Have you ever seen a daily-driven Dodge Viper? I hadn’t either until yesterday when, in Santa Monica, California, I stumbled upon the roughest roadworthy supercar I’ve ever seen. Here’s a look at this beat-to-hell first-generation Dodge Viper, whose owner I have a deep respect for.
A major downside of supercars is that they’re typically too impractical and valuable to drive each day, which is a shame because they’re such a joy to whip around. The owner of this Dodge Viper that I spotted last night, though, clearly lives by their own rules, as the rough shape of the supercar makes it clear that this thing is a daily driver and not a garage queen.
I actually spotted this Viper shortly after seeing a mint condition 20-year-old Honda CR-V, leading me to wonder if I’m living in some kind of alternate universe. And an amazing alternate universe, because for years I have lamented how important, high-volume cars for the masses are rarely preserved while less culturally important sports cars that are awesome to drive are rarely driven.
The owner of this Viper gets it:
It’s a first-gen Viper that I spotted in a Santa Monica parking garage, and right away I noticed a bit of a “cateye” — the fiberglass hood had cracked in such a way that it appeared to add a little taper to the outside of one of the Viper’s headlights.
Those headlights, by the way, are thoroughly faded, and they don’t seem to fit quite right in their housings (which by the way, are surrounded by plenty of just-not-quite-right touch-up paint):
There was quite a bit of this not-quite-a-color-match touch-up paint, in part, because this Viper is covered in scrapes and bruises and cracks. And I mean covered:
The passenger’s side of the front bumper has been through some stuff, and much of the turn signal lens just isn’t present:
Here’s some not-quite-right touch-up paint on the front right “fender”:
Here are some scuffs that appear to be either from a black car’s bumper or from a tire:
The mirrors are thoroughly scratched:
The rear trunk lid has a big touched-up crack in it:
The passenger’s side exhaust appears to have hit something, with the surrounding black paint thoroughly scuffed:
And I’m not entirely sure what’s going on near the front of the driver’s side exhaust pipe — did it melt the surrounding trim? Is that what’s going on here? Why is all this white?
The paint’s clearcoat is peeling:
And each rather filthy wheel has had its fair share of curb run-ins:
Then there’s the interior, whose seats are covered in duct tape and whose speakers are missing their grilles:
This Viper, outfitted with dealer plates, is possibly the most amazing Viper I’ve ever seen. It’s actually being driven, like the car-gods intended. Is this owner probably having to make major compromises just to get around? Sure. There’s not a lot of room in a Viper. Is the vehicle worth a lot less than if it had been stored in a garage? Definitely.
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But a garage queen is just artwork, and a daily driver is an actual car. Much respect to whoever this is who has decided they want their supercar to be an actual car.
Does the poor shape explains being daily driven? or the dodgey quality of most chrysler products, because yes the exterior suggests some war scars, but the interior screams chrysler quality – I have seen so many dashboards turned into … biscuits.
Too bad that the Chrysler drivetrains are not exactly bad
To be fair that “interior” has probably been exposed to far more UV damage than most cars. And probably some water.
That’s certainly a way to get around the inconvenience of no roof and no door handles. You could park that pretty much anywhere and not worry about it.
First Owner: Put on 11,000 miles in 7 years, got bored when he realized his ‘Vettes were better.
Second Owner: Pensioner who’s mid-life crisis comes a bit late and plunks down big money on a mint, perfectly maintained Viper. Promptly loses the ability to drive anything harder than a CRV and sells it on after the wife henpecks the fuck out of him. 3 years, 300 miles.
Third Owner: Moderately successful small business or middle-management, just got a big raise and wants to enjoy it. Drives it near-daily, but a busy life and not-quite-flush bank account lead to deferred maintenance. 10 years, 150,000 miles.
Fourth Owner: Underworld figure, either drugs, human trafficking, or plain ‘ol outfit. Pays a used-car dealership 5 figures for it, uses it on some jobs, does most of the body damage. 3 weeks, 3,000 miles. Sells it for bail money.
Fifth Owner: Some punk-ass kid from the suburbs with 3 grand burning a hole in his pocket. Buys it on Craigslist from the fourth owners’ baby momma. Title? We don’t need no stinking title. 5 years, 2,000 miles ‘cuz it’s broke and so is he.
Sixth Owner: David Tracy. Provides hilarious content for 2 years.
Wait, it’s not a Jeep and it has some panels that are full of rust holes. I know David from Jalopnik, has he changed that much since he came here?
