Viper Getting a Fiat-Sourced V10?

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 was done for, with Fiat viewed it as too close to Ferrari. Apart from that ridiculous conclusion, it was very likely that the brand could get shuttered by it's new owners. But then - surprise, the Viper's Conner Avenue assembly plant was actually the first Chrysler plant to start producing after bankruptcy.

Now, rumors are swirling of a new Viper V10 based off Fiat's modular V8 architecture. The V10 would be shared between the newly formed company's three high end brands: Ferrari, Maserati and Viper. Each would be different of course, with Car & Driver saying "(there would be a) flat-plane crank for the Ferrari V-8, a conventional cross-plane crank for the Maserati V-8, and pushrod-actuated valves for the balance-shafted Viper V-10."

Regardless of whether this is true or not (I fear this could dilute Ferrari's exclusivity), it sounds like Viper isn't dead yet! It'll be interesting to see what they have in store for the next-generation vehicle itself though, not just it's powerplant.