Some old timers opine about how engine swaps aren’t as common as they were back in the day. While we love a good engine swap, the fact is sometimes they just don’t make sense. We don’t know if putting a Hellcat Redeye V8 in a Dodge Viper ultimately makes sense, but YouTube channel throtl did it and the result is pretty crazy.
The Ariel Nomad Tactical is absolutely an excellent bad idea.
While the sports car has done quite well in drag races, it’s also suffered some big mechanical failures, including blowing up the rear axle on a hard launch.
This is what happens when you start messing with the delicate engineering balance of something created by a dedicated team of engineers who went through painstaking benchmarking and other tests to ensure everything ran as designed.
That’s not to say you shouldn’t do an engine swap like this. No, go ahead and do it, just don’t expect it to come without any problems down the line, because it will. But then you get to improve those failure points.
And that’s exactly what they’ve done with this Viper. It shreds tires like crazy but is drama-free off the line, hooking up and going without problems. In fact, any traction problems people have experienced with a Charger or Challenger on the drag strip seems to not be an issue in the viper.
So the combination of a more modern powerplant and the classic chassis of the AC Cobra’s spiritual successor seems to be amazing. And that leads us to question why Dodge doesn’t make another Viper?
We know the government with all its fuel and emissions mumbo jumbo is a little bit of a sticking point. But Dodge could make an absolute quarter mile slayer right out of the box if they set up a modern Viper anything like this car.
C’mon, Dodge, do something crazy again!
Now check this car out.
Image via throtl/YouTube
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