The 2008 Dodge Viper ACR Was a Crazy, Hardcore, Track Car

this is a 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR and it's an absolute Menace the regular Viper is already pretty insane with a big V10 manual transmission few driving AIDS and small sizing but this the ACR took things to a whole new level the ultimate track focused Viper today I'm going to review this Viper a CR and show you all of its quirks and [Applause] features before I get started big news this Viper ACR is currently for sale and you can buy it on cars and bids this is a really special ACR with reasonably low mileage and basically no modifications and it's the ultimate Viper from this era and you can buy it on cars and bids so once you finish watching this video click the link in the description below to visit the live auction for this Viper ACR where you can bid on it and buy it only on cars and bids all right time for the quirks and features of the Viper SRT10 ACR and I'm going to start with one of my favorite exterior quirks which is the stripe that's going down the middle of the car you can see the red stripe that matches the side of the car and it goes all the way down the center and even includes the steering wheel there is a red stripe of leather perfectly sized and placed to match the red stripe going down the entire car it is a fantastically cool piece of design and a wonderful little piece of attention to detail this added stripe for the steering wheel now of course you can see the stripe also goes all the way down the body and onto the rear wing which is Absolut abely massive most people know only two things about this car number one it is a track focused weapon and number two it has a giant rear wing and it really does it goes the entire way across the sides of the car actually sticks out further than the majority of the side and it's incredibly tall it is a huge rear wing intended to provide as much downforce as possible and it's adjustable you can see you can undo these screws and then adjust the angle of the wing for your perfectly tailored track setup I suspect the vast majority of owners of these cars have never done that and will never do that and didn't even know they could but they can now on the subject of the rear of the ACR one fantastic Quirk is that the third brake light lights up as the Viper logo not just some generic third brake light you can see the Viper logo in the center and then you put on the brakes and it says Viper what is this car Viper and it reminds you of that every single time you press the brakes which is actually a pretty cool piece of attention to detail and a nice touch a less nice touch is the fuel door which you can see is completely Chrome on the side of the car it almost looks like some weird aftermarket thing but in fact it is not that is the factory fuel door situation in the ACR and of course there are other important exterior items to mention one is the front chin spoiler which you can see is very low and very wide goes across the entire front end of the car sticks out pretty far but it has its purpose same deal with the canards you can see Mountain kind of on the sides of the front bumper these are all here to increase downforce in conjunction with the rear wing Dodge says the goal of all these parts was to add a, pounds of downforce to the ACR which would have been 10 times what you got in the standard Viper that's pretty impressive and they were able to do that to maximize downforce as much as possible with all these additions and changes to the ACR on the outside went further than just that stuff you also had distinctive wheels these wheels were only offered on the ACR and they were forged lightweight aluminum wheels that allowed Dodge to save weight compared to the standard card now the ACR also had had upgraded brakes and different tires from the regular Viper all of which were aimed at obviously improving performance but also saving weight and the overall result was that the ACR weighs about 40 lbs less than the standard Viper now that doesn't sound like much especially because it still weighed about 3,500 lb but it's a pretty impressive figure considering all the stuff they added the rear wing the front chin spoiler various other parts were added and so to add all that stuff and still subtract weight is a pretty neat trick and if you wanted you could lose even more weight from the ACR Dodge offered this with a hardcore package and if you opted for that you ditched the stereo system the whole audio system all the speakers which is an obvious weight savings measure you also ditched the tire inflator and they took out some sound deadening carpeting all in the pursuit of the lowest possible curb weight very few people of course opted to get the hardcore package but if you did you were especially hard core and especially lightweight and on the subject of options for the ACR I have the original window sticker for this one now ACR as a trim level was actually sold as an option package called the competition group it cost over $112,000 extra back in 20 8 that was a pretty big deal and the goal was that the ACR was supposed to come in at under 100 Grand and they succeeded it doing that when you add the 12 grand for the ACR package to the base price you came out to about $98 $999,000 so it was right at $1,000 back in 2008 now this particular car has a few extra options beyond that that took the total to about 103 but that's where the pricing was back then now as you can see the competition group as it's labeled on the window stick added a lot of the stuff that I've already mentioned improved brakes the rear wing the front splitter Etc it also deleted the fog lights as you can see go around to the front there's a spot