Perhaps...make it vanish one night...stick it in a crate, put that in a container. Ship it to China & sell to the highest bidder.

 

[ls1mike]

Jarlaxle,

For once, ok maybe twice. I like your thinking.

 

[dlundblad]

Very sad. At least save those beautiful bucket seats!

 

[hattaresguy]

Jay Leno has some pretty good connections at Chrysler/Fiat he got one of their turbine cars after all...

Maybe if he gets involved and makes a few phone calls they will donate it to him instead and he can give the school a donation or something like that.

A pre production Viper would fit nicely in with his other Vipers and his low serial number ZR1 Corvette.

 

[97prizm]

Actually Fiat is taking back more than one pre-production Viper. Another article said something on the order of 40 ish were pre-production and they want all of them back. What Chrysler should have done if they didn't want litigation is to make the shop signan agreement that they'd Be given the car and couldn't sue if something happened

 

[Ross]

Back in the early 90's GM had donated a new Geo Metro to a local college shop class. Fast forward to about 2005. I was into Geo Metros and was at the local junk yard when I came across the donated Metro. The shop class had just taken it to the junk yard and i was the 1st to come across it. I don't know if it was in line to be crushed, but a stripped as many parts of it as i could. It had 13 miles on the odemeter. I remember that it had sticker on the windshield saying the car was donated and could not be registered ever.

 

[ls1mike]

Originally Posted By: 97prizm
Actually Fiat is taking back more than one pre-production Viper. Another article said something on the order of 40 ish were pre-production and they want all of them back. What Chrysler should have done if they didn't want litigation is to make the shop signan agreement that they'd Be given the car and couldn't sue if something happened

This is true. 93 of them to be exact.

 

[The_Jeff]

Originally Posted By: NMBurb02
Originally Posted By: eljefino
It's not street legal, and legitimate owners of Vipers with VINs will have diminished value if this one is allowed to be licensed.

If one buys a print that's number 237 out of 500, and then discovers there were really 520, they'd feel a little ripped off.

Not to mention the CAFE snafus etc of revising a motor company's production after-the-fact. Having a donated-loaned $80k car in their hands for 20 years was nice enough.

Didn't Shelby "find" some Cobra chassis way later and (try to) sell them?

These cars were pre-production prototypes and it's a good thing they weren't sold to the public, lest they be unreliable or unsafe and tarnish what was going to be a "halo car". Saturn had some engine block porosity issues so they turned lemons into lemonade by making "cutaway" cars for the dealer sales floor.

I don't think a pre-production car would be labeled 520 of 500. As a pre-production car, I don't think it would even be numbered, kind of like an artist's pre-painting sketches or pre-sculpture miniature. And I'm willing to bet that Viper owners understand that Chrysler made pre-production models and didn't promptly load them up with TNT and blow them away. It's not even in the same realm as a production Viper, even if it's just because it doesn't have emissions controls and a speed limiter. The fact that it's not street legal makes it that much more special and collectible, not less.


I'm talking about customers who bought regular production. If extra cars suddenly flooded the market that were "forgotten about" that would be a rip off.

Same as people turning Lemanses into GTO clones, it steals thunder/ perceived rarity from real GTOs.

 

[rjundi]

It is not abnormal to keep one(they likely have it) and crush the rest. Preproduction models have a short life, this one escaped the crusher back in the early 1990's.

 

[jeepman3071]

We live in such a wasteful society.

I hope the car goes to a museum. I definitely would support a petition if they put one out.

It is sad that we live in a world where you can't even hand someone a cup of coffee without worrying you might get sued. I fail to understand how a company that puts out a product is to blame if an accident occurs because of the driver's recklessness. Nobody takes responsibility for their own actions anymore. I guess I better not run with scissors, or I might have to sue the scissor company if I trip.

 

[andrewg]

Going against the grain here but why all the fuss? It's just a car. It's not a big deal, is it? It's served it's intended purpose.
Have we gotten so wrapped up into the automobile that we must worship a 1992 Dodge Viper?
Just my opinion.

 

[jeepman3071]

Originally Posted By: andrewg
Going against the grain here but why all the fuss? It's just a car. It's not a big deal, is it? It's served it's intended purpose.
Have we gotten so wrapped up into the automobile that we must worship a 1992 Dodge Viper?
Just my opinion.


