Tag Archives: USA Today

See a Tour of the Dodge Viper Production Plant

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Have you ever wondered how a Dodge Viper is made?

USA Today was given a tour of the Conner Avenue Assembly Plant by FCA US.  It is at this plant where the Viper gets hand-built by plant workers.  What they noticed is that the feeling and the atmosphere of the plant is very different in comparison to many others.  For starters, it is quieter.  That is because the cars put together here aren’t fully automated, it is done by hand by a worker.

“…each worker performs a range of tasks that the company says are comparable to what 150 different workers do at a normal assembly plant.”

The rate that cars are churned out is drastically lower compared to other assembly plants.  Where a normal modern plant is able to get a car off the line every minute, the ones built at the Conner Avenue plant take upwards of 2 and a half hours.

“Over its 20 year history of making Vipers the Conner Avenue plant has produced 24,000 of the cars.  That is a volume that is tiny by almost any measure.  FCA US sold more than 37,000 Ram pickups last month alone.”

The Dodge Viper was never meant to be a large volume seller.  That is what Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis reminds the paper.  One of the biggest appeals of the Viper has been the limited number and the attention to detail paid to it as a result.

This is great news on the cusp of the Viper just getting its newest and fastest version, the Viper ACR.  Check out the rest of the article to see the numerous pictures of the Viper being made.

To find out more about the Dodge Viper SRT, contact us at Bayside Chrysler Jeep Dodge and let us know. Make sure to check out our new and used line-up on our website. Download our mobile app to your smartphone device to keep up to date on special offers at the dealership. Like us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more auto news.

A Look at the Painting of the 2014 SRT Viper

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SRT Vipers are expensive cars.  With that obvious observation out of the way, the reason behind that is more than just the raw power included in the Viper supercar, it is also in the care it takes to make one.  USA Today has a fascinating look at the what it takes to get a SRT Viper painted at a small plant.

Imagine what it looks like when a car is on the assembly line.  We all have an expectation when we think of that.  The car’s body making it’s way down as workers and machines work on various bits and parts while sparks fly around.  A Viper’s production has a major difference from that.  When it comes time to put on the finishing paint job, an average vehicle gets put underneath the sprayers and comes out with a fresh coat.  With a Viper, the paint is applied by hand.

Vipers are special and are treated as such.  For this reason, it takes much longer for a Viper to get out of the plant and into the buyers hands.  The average paint time for a vehicle at a mass-production plant is 8 hours, but here, a Viper can take up to 120 hours to paint.

The attention to detail is incredible to see.  It is clear after reading this article that the care put into making sure the image of the Viper is top-of-the-line for those willing to invest is impressive.  One of the most difficult things for the painters, aside from the actual painting itself, is finding the right colors to make the Viper pop.  Not just any color will do, it has to be something that accentuates the curves and design.  That is one of the reasons why it only  has certain colors available to choose from.  At the Detroit Auto Show, SRT put out an all-new color for the 2014 SRT Viper, Stryker Green.

If you would like more information on the SRT Viper, contact a sales rep at Bayside Chrysler Jeep Dodge. Be sure to like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to see more auto news and our monthly specials.