for him but no fog lights I guess to save weight and it added this cool ACR badge to the side of the car now the ACR wasn't badged in any other way except for this badge on the side nothing in the rear nothing in the front not that you really needed it because the moment you saw this massive wing you knew you were looking at an ACR now since I'm covering changes to the ACR over the standard car it's worth pointing out that one interesting thing about the Viper ACR even though it was the high performance top range track Focus fast model there weren't any changes under the hood compared to the standard Viper apparently for such a small volume model the Viper and such a small volume trim level the ACR dodged it want to go to the trouble of recertifying the engine for sale with Regulators so you got the exact same powertrain as the standard Viper then again you didn't really need much more 8.4 L V10 with 600 horsepower and 560 lb feet of torque an absolutely massive powertrain on paper and in practice you can see it is completely huge under this long Viper Hood you ever wonder why the hood in vipers is so long now you know the engine is huge it really does take up all of it and you can see it's printed Viper on one side and Viper on the other side and in the front V10 8.4 L and that way it doesn't matter what direction people Approach at cars in coffee when you're displaying it with the hood up they will see that it's either a Viper or an 8.4 l M10 a lot of bragging going on under the hood then again it kind of deserves to now one of my very favorite things about this Hood engine situation in the Viper is that accessing the engine getting under the hood does not require you to go inside the car instead there's a latch here on the driver's side in the front grill all you do is pull that that's your hood latch in most cars that's the thing that's in the driver's footwell but here it's on the outside of the car accessible to anyone you pull that and the hood pops open a little bit and then you kind of slide your hand underneath the rim of the hood until you find a little depression that's carved out that's where the secondary latch is you go in there you move it and then you open up the hood you do not need to access the car itself in order to get under the hood and into the engine you can do it all from outside which is definitely rather quirky now another rather quirky exterior element of this car is of course the side exit exhaust this has always been a Hallmark on viper models they had been doing it for years even when this one came out and it's right there next to the doors now the drawback here is the exhaust gets rather hot and so when you're climbing out of the car you could easily put your leg the inside of your calf on the exhaust and burn it and indeed this was a problem in a lot of early wipers so to address that they did nothing they just stuck a warning label in the door jam that reminds you do not stick your leg there because it will be burned it is a massive warning label it is on both driver and passenger side I do not know if it was actually effective at getting people not to burn themselves but it's there just to keep you safe now on the subject of getting in this car the door handle situation here is kind of unusual you can see there's no door handle mounted in the usual SP spot instead it's at the very top of the door and interestingly it's electronic so with the doors unlocked you push down on this little door handle panel and then it electronically pops the door and then you open it up from there there's no mechanical opener once you've opened the door you can climb inside and see this car's interesting and crooky interior so you climb inside the ACR and the first thing you notice is well the seat which is a tight bucket seat intended to keep you in place when you're on the racetrack you can see Alcantara seat centers instead of leather to provide more friction so you don't slide around and holes in the back rest where you can mount a racing harness this car was ready to go racing and the seat shows that very clearly next you have the steering wheel and you can see the Red Stripe from the inside which also serves as a steering wheel centering tool with your hand overand in a tight corner and you can see in your periphery where the center is which is always a little useful and of course in the middle you have the Viper logo but maybe more prominent than that is this giant wide center console which of course includes a six-speed manual transmission all vipers had a manual transmission this one was of course no exception six-speed manual only in the ACR and you can see the shifter right here in the center pointed towards the driver get ready to shift now also in this center console you got a few other interesting items you got window switches here of course driver and passenger side you have your parking brake you have this little panel located next to the shifter which you may think is just a blank switch but you push on it and it's actually a cigarette lighter style outlet and one thing I love on that subject is in the very center of the center console you can see this circle cut out here that's not for a cup holder instead it's an ashtray they figured the kind of people who are driving these cars they're not going to be sipping on an espresso as they drive to work they're going to be chomping on a cigar and they they need an ashtray and so that's in the center console you also have a little center console storage area in here you can open it up and see well there's a little place where you can put stuff if you want to next up going up the center control stack you can see on the left side very distinctive you have four gauges