I don't think it is necessarily the car, but the fact that the company that produced it 22 years ago feels it needs to be crushed because it *might* pose a safety risk. This is ridiculous, considering it is being used as an educational tool by students, not a daily driver on public roads. I bet Chrysler doesn't even carry some of the parts for cars they produced 22 years ago.

 

[NMBurb02]

Originally Posted By: andrewg
Going against the grain here but why all the fuss? It's just a car. It's not a big deal, is it? It's served it's intended purpose.
Have we gotten so wrapped up into the automobile that we must worship a 1992 Dodge Viper?
Just my opinion.

True.

And while we're at it, we should clear out every museum and private collection of every rare item that has "served it's intended purpose" and just scrap it all. Too much clutter lying around.

 

[andrewg]

Originally Posted By: NMBurb02
Originally Posted By: andrewg
Going against the grain here but why all the fuss? It's just a car. It's not a big deal, is it? It's served it's intended purpose.
Have we gotten so wrapped up into the automobile that we must worship a 1992 Dodge Viper?
Just my opinion.

True.

And while we're at it, we should clear out every museum and private collection of every rare item that has "served it's intended purpose" and just scrap it all. Too much clutter lying around.

So the solution is to idolize every heap of metal simply because it is "rare" or unavailable anymore? Sounds almost like hoarding to me. It's a '92 Viper for crying out loud.
Look, I'm VERY big on preserving history. I always have been and always will be. But the lack of any real significance of this car is fairly evident. Plenty of Vipers exist...some FAR more unique and valuable than this one and safely in collections. The purpose of this vehicle...as well as many, many more that Dodge donated to schools....was for vocational use. The liability is on Dodge if this vehicle gets on the street. It's perfectly understandable in todays society the concerns they have. The least this school can do for getting to use this vehicle FOR FREE, is to comply with Dodge.

 

[babyivan]

Originally Posted By: apwillard1986


However, I find the college’s uproar ironic since the article indicates the brought this decision upon themselves. Seems to me if they where that important to the institution to which they where donated that institution would have taken steps to keep two other similar cars form “getting loose and into wrecks”.


It was two DIFFERENT schools that had car accidents with other Vipers, this school had NO accidents, so they are not at fault!

Chrysler donated other Vipers to schools around the country, 93 in total.

You shouldve watched the video, reading the article alone didnt explain that part as well.

 

[mrsilv04]

If I were the person in charge at that college, I'd tell Chrysler to send a flatbed to come get it at their expense, and then they can do whatever they please with it, once it leaves the college property.... and that I wouldn't have anything else to do with the car.

 

[spasm3]

Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
If I were the person in charge at that college, I'd tell Chrysler to send a flatbed to come get it at their expense, and then they can do whatever they please with it, once it leaves the college property.... and that I wouldn't have anything else to do with the car.


How about , we just can't find it!! We looked and we don't know where we left it.

 

[pottymouth]

I don't get all the controversy here. Chrysler generously donates vehicles to this school, one being a Viper. The agreement has a provision that allows them to demand the vehicle be destroyed. Chrysler has chosen to use that provision.

The school should simply comply with Chrysler's request and be done with it. Let's keep in mind that the car would likely have been destroyed by Chrysler years before if it had not been loaned to the school. Just like so many other pre-production vehicles.

 

[dlundblad]

Originally Posted By: jeepman3071
Originally Posted By: andrewg
Going against the grain here but why all the fuss? It's just a car. It's not a big deal, is it? It's served it's intended purpose.
Have we gotten so wrapped up into the automobile that we must worship a 1992 Dodge Viper?
Just my opinion.


I don't think it is necessarily the car, but the fact that the company that produced it 22 years ago feels it needs to be crushed because it *might* pose a safety risk. This is ridiculous, considering it is being used as an educational tool by students, not a daily driver on public roads. I bet Chrysler doesn't even carry some of the parts for cars they produced 22 years ago.


That being said, I can think of quite a few cars, that happen to be street legal, that could be a HUGE safety risk. Heck, at that rate they might as well ban vehicles without airbags..