VIPER ROOM Race Car Program Canned by Chrysler & a Recall
On the eve of a win in the inaugural season of the Tudor United Sportscar Championship and a great sales month, Chrysler announced that they would be discontinuing the factory backed Viper GTLM program to focus more on Dodge the brand.
This release followed the earlier statement that there wouldn’t be any Vipers racing at next year’s LeMans and the discontinuation of the Dodge NASCAR program a few years ago.
Here’s what I don’t get though. Chrysler is actually doing quite well right now. Jeep and Dodge are both making fairly good profits. I know racing is super expensive, but with racing is where a company can show just how good their product is. This year, the Viper racecars came in 1st and 3rd and beat out both the likes of Porsche and the ever winning Corvette race team.
They do well, sound amazing, and win. What more could they be asked of? Me and a few other journalists were joking around on Twitter after the news broke and we thought maybe jokingly, since Chrysler is part of the Fiat empire and so is Ferrari, that Marchionne is threatened by the Vipers and cancelled the Viper race program.
At first we were joking, but then it kind of made sense, especially after kicking out the Ferrari race manager, and di Montezemolo a few weeks ago.
It’s very sad, but the Viper has been a complete rollercoaster lately. Super highs, like it’s win at Petit LeMans and me driving a TA, and super lows with production halts, dropping the price, and now a recall.
The recall is due to a faulty sensor within the airbag system. According to Chrysler, they found the problem and found that the faulty sensor might think the occupant was closer to the airbag than reality and may decrease the velocity of the airbag deployment to counter.
According to the company though, no injuries or deaths have been attributed to this faulty sensor. It is however recalling 1,912 cars built from 2012-2014. The fix is fairly easy and done with a small metal shim that allows the sensor to take accurate readings.
This car just can’t catch a break lately, and it’s such a great car. What do you think, is it a conspiracy?
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