Tony’s Take: 👍👍 I’ve never been a fan of the Dodge Viper. It sounds, handles and goes like hot rod. (What Motor Trend called “wet-your-pants performance.”) It’s built like one too. A feature, not a bug? If you have a hard-on for a post-muscle car heyday garage queen, this second Gen Dodge Viper GTS is the one. Four-star condition, a wikkid color combo and an odometer that asks “how low can you go?” (1500 miles). I reckon this relatively unsullied snake will set a new “highest price paid” record for the make and model, fetching all of $150k. Downside: To quote the villainous Obi Wan Kenobi, this is not the higher-mileage, buy it, thrash it, who cares about selling it? Dodge Viper you’re looking for. You can buy one of those for under $80k.
Transactions from previous sales.
| Make | Dodge |
| Model | Viper GTS |
| Year | 1997 |
| Total Produced | GTS 1,671 in 1997 GTS 6834 from 1996-2002 |
| Number of Owners | NA |
| Mileage | 1500 |
| Condition | ★ ★ ★ ★ |
| Price When New | $71,200 Inflation Calculator |
| Highest Previous Price | $141,997 (04/29/2022) |
| Auction House | Bring A Trailer |
| Auction Date | 07/17/2022 |
| My Prediction | $150k |
| Hammered At | $110k |
This was a car that should have been scooped up. I am a fan of the collectability simply to to the importance. This car should not have been made. The fact that the concept came to us virtually unchanged is a miracle of modern production. Current conditions value the Gen 2 GTS higher than the RT-10. However, I think that the RT-10 will overtake it and be the collector car of the early Vipers. I am undecided on whether the Gen 1 or 2 will be worth more. The Gen 1 is way cooler with the wheels, side pipes, and lack of doorhandles / roof / windows. For those very same reasons, one could make an argument for the Gen 2 cars and their significantly lower production numbers. Either way, these cars are a bargain for an American car with 10k production numbers. You will never see a car like this greenlighted again.
I just realized it didn’t reach the reserve and was wondering how it could’ve sold so cheap.