2006 Dodge Viper SRT-10 Coupe

This car, Lot 131, sold for $56,000, including buyer’s premium, at RM Sotheby’s auction on Amelia Island, FL, on March 8, 2019.

The ’92 Dodge Viper was the incarnation of American excess. It was a V10-powered, rear-drive, roof- and door-less sledgehammer of a car. It had all the subtlety of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos.

There was good reason for this. It was the brainchild of Chrysler’s then-President Bob Lutz — a man not known for being bashful or understated. What’s more, it was built when Chrysler was independent, so there were no German or Italian overlords to nip its production in the bud.

The third generation of America’s most venomous snake (sorry, Cobra) debuted in 2003. Despite the coupe variant selling virtually twice as many examples (6,034 to 3,953) when they were sold side-by-side in Dodge dealerships, it took Chrysler three years to bring back the coupe with this new body. When it did in 2006, it was quite a thing to behold.

Bigger power

In its third iteration, the Viper’s V10 had been bored out to 8.3 liters (505 cubic inches). This push-rod aluminum leviathan turned gasoline first into sound — it has a 62-decibel idle — and then power. It produced 500 horsepower and 525 foot-pounds of torque, which was routed to the rear wheels through a T56 6-speed manual gearbox. As in the earlier cars, clutch, brake and throttle were accessed by the way of adjustable pedals — a feature added to aid heel-toe shifts.

Now dubbed the SRT-10 (Street Racing Technology … 10), the coupe’s body shared little with its older roadster sibling. In fact, the only bits shared between the two were their doors, hood, fenders and front fascia. The rear of the coupe was inspired by the previous-generation Competition Coupe. The V10 got a power boost that year, making 510 hp.

This third-gen coupe featured an aggressive spoiler (a Viper owners’ group demand), shrouded taillights, and, of course, its double-bubble roof — the whole reason the coupe exists, aside from outright sales success with the earlier versions.

Thanks to the helmet-accommodating double-bubble roof, which included an easily removable headliner (a feature, not emblematic of poor design or build quality, I swear), Viper coupe buyers could take their cars to track days. Some tracks won’t let you run a roofless car, after all.

With that track-friendly roof, the coupe only weighed 15 pounds more than the roadster — a small price to pay for the chance to frighten yourself half to death on your local racing circuit.

A lot of people deride the Viper for suffering from snap oversteer, which they sometimes do, despite their 14-inch wide rear Michelin tires. If you keep your wits about you (and don’t mash the throttle pedal all the time), and have the 14-inch-diameter brake rotors gripped by Brembo calipers close at foot, you should remain not sideways.

$600 of yellow

This brings us to this specific Viper SRT-10 coupe. It was originally sold by Roanoke Motor Co. Inc. in Roanoke, IL, for $91,295 — $8,150 over the base MSRP for the coupe.

This one was optioned with the $600 Viper Race Yellow paint as well as the $3,700 Customer Preferred Pack 21A, which included dual black racing stripes and polished aluminum wheels.

Now, if you’re doing your back-of-the-envelope math like I’ve done, you’ll notice there’s a $3,850 price gap between those accessories and the premium the buyer paid over MSRP. Perhaps that’s accounted for by dealer markup.

In its 23 years on the earth, this Viper has had three owners and has 2,741 miles on its odometer from new.

If you’re a keen observer of the Viper market, you might find this specific SRT-10 familiar. That’s because it sold for $57,200 at the RM Sotheby’s Motor City auction in July 2016 (ACC# 6809598).

At that time, it had just less than 2,600 miles on the clock. So, assuming the last owner put 1,800 miles on it and lost $1,200 at the last sale, they essentially paid $1.50 per mile to rent the Viper (not including fuel, insurance, shipping, etc.). If I’m honest, that’s fair; I’d pay a buck fifty per mile to rent a Viper.

Steady as she goes

The Viper was the only V10 American (and inherently most insane) sports car you could buy for 17 years. Dodge only produced an estimated 31,850 in that time, of which just 12,055 were coupes. Considering that, it’s intriguing that their values remain rather flat — if not slightly down.

Adjusting for a few anomalies, the SRT-10 coupe’s values over the past several years run between $30,000 and $85,000, with most falling in the upper-$50,000 range. Given this, this Viper was well bought, especially considering how much more it sold for two-and-a-half years previous.

(Introductory description courtesy of RM Sotheby’s.)