Dodge Announces Limited Edition GT2 Viper
In
honor of two GT2 class world motorsports championships won by Dodge Vipers
in 1997, including the driver's and manufacturer's titles, Dodge has
announced that it will build a commemorative, limited edition Viper. Only
100 of these limited edition street-legal 1998 GT2 Championship Vipers
will be built. The suggested retail price for the Viper GT2 is
$85,200.
Viper Team ORECA, Chrysler's factory-development team,
clinched the FIA GT2 Drivers' Championship last October with Justin Bell
at the season finale at Laguna Seca Raceway. In addition, the FIA, the
world sanctioning body for motorsports, awarded its Manufacturers'
Championship to Chrysler during October in Sebring, Fla., when the two-car
ORECA team swept that event with a one-two finish. As a result, Chrysler
Corporation became the first American company to win an FIA Championship
with a production-based vehicle that was both designed and developed
in-house.
With seven wins, 18 podium finishes and nine pole
positions out of 10 FIA starts, the Viper GTS-R won its first world
championship in its first full season of racing. Viper Team ORECA finished
the year with 126 points, 43 points ahead of its nearest competitor, Roock
Racing. While Justin Bell took the Drivers' title with a total of 66
points, teammates, Philippe Gache and Olivier Beretta, were not far behind
with 60 points, ending the year in third place in the driver's
standings.
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