Car Throttle

The much-anticipated GTX from Devon Motorworks (that's actually the correct punctuation) was shown live today at Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Along with new pictures (cue the overwhelming applause), Devon has put out a press release now containing all the important information about the car. Say hello to the "American supercar"! Devon joins the list of American companies like DiMora Motorcar (which I'm going to do a piece on soon) that aim to bring America back into contention in the upper echelons of motoring. To be honest, American brands have been out of the running for a while in high-end luxury and exotic performance circles. Corvette maybe, Ford GT? Other than that, there hasn't been a many. A lot has been said about the way this car looks,

The Dodge "Viper brand" has been on a whirlwind of sorts as Chrysler trudged it's way through financial difficulties and resulting bankruptcy. There is no doubt that the Viper name and the car is iconic - it has tons of fans around the world and the car has helped be a positive light for the Dodge brand. Chrysler recognized this and thought that they could capitalize on it. As a result, they included it in their list of valuable assets and attempted to sell the "brand." Well that didn't work out so well, with only one lowball offer coming in from Devon Motor Works at $5.5 million. Unsurprisingly, that offer was rejected, leaving the future of the brand in doubt. After that, many people speculated the brand

Well this one is a surprise! Chrysler's latest announcement is good news for performance enthusiasts and fans of the Viper sportscar. When Chrysler began to run into serious financial problems and began seeking governmental help (which it received), the company opted to sell all it's valuable assets in a bid to stay afloat. The "Viper brand" was one of those assets. With a brand name as iconic as Viper, I thought it was pretty likely that the brand would find a buyer, even in this current economic climate. That didn't happen though, and it was dragged into Chrysler's bankruptcy proceedings. There it failed to find a buyer as well and (according to Chrysler anyway) it only received one bid, a $5.5 million lowball offer from Devon Motor Works.

Well, what do you know - I could see this one coming! Devon Motor Works' new supercar, the GTX, has been caught testing. Back when the company made it's low-ball $5.5 million offer for the Viper brand, I said it would be a win-win for the company whether they succeeded with the bid or not. Either they would get an incredible deal and end up with the Viper name, or they wouldn't but would get a ton of free publicity anyway. They latter turned out to be the case.  Before that, no one really heard of Devon Motor Works or reported on them at all; now they are. Congratulations for a smart move guys!  I assume they let this car be photographed on purpose; it has received a

As you probably know, Chrysler (well the good parts anyway) have emerged out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy and the partnership deal with Fiat has been completed. Pre-bankruptcy and during bankruptcy, Chrysler publicly stated that it was attempting to sell the Dodge Viper line to another company. It then emerged that the only official bidder was Devon Motor Works, with it's lowball $5.5 million bid for the brand. Apparently, that has been rejected. There has been a number of theories though as to why the Viper brand didn't get sold. Some say that Chrysler has indeed gotten offers for the Viper as high as $30 million, but Fiat was afraid of the Viper competing with Maserati and Ferrari and therefore was discouraging any offers. I'm not sure what exactly

In all the hubbub of the bankruptcies, corporate chatter and Devon Motor Work's bid for Chrysler's (Dodge) Viper I missed something very interesting. What is that? Devon Motor Works itself!  They are a American company aiming to produce a sports car. They've introduced renderings of the car they plan on producing, dubbed the GTX. What's not clear is what they intend to do if their bid succeeds; continue building the Viper as it is or base their car's designs off the Viper's platform while continuing to use the name. Fact is though, the Viper is a good car and is a profitable business so I think it would be a dumb move on their part to mess with that. Devon Motor Works has a goal to break the world lap record for a production car

With Chrysler nearing the end of it's "prepackaged bankruptcy", they are working to wrap everything up for exit. Pre-bankruptcy, one of the assets Chrysler intended to sell was the Viper brand. Chrysler deemed it something that would be attractive to a potential buyer, especially given that sales have held up for it in the midst of all the turmoil surrounding Chrysler's future as well as economic reasons. Chrysler said it identified many interested parties but according to recent documents filed, not many seem to be seriously pursuing a purchase. Only one bidder has submitted an offer, and for significantly less than Chrysler's $10 million asking price. That's pretty shocking given Viper's notoriety! It must have more to do with the economic situation. First off, the $10 million