Latest NEWS! The 2013 Viper will be unveiled at the New York Auto Show in between 6-15 April, 2012.

The 2013 M.Y. Dodge Viper: Latest Clues and Guess Work...

In mid-2010, Ralph Gilles said the 2012-13 Dodge Viper, if approved, would use weight-saving expertise, materials, and technology (but not parts) from Ferrari, with a V-10 derived from the current 8.4L engine. Gilles said the Viper will always be V10 powered, but that there might be a V8 powered sibling (presumably along the lines of the once-proposed, Daimler-rejected Chrysler Firepower). In December 2010, he told Detroit News that "everything would be changed," but it would not be based on Ferrari or Alfa underpinnings; and that the dimensions were quite dissimilar from the Alfa 8C.

Under the hood, the new Viper will have an 8.7 liter V10, according to our sources, versus the already massive 8.4 liter engine used in 2010. Production is expected to start in fall 2012, for the 2013 model year.

Gilles did add in December 2010 that he was looking to Fiat to help tune the new Viper’s chassis, making it more controllable by ordinary drivers, and that it would arrive in 2012 as a 2013 model; it has been in development and has been approved by Chrysler's board.

To better understand high-end sports-car customers, Dodge is surveying owners of competing cars to try and understand what buyers like and dislike about the Viper. Traditionally, when shopping for Vipers, buyers tend to only interact with the brand which puts the model at a disadvantage when compared to competitors that promise offer more refinement. the next Viper, thus, could potentially be less, er, Viper-like, and classier by two-door supercar standards and should offer more in terms of creature comforts than predecessors.

Though the higher-ups in the Dodge hierarchy maintain that the 2013 Viper will still retain every characterizes that has made the vehicle the icon that it is, sources suggest that the new model could also be a completely revamped number built from the ground up to suit a newer generation of drivers. In order to make the car appeal more to a wider target audience, the 2013 Dodge Viper is expected to feature advanced stability and traction control systems, and be offered with more driver aids as well as a redone engine, chassis and interior.

With a more tapered back design and a slightly smaller front air dam and headlights, the testing prototypes of the 2013 Dodge Viper appeared to be in both coupe and convertible chassis orientations. Though the 2013 Dodge Viper will not be powered by a Ferrari-derived power plant, the next Viper is expected to incorporate some of the technical and aesthetic finesse of the Italian supercar brand which could be a huge part of both models which are expected to be launched simultaneously.

Up from 8.4-liters in the outgoing model, the 2013 Dodge Viper is rumored to pack an 8.7 liter engine that would outdo the last models’ 560 lb.-ft. of torque and 600 horsepower output though no horsepower figures have been suggested yet. If the rumor turns out to be true, the 531 cubic inches displacement engine would be the largest version ever used in a production car from Chrysler.

The 2013Dodge Viper is all set to pack in a set of all new, swanky, new-gen gadgetry that would put the classic vehicle at par with its younger counterparts. Aids like electronic stability control may not please the Viper lovers of yore, but we’re told the computer-nannies would only take the performance of the 2013 Dodge Viper to the next level of wonderfulness.

A 2013 Viper prototype was driven into the September 2010 dealer meeting, to the amazement of everyone there. It is apparently a big styling change which was apparently universally esteemed by those who saw it. The looks are more upscale, and the product committee took just five minutes to unanimously approve the car. One observers said it was “dramatic and awesome.”

The 2012 (production) mockup was apparently closer to the second generation Viper in appearance; the main deviation from the second-generation Viper was in the nose. The overhangs are much smaller, though the wheelbase appears to be the same; and there are definite Firepower cues.

One clue as to the new V10 engine was in the Dodge Challenger V10 Drag Pak and Viper ACR-X, which share an 8.4-liter, 512 cubic-inch engine producing 640 horsepower.

Dream Machine Factory - Detroit’s Conner Avenue plant has been used for small-scale specialty production since 1996, producing the Dodge Viper from that time and the Plymouth Prowler from 1997-2002. The Plant is scheduled produce the 2013 Dodge Viper.

In it's heyday the Connor Avenue Plant...

FLOOR SPACE: 392,000 square feet; site spans 27 acres.
CAPACITY: 13 Vipers/day, 20 Prowlers/day (one shift). Annual capacity: 3,000 Vipers, 5,000 Prowlers.
STAFF: 248 employees. Union employees are in local 212. 6,000 training hours were scheduled for 1998.

Building Viper engines.

During Viper and Prowler Construction, circ 1999.