[Runin11z]

Originally Posted by LOWDOWN

How long can the Viper survive when outrun by a 1/2 price family member? How long will it survive as a few-100-build car? Sales number predict future...or the lack, thereof...

I said it a long time back in this thread that FCA is showing the direction they're going by stuffing 707hp into a Challenger... It was only a matter of time before the Viper would see a substantial HP increase...

Really? Without volume, the special interest models do NOT get built. Those specials are developed from PROFITS. Otherwise, the grapes wither on the vine...

I understand the way it works but not so much in the form of people on a forum bragging that their cars are the top seller... I would think that all the profit made on the 5th gen would have made way for a really unique and "special" ZL1...


Almost all Hemi Cuda convertibles were ordered as SS/EA drag cars. All 20-some over 2 model years...

This may be very well true but it just goes to show where the heritage is with muscle cars and that's on the strip, and out of those 20 how many actually participated in super stock??

1965 Z16 Chevelles were rushed to market and all were built ONE WAY...no posi, power windows, vinyl tops, 4-speed only...ALL 201 of them. But their reception encouraged Chev to expand the program, but build a much more basic car with LOTS of profit-making options...

Fully optioned out as a luxury car, I know but it was not popularly known by the public and that's why there are so many "special muscle cars" from that era... For instance the 9560, not many "average joe's" could even afford one back then and it was the dealers influence not Chevy's to produce such a car... Maybe because they were passionate about the Camaro and not so much about the bottom dollar when it came to profit on these special cars...

And '63 Z11 Impalas, all 57 of them, were built AND sold for one reason only: to qualify for NHRA A/FX competition (mandated by NHRA: minimum build of 50).

Trust me I know what the aluminum sheet metal car was made for...

So, in fact, you mention two cars built expressly for racing, and one (the Z16) which pretty much avoided the track (most of those were sold to "GM insiders", and Joie Chitwood was an "insider").

They might not be mentioned as to what they were sold for but they weren't barn burners from the factory, just like the Z/28, it wasn't until teams got ahold of them and made them extremely competitive with the "traco racing 302s" and fully gutted interiors...