that all show important information temperature battery vol Vol and the uppermost gauge actually kind of splits off it creates a bump at the top of the center control stack just to look cool and be special now at the bottom of these gauges you have a bright red engine start button but this car comes from the era before proximity key so you actually have to stick the key inside the steering column twist it and then press the engine start button it actually added steps to the process of starting the car but it certainly looks cool now also in the the center console you can see your climate controls your air conditioning fan speed Etc all that typical stuff there and this particular Viper also has an aftermarket infotainment screen here which is one of the only modifications to this car and of course makes it a little bit more usable to drive around not that usability is a common thing people are thinking about with the ACR now when you look at this center console and the center control stack that I already mentioned you'll notice it's pretty cheap you have a lot of cheap plastic not particularly attractive looking stuff in here on the dashboard the steering wheel the steering column the stocks you pressed for the signals and the wipers basically all the controls are pretty cheap looking inside this car they're not particularly high-end but that was kind of the point of the Viper this car wasn't intended to be a European luxury sports car with the finest equipment this was supposed to be a basic barebone sports car that only had what you need plus a lot of performance and speed and engine that was always the unique selling point of the Viper and for years that's exactly what they delivered it was cheap speed 100 Grand not really cheap but compared to its performance level and its Rivals it was a bargain you were just kind of putting up with a less than beautiful interior but anyway Beyond a tour of what the buttons do and the materials there are some interesting crks in this interior let's start with the floor mats which have the Viper logo they say ACR and then 133 these floor mats come from the ACR 133 Edition which was built to commemorate the acr's lap record at lagona Sea in a minute and 33 seconds now this particular ACR is not a 133 Edition but it has the floor mats however the standard floor mats are also included with the car you can see them here they have the regular Viper logo on them which of course if you flip over it's an image of Daffy Duck this has become relatively well documented it's kind of funny laughable but that is the situation with the Viper logo for this generation of Viper the upside down Daffy Duck logo now you also have that logo on the accelerator pedal which is pretty cool not the brake pedal not the clutch just the accelerator with the Viper on it so you'd press the Viper every time you want to go fast another interesting quirk in the interior of this Viper this switch is not the power windows switch even though it looks like the power windows switch it's unlabeled and it's right by the windows instead the window switch is in the middle like I already showed you the switch on the door here that's the power lock switch and when you press it nothing at all happens because this car has electronic doors and electronic door locks you don't hear the traditional old school mechanical door lock sound so when you unlock the doors the only knowledge you have that they're unlocked is a little message that comes up in the gauge cluster next to the odometer that says door unlocked when you lock the doors again that message goes away although one thing I find funny is when you open the doors the message returns and says door a jar and you can see the message displays horizontally for unlocked and vertically for a jar using the same word door they didn't really have space to put door on there twice so they just made it all once you can have door a jar door unlocked or both at the same time and finally we move on to the cargo area the tailgate of the Viper which is shockingly large you open it pretty standard way there's a little rubber button popper back here but it's incredibly heavy large and difficult to open this is already a pretty big panel because it's not only just a trunk but also a tailgate with the rear glass included but then you add on the acr's rear wing and it really is pretty heavy it's not the easiest thing to open and when it's open it opens tremendously High much taller than meat taller even than the tailgate and cargo areas in a lot of SUVs you got to kind of be careful when you open it to make sure you're not in somewhere with low ceilings where you will scrape that giant carbon fiber wing on the ceiling it really opens that high but once you get in here you can see nothing particularly interesting although a few items worth noting for one the cargo area is open to the inter interior so if you had some giant thing that you wanted to go all the way through into the into the passenger compartment if you wanted to carry around Lumber in your ACR you could be doing that you also have a reasonably large sized cargo area for a vehicle that is so track focused and high performance there's decent space back here so you could have luggage for two people go on a weekend trip if you wanted not that you would ever find anyone who is willing to do that with you if you are driving around in this hardcore car also back here you will notice the tire inflator that's included in all of these since they don't have a spare tire they get the inflator instead and like I said if you got that hardcore package you would delete that tire inflator but it's here in this car and in most of these nonetheless even though it doesn't have the