And everyone’s saying that Fiat’s takeover of Chrysler is such a bad thing. Bad for American business perhaps, but people better think of it in the long run. America should be able to take control of Chrysler in the future but a tenure under Fiat should help them learn how to make good cars for the world market.

While many think that the Fiat takeover will give access to Ferrari tech, well that will not be the case. Ferrari might share some tech with Maserati but Fiat’s not keen on lending Chrysler some of its high-end stuff. At least Ferrari engineers will be able to give their two-cents worth to Chrysler engineers.

“When we have partners across the ocean who are known as the best sports-car makers in the world, the future opportunities are huge,” Dodge brand chief Ralph Gilles said. However, he further clarified that Doge only expects advice, not parts.

Source: Leftlane

You might not readily associate Fiat with the other Italians like Ferrari or Lambo due to the mental images of small cars and perhaps even Lancias but mind you that it’s the parent company of Ferrari, Maserati and Alfa Romeo.

And how about the Fiat 500 Abarth? Now that’s a small car I’d want to own.

So it’s not really a bad thing design and engineering-wise that it took over Chrysler. Now, word has it that the Fiat will be developing the new Dodge Viper so we could just hope that Fiat makes the iconic American sports car be a better well-rounded car.

The Viper is fast but it wasn’t a car that people from other places like Europe would call a proper sports car. Maybe some Italian fiddling will make a proper car out of it and even even make the car more stylish.

The Viper was close to getting the axe with initial reports saying that Fiat might drop the car from the Chrysler line up but that’s not meant to be. Chrysler is also set to release 11 new vehicles in the next five years in an effort to bring back the company to profitability again.

Fiat, the new owners of most of Chrysler’s business, confirms that the iconic Dodge Viper will live on and will have new cars come 2010. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne is reported to have big plans for the Viper brand and hopes to revive the car and make it a real competitor.

Rumors from Fiat’s headquarters indicate that the company is planning to toy around the Viper’s tech. Plans include slapping on a larger V10 version of Fiat’s next-generation V8 engine. The engine might be the same one to be shared in future Maseratis and Ferraris.

This 90-degree engine would be modular top to bottom as well as by cylinder, with a flat-plane crank for the Ferrari V-8, a conventional cross-plane crank for the Maserati V-8, and pushrod-actuated valves for the balance-shafted Viper V-10.

Now that ought to put some Italian chest hair on the Viper.

Source: CAR and Driver

It seems that all-year round it’s a king of the ‘Ring battle among tuners and concept cars. And last week, the Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR just kicked everyone else’s tailpipes with a blistering lap time of 7:22.1 in the Nurburgring. The record shattered the 7:26.4 lap time previously posted by the Chevrolet Corvette ZR1.

The Viper is powered by a colossal 8.4L V10 engine that dishes out 600 horses and boasts of 560 lb-ft. of torque and that much power proved to be to its advantage. That’s a four seconds quicker than the Vette.

And this time, we have to thank the YouTube gods again for bringing us a copy of the lap video.

So the next big motor show will be in Los Angeles and probably one of the big unveilings set would be that of the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 ACR.

So who wants a street-legal race car? If you’re looking for that brash piece of American engineering that you can use on the street, then you might want to consider this bad mo-fo. As if the power bump of the SRT10 (to a full 600hp) in the 2008 model wasn’t enough, Dodge brings out the American Racing Club (ARC) version to wow sports car enthusiasts.

The engine is mated to a 6-speed Tremec T56 transmission and this is channeled to the wheels which have the GKN ViscoLok speed-sensing limited-slip differential – standards from the regular Viper. What makes the ARC stand out though are the following: KW coil-over suspensions, a stiffer anti-sway bar, forge wheels and two-piece brake rotors – all contributing to making the Viper great for the track.

If you ask me, getting this Viper should be for the purposes of having a track car that you can drive in and to the track. I really don’t get why one would buy it for street-driving. Street-legal doesn’t mean that it’s meant for the street anyway. If I had the same amount of dough (MSRP is said to be under a hundred grand) and tasked to buy a head-turner on the road and a devil on the track, I’d still go for the Porsche 911.

Source: Automobile Magazine