David has become a full adult. Getting married soon, has pets that he takes care of, is selling vehicles, no longer spends all weekend working on rusted out jeeps but instead goes for hikes.
This reminds me that we need a cat report!
Cool. I enjoyed David at Jalopnik and came here eventually to see what he is up to. I’m glad he’s doing well.
Reminds me of a good friend from high school named David that also transformed from an epic car geek to a great father and husband around DT’s age.
It’s not a Jeep but David could be the
firstsecond? person to put a lift on a Viper and take it offroad.You won’t see a Ferrari in that shape still running.
I’m guessing that the driver is in about the same shape as the car. Can’t be much fun putting a lot of day-to-day miles in with a car like that.
You need to get the whole story on this car, David. The car is amazing, but imagine what kind of person drove it to this point. I’ll bet they’re an amazing individual. It’s the kind of story that I would write myself.
Or…they’re dangerous and you don’t want to approach them…
Or, since it’s Los Angeles, they’re hoping this last stint in rehab finally takes.
In the “Californication” series, Hank Moody drove a badly neglected Porsche cabrio that he bought new when his novel was acquired for a movie and he moved to LA. The car symbolizes the state of his life and mind, as well as what the movie business did to his novel. So maybe the Viper owner is a similar mess.
I’ve had this show on my radar for years now, but I think you just gave me the reason to start watching now.
The touch up paint doesn’t match because the owner had to buy some off the shelf stuff at the parts store, they tried to get oem paint at the dealer but ended up getting a new crate engine.
God damn you beat me to it! take that Star or whatever. you deserve it
Just because you daily drive something doesn’t mean it should be a beater. You can take some pride in your car and clean it, fix the stuff as it deteriorates, etc.
I once saw a two-year-old Corvette that was in worse shape than that…utterly trashed. Pretty-much a crystal-meth-user thing. Oh, and that was at an impound yard.
I bet there’s a lot of Porsches around with more miles that are in much better condition.
Yeah, this looks abused more than driven. My ’06 Forester was in way better shape when I passed it along to a friend and he’s improved its condition since then.
It’s intentional and the owner is making a statement. “Look how crappy I treat my Viper.”
Doesn’t dealer-plates mean it’s owned by a dealer? Who may have bought it from an impound yard.
This was my exact thought. This sad machine reeks of stolen/impound lot long-term outside storage. Someone finally resolved it to send it to the sale and this dude found it actually runs so why not?
The white mark on the driver’s rocker panel is most likely heat damage from the catalytic converter, which is mounted right there. Perhaps it was driven with a misfire present and that cat got REALLY hot. Unlike the other body panels (which are fiberglass), the rocker is made from aluminum on these Vipers.
Yeah my first thought was it looked like a small fire burned there.
“Seen some shit? Man, I’ve had all sorts of shit hit me!”
Now that is a car that has been whipped around, had fun in, and hit some stuff in its time.
I mean the early Viper RT/10s had the same issue as the early C4s where it seems like any actual ability to drive it in the road was a tertiary concern at best. I’m not surprised that problems can immediately start cascading on one (Source: Someone who drives a late C4 every day).
I thought they were just going to give it a paint job and put it back on that pole in Kentucky. Taken for a joy ride by those guys from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, no doubt.
is it bad, that the first “Pole” i thought of was not the Car dealership, but a Stripper’s pole?
The interior bugs me a little. While a vehicle’s exterior is somewhat out of an owner’s control due to its operation in a real world of other cars/people, the interior is much more in their control, and its shape can reflect how that person views their car.
I suspect this may not be owned by a single person given the plates and that inside.
I mean it looks beat up. Like what a buddy of mine in HS did to the Dodge Dynasty he didn’t want, but was what they could afford. My car has 160k on it, it has scratches/dents/rock pits/a scrape on the bumper. Scars from use. But it doesn’t look like this.
It is just odd that someone would bother to use up a Viper like this, but also not care enough about it to maintain it better.
Yeah, the seat condition is esp. odd. I’ve seen Malaise-era car seats that have held up better, and these are from the ’90s!
Leather vs vinyl, even the highly processed, chemical coated leather of the 90s doesn’t hold up long term under sunlight and neglect
Years of sun (unmoderated by glass) and water damage. Who knows how long it’s been since that thing had a roof.
What was the mileage on this beast?
Like Christine, the odometer is rolling backwards and then she’ll self-restore to pristine condition. It’s a Mopar thing.
I like seeing supercars used as daily drivers, but this is a bit extreme. I have had a few daily drivers that I kept for 150,000+ miles. Those vehicles had a few minor imperfections but generally looked presentable when I sold them. I think I could drive a car over a million miles and it would never look this bad. This thing is more abused than used.