hardcore package it's still pretty hardcore a big old V10 and by the way I forgot to let you hear it so take a listen to a few RS from the side pipe so there it is the Viper SRT10 ACR now I'm going to go and drive it around regular city streets and get nowhere near its capabilities but it'll be interesting to get behind the wheel let's do it all right driving the AC CR I have actually driven one of these from this generation before so I have a pretty good idea of what to expect which is of course brutality and that really is kind of the overarching theme of this car from the moment you get inside you start the big engine which makes a lot of sound and then you just start driving it and everything is kind of brutal about this car which is to say the clutch pedal is heavy um shifter is actually pretty easy to deal with but the hood is long the sound is massive the wing is huge like everything is just meant to be as as it possibly can be you're sitting in a tight interior there is not Comfort is not a particularly strong or important goal for this car um and indeed that's also true of the ride quality which is Harsh and again not a particularly strong goal this car trying to make it Supple or comfortable or or even competent when you sit at idle the car you feel idle like the car it it's not shaking or anything but you hear it you feel it it makes a sound like this is a if your sensibilities are based on the fact that you want something nice and comforting that'll coddle you on the road when you're cruising around even in a sports car that's for the 911 that's for even the Corvette compar compared to this like this is a brutal Beast of a thing and when you go over bumps and everything I mean yeah the ride quality is rough but also like stuff rattles stuff I mean this car was not meant to design to be like the nicest it was designed to be the most forceful and it is that oh man just sticking it in gear like you feel like you're doing something you're sitting here looking out over this narrow opening like it's almost amazing how uncompromised this car really is it does remind me of a GT3 RS or it's not quite on the level of a race car but you kind of get the concept that you're not really all that far behind um it is tight in here it is I mean I I'm sitting in here and I I feel fine in terms of head room and stuff but in terms of visibility uh in terms of like leg and seat position this thing is not designed for anything other than like really serious track use and I read I was reading reviews of the car to kind of get all the information about it and I read one of them quoted someone high up at chry who said this car is the next thing from a racetrack this is not a grocery getter this is not really for the street and that's exactly right I mean you can do it but you're going to get beat up and it's going to feel pretty brutal of course the the hilarious thing is it still has the famous Viper skip shift where um if you're in first gear and you and you keep the revs low it kind of forces you into fourth in order to conserve fuel economy as if that was a a big component of what people were thinking about when they were getting one of these man the driving Sprint I mean it's just so rough and it's so loud and the fuel economy is so bad and you're just making so many compromises and sacrifices in order to really you know have this ultimate car so driving it in normal day-to-day life is just silly like there's no point in doing that you're you're it's too compromised you can really get a sense of the acceleration pretty quickly and this is a pretty brutal car so when you do go fast oh you want to roll onto the throttle now acceleration is fantastic in this car not only is it quick but just the way it builds power is wonderfully you're not waiting for turbos to spool you're not getting a lot of power out of a smaller engine and you know feeling it do its thing kind of and try to mimic the bigger engine which often works well but in this car there's not even a concept of that you got 8.4 L you just start to put your foot down and you hear it oh and it just does what it's supposed to do it displacements you right into the the power Zone and boy does it feel quick I'm not able to really enjoy this car where it meant to be enjoyed which is like a serious kind of racetrack setting or Canyon roads with no one on them like this car is basically wasted just about anywhere else but it is certainly an ultimate experience and if you want sort of a no compromises I can handle anything brutality I mean this gives those GT3 RS guys a run for their money they think they're hardcore get into an ' 08 ACR and so that's the Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR the ultimate Viper from its day this is a fantastic car and wonderfully track focused and amazingly capable if you can handle it and you can buy this ACR on cars and bids and now it's time to give this Viper a Doug score and the Doug score is here 60 out of 100 which puts the Viper ACR here against some similar cars it actually does amazingly well considering its age it's only two points behind the C7 Corvette Z6 which came out a decade later which is proof of just how insane and ridiculous the acr's performance was at the time the drawback of course is livability the daily score is only 21 out of 50 which ties the 2005 4 GT and I think that's right the vapor has more cargo space than the GT but otherwise it's simply more brutal in nearly every way of course that's also what makes it awesome [Applause] [Music]

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 337,119

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Id: fisYRhmQj_Q

Length: 25min 21sec (1521 seconds)

Published: Thu May 16 2024