Dodge Viper SRT

📸: Photo courtesy MotorTrend.com

Throughout automotive history (or at least, modern automotive history), there have been quite a few cars able to make it into Club 200 mph. For our purposes in this series, we were only focusing on the current model year, so we have left out some beauties (looking at you, 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder). What we have found is that, ultimately, it's still a pretty rare bird that is able to hit the deuce. So just when we thought this series was over, we were reminded that there's still another American manufacturer with a trick left up its sleeve: Chrysler/Dodge (let's not get into the Fiat ownership right now).

We have already featured the crazy Hellcat variants of the Challenger/Charger duo, but we completely forgot about the car that finally convinced everyone that Chrysler was once again serious about performance, the venerable Viper. And the 2017 Viper SRT, in its final year of production, can reportedly go as fast as 208 mph, surely a white knuckle ride there. So, welcome to the Club!

📸: Photo courtesy Automobilemag.com

Let's take a look at the numbers: huge, naturally aspirated 8.4 liter V10, 640 horsepower, 600 ft lbs of torque, all in only 3,300 pounds (less, for example, than the Ferrari 488). Packages like these are supposed to go fast.

📸: Photo courtesy Tokkoro.com

Classic view of the Viper's steamroller rear tires. Not the world's best sportscar by a longshot, but certainly a bruiser to be reckoned with, the one thing the Viper had down cold was it's look: it always looked like it should be the fastest car in the world. Shame to see it go away.