I still respect the owner for driving it, though. I would rather see a car driven into the ground than preserved forgotten and unappreciated in a garage.
It looks bad but we don’t know how bad it was when the current owner acquired it, how much they paid for it, or how long they’ve had it.
No, but someone had to abuse this car over the years to get it in this condition. This kind of damage didn’t happen in one or two incidents.
That being said, there is definitely a situation where I would buy a car like this. If the price is right, I don’t care how bad it looks, how many brands the title has, or how on fire it is at the moment.
If the current owner isn’t the one who beat this car up, I hope he got a good deal and is enjoying it.
Right but if the car is already in bad shape when you buy it, you probably aren’t going to worry as much, if at all, about keeping it from deteriorating further. Especially if you got it cheap.
“Turn signal lens”? Pray Torch doesn’t read this.
I did drive a Viper daily, but just for one day.
We could be heroes like this guy.
We could beat them.
But in my case. Just for one day.
I know this is David Bowie, but I’m hearing the orchestral version by Peter Gabriel in my head.
Amazed it is still wearing Michelins (although they look well worn). Figured this car would have Ling Longs or something on it.
According to google, the rears are nearly impossible to find in anything but good Michelins and Hoosier near-slicks. 335/35R17 doesn’t seem like a normal size. I’d bet if there were cheaper tires we’d probably see them on here though.
335 in any spec is not a normal size haha.
“Much respect to whoever this is who has decided they want their supercar to be an actual car”
Also, much respect to whoever was brave enough to fill this thing up on a very frequent basis. Wealthiness can be expressed in many ways…
Not surprised to see it so worn out. When I was in law school, a woman I knew had an uncle who was an exec at Chrysler. They had 3 Vipers that they would let the execs drive around. One was crashed by Terry Rakolta who, IIRC, led a crusade against “Married with Children”. One day he brings it over, and offers me a ride.
It was already burning oil, no tread left on the tires, totally knackered out. Because what do you do when you are driving someone else’s Viper, other than go apeshit, right?
This would be a perfect movie car for a character who’s a washed up recording artist who hit it big as a one hit wonder in the 90s, then faded into obscurity. Picture a scene where he gets his credit card declined at Spago and finds yet another parking ticket on the Viper’s windshield
How about an 80’s big hair metal band?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=il9K57Hx8gc
Oh, well, his song gets featured prominently in a really popular Korean streaming series, he doesn’t earn any royalties, but he has a chance to get in shape and go back on tour to capitalize on that, if old demons don’t derail him again
Also, there’s an estranged daughter he didn’t know about
OK, but the Austin scenes will have to be shot in Victoria BC, because Vancouver is already being used for the Los Angeles portions
I’m probably reaching but my mind goes to Ewan McGregor C3 Corvette in Fargo.
Dirk Diggler’s C3 in Boogie Nights is pretty beat up after he burns his bridges in the movie business and descends into addiction.
Bojack Horseman could’ve been driving this
Check for horsehair stuck to the duct tape driver’s seat cover…that’ll cinch it.
Eastbound and Down
Ever watch Californication?
Your idea reminded of the late 60s beat up 911 William Hurt drove in The Big Chill. It was the first time I really wanted a 911
Or flip that to neo-noir private eye, down on his luck; same scene.
The private eye is a former child star who played the older brother to four girls on the eponymous hit sitcom “Little Sisters” and bought the Viper new when he was 16. Couldn’t make a go of it once the show ended, but the residuals kept the bills paid – until his TV dad turned out to be America’s Creepy Molester Uncle according to the court testimony of all four Little Sisters and it was yanked from broadcast and cable syndication, and even streaming dried up because nobody could stomach watching Dad tell his girls just how much he loved them. So he mostly takes tawdry cases to either expose the messy private lives for a ex-partner or studio looking for an upper hand in negotiations or covering them up for an agent or studio looking to create a new revenue stream. The SnāK’s paid for, though, and not worth all that much with the dents and dings from wedging it under whatever Dingbat this month’s sublet was in, so might as well keep it as a nod to better days.
Did you leave a note? I’d love to know this car’s origin story.
It gets even better if you assume it got these battle scars while being used as a getaway car.
My aunt bought a car from a police auction once. When she got home she realized there there bullet holes, er speed holes in the car.
Surely that must’ve been a get away car.
Did it handle poorly, almost like it had some extra weight in the doors? Hmmm….