The Dodge Viper Is Sold Out Forever

When historians sit down to write the saga of the internal-combustion automobile centuries from now, the Dodge Viper will deserve a chapter all its own. But sadly, we may not have to wait a few hundred years to find out how that story ends. 

The Dodge Viper is officially sold out, Fiat Chrysler design guru and noted Viper enthusiast Ralph Gilles told Motor Trend during an interview at the Chicago Motor Show on Thursday. And since FCA has said this will be the last Dodge Viper, that means it's likely sold out once and for all.

At least the car is going out on a proud note. Dodge brand chief Tim Kuniskis told MT that when FCA announced last summer that the Viper was going to be killed, it prompted a flurry of new orders for the V-10-powered supercar. “We had to shut orders for months and go back to suppliers to try to get more parts so we can fill them,” Kuniskis said. 

The Dodge Viper's 25-year reign comes to an end

Given the Viper's popularity, it's always possible that FCA could resurrect the sports car in some form somewhere down the road. After all, the company has marked the car for extinction before; Ralph Gilles himself announced the car would die back in November 2009, only to help bring it back in 2012. 

But considering much of FCA's future revolves around building most of its cars on a single Alfa Romeo-based platform to save money, the idea of the company re-starting production of a boutique sports car with a bespoke engine seems rather dim. If the Viper were to return anytime soon, it would likely come back as some sort of rebodied and rebadged Maserati with a forced-induction V6 or V8 under the hood...which is to say, a Viper in name only. 

Well, at least we'll always have used ones.