SRT Viper 5 gen 2013

The 2013 SRT Viper GTS paired a 640-horsepower, 8.4-liter V10 with real stability control and Brembo brakes — the first Viper generation built to back up its speed with genuine handling credentials. On Pirelli Corsa tires, it posted a lap time at Laguna Seca that beat the Corvette ZR1, and it went even quicker on slicks. A 33-unit Time Attack edition and a factory GTS-R race car pushed the formula further still. Read on for how Dodge finally built a Viper that could out-brake its own engine.

Dodge didn’t just want to build a faster Viper for 2013 — it wanted a fight. So when the redesigned SRT Viper GTS went to Laguna Seca Raceway on street-legal Pirelli tires, Motor Trend timed it against the reigning benchmark for American supercars, the Corvette ZR1. The number that came back wasn’t the one Dodge was hoping for — the ZR1 beat the Viper by just over two seconds and set a new lap record for a production car — but the Viper’s time still ran ahead of the Ferrari 458 Italia, the Porsche 911 GT3 RS, and the Nissan GT-R. The lap time wasn’t even the most radical part of what Chrysler had built for this generation.

An 8.4-Liter Answer to the Corvette ZR1

The heart of the 2013 SRT Viper is an all-aluminum 8.4-liter V10 rated at 640 horsepower, paired exclusively with a Tremec T6060 six-speed manual transmission — no automatic option, no dual-clutch shortcut. That combination pushed the car to a claimed top speed of 206 mph, a figure that put it firmly in exotic territory while undercutting the price of anything else that could touch that number. Unlike the analog first- and second-generation Vipers, this one arrived with real electronic backup: stability control and traction control that could be adjusted or switched off entirely, giving drivers a way to access the V10’s full output without the all-or-nothing risk that defined earlier Vipers.

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Brakes and Electronics Finally Catch Up to the Engine

Braking had been the Viper’s Achilles’ heel for two decades, and the 2013 car addressed it directly with four-channel anti-lock brakes and four-piston Brembo aluminum fixed calipers clamping down on vented rotors. A track mode built into the driver display added a built-in timer and a stop-light style launch indicator, tools clearly aimed at owners who intended to actually lap the car rather than just admire it in a driveway. The four-inch display in the instrument cluster also handled system messages and let drivers toggle stability and traction control independently, a level of configurability the original Viper’s engineers could never have imagined bolting to a car this raw.

A Cockpit That Finally Feels Like a Six-Figure Car

Inside, the SRT Viper GTS finally looked like it belonged in the same conversation as its price tag. Sabelt racing seats trimmed in leather anchored a cabin finished with gun-metal accents on the shifter base, parking brake bezel, and window switches, with color-matched stitching running throughout. A Harman Kardon audio system with Bluetooth streaming, an 8.4-inch touchscreen, SiriusXM satellite radio, HD radio, and a built-in hard drive for storing music came standard, while options extended to power and heated seats, a Garmin navigation system, and keyless entry. Bi-xenon projector headlamps with LED running lights up front and snakeskin-textured LED taillights out back rounded out a design language that finally matched the car’s performance ambitions.

Carbon Fiber, Kevlar, and a Body Built to Lose Weight

Weight management drove the material choices throughout the body. The shell combined Kevlar and fiberglass with a carbon fiber hood, roof, and decklid, while the door panels were switched to aluminum — every panel chosen for the best strength-to-weight tradeoff Chrysler’s engineers could justify. That obsession with shedding mass extended to the wheel design: four six-spoke Rattler wheels, forged from ultra-lightweight aluminum, were offered in a choice of polished-face-with-graphite-pockets or full hyper black and low-gloss black finishes, all wrapped around Pirelli P Zero Corsa tires developed specifically to handle the V10’s torque without giving up everyday grip.

Rattler Wheels and the Stryker Nickname

SRT gave the 2013 Viper an internal nickname, Stryker, that stuck around in enthusiast circles even though it never appeared as official badging on the car. The name captured what the redesign was going for: something sharper and more precise than the Vipers that came before it, without losing the visual drama that had always defined the model. Every element of the car, from the aggressive front fascia to the wide rear haunches, was shaped as much by aerodynamics as by styling, a shift from earlier generations where the Viper’s look had often outpaced its actual downforce.

The 33-Unit Time Attack Edition

For buyers who wanted the sharpest version of the platform, SRT built a limited run of just 33 examples badged the Viper TA, or Time Attack. These cars swapped in Sidewinder II wheels and a Bilstein Damptronic two-mode suspension tuned with a stiffer, tighter range of adjustment than the standard GTS, plus a carbon fiber X-brace in place of the aluminum structural piece to cut additional weight. The TA’s brake calipers wore a black anodized finish with the Viper logo picked out in Crusher Orange, a color that also covered the exterior, paired with a black 2D TA logo behind each front wheel and matching orange stitching inside the cabin.

A GTS-R for the Road Course, Too

Dodge didn’t stop at the road car. A dedicated SRT Viper GTS-R was built for competition, entered in the GT class of the American Le Mans Series, giving the fifth-generation Viper a genuine factory-backed racing program to match its road-going ambitions. Between the GTS-R’s track credentials, the TA’s limited-run exclusivity, and the standard GTS holding its own against the Corvette ZR1 at Laguna Seca, the 2013 relaunch did something the earlier Vipers never fully managed: it made Chrysler’s ten-cylinder outlier a legitimate, well-rounded competitor instead of just the fastest, scariest thing in the parking lot.

How the 2013 Relaunch Set Up the Viper’s Final Act

The 2013 relaunch mattered beyond its own sales figures because it reset expectations for what a modern Viper needed to be. Every Viper that followed through the end of production in 2017 built directly on this generation’s template: an analog, manual-only V10 experience wrapped around genuinely competitive brakes, electronics, and build quality, rather than the take-it-or-leave-it approach that defined the first two generations. Owners and track day regulars still point to the 2013-2017 cars as the sweet spot in the Viper’s history — powerful enough to embarrass far more expensive exotics, refined enough to actually enjoy on a long drive, and rare enough, with total production numbers a fraction of what mainstream sports cars manage, that values have held up unusually well since Dodge ended Viper production for good.

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