Burn our eyes out now!
Before you start judging our automotive tastes just from the headline of this article, know this: we’re big fans of Porsche 911 Safaris and other sports cars turned into off-roaders. But this Dodge Viper rally fighter just isn’t doing it for us and it’s for multiple reasons. While we’re sure the artist who did this is a nice person and all, but we just can’t condone this type of digital mangling of awesome cars, even if it’s all “in good fun.” After all, someone might get the brilliant idea to make one of these renderings reality and then a serious injury to a Viper will be the result.
First off, we’re not saying this build would be impossible in the real world, but we are saying it would take some serious fabrication work. The most off part is the rear quarter panels and wheel arches. Yeah, there are some black pieces (we’ll assume they’re plastic) in place to help flair out the fenders, but those would essentially replace the factory fenders. It looks like more has been added to the fenders and rear quarter panels, plus the vents are replaced by quarter windows that are a completely different shape. It’s all just… off. Yes, that’s being nit-picky but it’s really bugging us. What can we say? We’re huge Viper fans and this just looks all kinds of wrong.
Then there’s the sides of this creation, which also take huge liberties. Where does that crease just above the rocker that extends onto the door come from and why does it exist? And there’s a notch just below the hood with what might be an exhaust pipe sticking out, maybe so it’s not getting submerged during a water crossing? All this eliminates the coves on the Viper, a detail that’s clean and muscular as well as functional.
Finally, there’s there’s the elephant in the room: Dodge made the Viper to be a wild, untamed beast that’s a tribute to the Shelby Cobra. We’re not sure that same philosophy translates very well to a rally fighter. Yeah, we know this is just an artist playing around, but the whole thing just doesn’t add up at all. There are a lot of other sports cars which would work better for a project like this. Still, an A for effort on this rendering.
