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Viper ACR privateers' Nurburgring runs detailed in new documentary

Discontinued in the summer of 2017, the Dodge Viper is out of production, relegated to the hearts and garages of those who love it. But as a last hurrah, a crowdfunded privateer team took two Viper ACRs to the famous Nurburgring racetrack to both celebrate the Viper's existence and to try and lap the long Nordschleife track in under 7 minutes. Going after the fastest recorded production car lap, they gunned for the Lamborghini Huracan Performante's 6:52 time, but hot August temperatures caused tire problems and the Viper remained on the wrong side of 7 minutes despite the best efforts of ex-Porsche cup driver Lance David Arnold and SRT driver Dominik Farnbacher. In essence, the team ran factory-spec Viper ACR Extremes on factory tires; showroom fresh, the cars were delivered straight from Texas. But despite not getting under the 7-minute mark, they still became the first non-automaker-affiliated team to set an official Nurburgring lap time — and the 7:01.3 they laid down on their best run made the Viper ACR the fastest RWD, fastest manual and fastest American-built car on the track. Now, a full documentary of the record attempt has been released to the public, detailing all the pain and exhilaration that goes into running this kind of cars on their absolute limit on one of the most demanding racetracks in the world. It's 24 minutes of pure excellence. You can also re-view the record lap here in its entirety: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Dodge Videos dodge viper acr

Junkyard Gem: 1991 Dodge Stealth R/T

Chrysler's relationship with Mitsubishi goes back to the early 1970s, when the first Mitsubishi Colt Galants arrived from Japan with Dodge Colt badging. Plenty of Mitsubishi-built Arrows and Ram 50s and Challengers followed, and the joint Chrysler-Mitsubishi plant in Illinois began building cars in 1988. By the 1990s, you could find Mitsubishi DNA throughout the American Chrysler family, and the Mitsubishi GTO was brought over to become the Dodge Stealth starting in 1991. Here's one of those first-year Stealths, now residing in a Colorado self-service boneyard. Four grades of Stealth were available here in 1991, with the R/T Turbo AWD at the very pinnacle. This car, a regular R/T, is one step down from that model but still a pretty quick machine for its time. MSRP was $25,155, or about $55,370 in 2022 dollars. The R/T got this naturally-aspirated DOHC 6G72 engine, displacing 3.0 liters and making 222 horsepower. If you got the turbocharged version in the R/T Turbo AWD (or the Mitsubishi 3000GT VR-4), power went up to 300 horses. The 3000GT (as the GTO was known here) was mechanically identical to this car but had slightly different styling. The GTO/3000GT/Stealth replaced the Mitsubishi Starion and its Chrysler/Dodge Conquest siblings, which were sold here from the 1983 through 1989 model years. The Starion was a rear-wheel-drive machine that competed for sales against the Toyota Supra and Nissan Z, while the Mitsubishi GTO was available with either front- or all-wheel-drive. As illustrated by this photo of the rear suspension, this car is a front-wheel-drive version. Americans loved automatic transmissions 30 years ago, nearly as much as we love them today, but this car has a proper five-on-the-floor manual. If you wanted the optional four-speed automatic, it cost 813 bucks ($1,790 today). The Stealth R/T AWD had a mandatory five-speed manual transmission. This car has been hit hard by junkyard shoppers and the ravages of time, but it was fairly luxurious when new. Air conditioning was standard equipment on the R/T, though not on the lesser Stealths. This car came close to 150,000 total miles, but fell a bit short of that milestone. The final year for the Dodge Stealth was 1996, though the Mitsubishi 3000GT remained available here through 1999. The Mitsubishi GTO held on through 2000 in its homeland. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Outhandles the Lotus Esprit!

Motorweek goes retro with '80s hot hatch shootout

Motorweek's decades of history on television make it the perfect medium to look back into the automotive past and see how things are different now. It recently added old road test videos to its YouTube channel of the Acura NSX and Toyota Supra, as well as the Ferrari F40. For one of its newest flashback clips, Motorweek has exhumed an affordable five-car challenge of 1986's premiere hot hatches.
By today's standards, this is an eclectic field that features fondly remembered classics like the Volkswagen GTI 16-valve and Acura Integra. However, it also throws in some nearly forgotten contenders like the Dodge Colt Turbo and Ford Escort GT. The angular Toyota Corolla FX16 GT-S rounds out the group.
It's fascinating to watch Motorweek run the quintet through the slalom, down the drag strip and on various roads. What's most striking in this clip is the difference in the definition of a performance car between then and now. With its 16-valve, 1.8-liter four-cylinder, the GTI is the burliest of the contenders with 123 horsepower, but it still takes 8.8 seconds to reach 60 miles per hour. By today's standards, that would make it a plain-jane economy car, and not even a particularly quick one.