NY 2012: There's No Dodging New Viper

Stateside sports cars love a drop of poison. But forget your Hennessey Venoms or Shelby Cobras: 2012 is Dodge's Year of the Snake, with the unveiling of the ballistic new Viper. This isn't just a reskinned concept either, what you're feasting your eyes on is the full-blooded production spec model, with carbon fibre and aluminium body panels, a steel frame 50% stiffer than the old car's, and an even more mental evolution of the Viper's legendary V10 motor strapped down in the front, under that slashed and sculpted bonnet.

Breathing in through triple vents, and out via a trademark side-exit exhaust, the SRT Viper is the new king of America's 'no replacement for displacement' muscle car philosophy. The EIGHT POINT FOUR LITRE V10 kicks out 638 horsepower, and there's two ways of looking at that. Either you're bowled over by a Dodge with 20 bhp more than a Ferrari 599, or you're totally 'meh' over it being no stronger than a Corvette ZR1. What there's no arguing with is the torque output though...

The huge 8.4l capacity (think twice the size of an Audi R8 V8 engine combined with the same cylinder count as an R8 V10) means a world record 600 lb/ft of torque from a non-turbo engine. That should be plenty to trouble the Viper's bespoke Pirelli tyres, which measure 355mm at the rear. Given the more exotic body weighs 32% less than the WreckedExotics.com-friendly old car, and you're in for performance about as scary as this thing looks just posing on the show stand. It's dripping with evil and menace, like a TVR Sagaris that's OD-ed on protein shakes.

Inside, Dodge's connection with Ferrari and Maserati has paid off. Leather covers every surface, and the Viper shares its seats with Ferrari's favourite supplier too. The virtual, customisable instrument display from the Dodge Dart, and centre screen with performance readouts like a Nissan GT-R move the game way on from the rough and ready plastic-not-so-fantastic cockpit of the old Viper.

Yet while some elements of the Viper have gone seriously 21st Century, with traction control included and even 18-speaker surround sound, there's still some brilliantly simple details. A manual six-speed transmission (with launch control.) That double bubble roof, and the huge vents behind the front wheels that appear to show the engine compartment trying to tear itself free of the rest of the car.

It's a huge wedge of drama, amazingly still viable in our eco-conscious world, and because it's from the Land of the Free, it's bound to give serious bang for your buck (though I wouldn't hold out much hope on it actually being free, ladies and gents.) God Bless America.

What do you reckon to the 2012 SRT Viper? Steroid special that's had its moment, or the should the Ferrari F12 be afraid? Spit your venom in the comments below...