Dodge Unleashes The Viper ACR, A Snarling 8.4-litre Track Beast

Dodge has released more info on the newest creation of its performance SRT division, the track-eating 2016 Viper ACR (American Club Racer). The standard – if you can call it that – Viper is already a scary thing, so this one is downright terrifying. 

The ACR is Dodge’s badge it reserves for its most extreme Viper model on sale stretching all the way back to the 1999 model year. Since then, every subsequent generation of Viper has had an ACR offering, essentially a lightened street-legal racer sporting uprated aerodynamics, suspension, and powertrain.  

"The Viper has always been more of a street-legal race car than a track-capable streetcar, and the new 2016 Dodge Viper ACR is the fastest street-legal Viper track car ever," said Tim Kuniskis, President and Chief Executive Officer – Dodge Brand and SRT Brand, FCA – North America. "Our goal is to arm our enthusiasts with the ultimate Viper track car to dominate road courses around the world,” he continued.

As is immediately apparent is the ACR’s very un-subtle aero package, which Dodge claims can slam nearly 1 tonne of downforce onto the car when travelling at its top speed of 285km/h (177mph) that's achieved through a dual-element carbon fibre rear wing measuring six feet end to end, carbon rear diffuser, front splitter with detachable extension and additional dive planes.

You’ll have to forgive it for that figure not pushing past 200mph (322km/h) since this is a track car which means it’s more concerned about going around corners as quickly than it is about out-and-out speed.

Under the hood, we find the familiar but still monstrous 8.4-litre V10 engine but this time it’s producing 645 horsepower (five more than the standard car) and 813Nm of torque. Dodge is pegging this as the highest torque output of any naturally aspirated sports car engine in the world. All that power drives the rear wheels goes through a Tremec TR6060 six-speed manual transmission.

To help the Viper ACR maintain its composure on the at speed as well as to transfer that onslaught of torque to the road are bespoke Kumho Ecsta V720 high-performance tires. Its unique tread pattern and front/rear compounds have been tuned to work specifically with the Viper ACR and offers a 1.5 second lap time advantage compared to conventional race tires.

All that aero combined with the specially designed double-adjustable coil-over Bilstein racing shock absorbers that provides independent 10-way rebound and compression adjustability and 3 inches of ride height adjustment, the Viper ACR is able to sustain more than 1.5G during high speed cornering.

The Chevrolet Corvette Z06 has got some very serious competition. 

Video courtesy of TopSpeed