What Ever Happened To The Dodge Viper Defender From The TV Show Viper?
The list of television series centered on fast cars is long if not particularly illustrious: Knight Rider, The Dukes of Hazzard, and Route 66 immediately come to mind. A more recent example is the short-lived crime series Viper, which aired on CBS and NBC over four seasons between 1994 and 1999. The specially engineered Dodge Viper Defender at the heart of Viper boasted features like armor plating, hovercraft mode, missile launchers, lasers, and a cloaking device. The show featured some spectacular special effects, including a morph sequence for the car. For fans of the show or Hollywood memorabilia in general, one of the 14 cars from the series recently went up for auction on Bring a Trailer, and unsurprisingly was snapped up quickly by an eager buyer.
It was described as built on a 1993 Dodge Viper RT/10 chassis with a 360cc Chrysler V8 engine and 727 automatic transmission, which are both very common and easily serviceable drivetrain components. The custom-built silver fiberglass body was made for the show by Unique Movie Cars in Las Vegas, and the chassis is a stretched version of a stock Viper with customized braking, suspension, and steering components.
The car is highly modified and is not street legal
Designer Steve Ferrerio helmed a team of Chrysler engineers who built the car for Unique Movie Cars, and the auctioned-off model included simulated monitor displays of system diagnostics but did not have any functioning climate control, radio, or seat belts. Photos show a 180mph speedometer and a 7krpm tachometer, but it is not known if they were functional. The six-digit odometer shows just 190 miles, which presumably were put on during filming.
The vehicle was offered without a serial number or title, only a promotional booklet, bill of sale, and a set of cast photos from the series. The winning bid was a little more than $140,000.
In another bit of Viper-related news, a Canadian lawyer is in hot water for falsifying documents related to the sale of other cars from the show. According to the Seattle Times, attorney George Lalonde has been sentenced to 18 months of home confinement for his part in fraudulently setting up companies and producing documents to help sell 72 vehicles from the series. The vehicle sales reportedly generated profits of about $500,000 CDN (The series was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia.)