MSRP Range: $80,000 (Add $3,000 Gas-Guzzler Tax.)

Invoice Range: $72,500
Price Quote

Versions: SRT-10 roadster

Vehicle Category: Sports Car

Engine Location: Front Engine

Drive Wheels: Rear-Wheel Drive Rear-Wheel Drive

Engine As Tested: 8.3-liter, Single Overhead Cam, V-10 cylinder, 500-horsepower at 5,600 rpm and 525 lb-ft torque at 4,200 rpm

Transmission As Tested: Heavy-duty Tremec T56, 6-Speed Manual

Fuel Economy (city/hwy): 12/21

Standard Safety Features: Driver and front passenger, front airbags, 4-wheel power disc brakes, "> Antilock Braking System

Competition: Acura NSX, BMW Z8, Chevrolet Corvette, Mercedes-Benz SLK32 AMG Roadster, Panoz Esperante, Porsche 911

OJAI, California -- So we're tucked into this pack of traffic running south on the multi-lane 101 out of Santa Barbara while steering a new edition of the most powerful American sports car.

Excessively long at the prow and slinky low for a two-seat cockpit with the ragtop dropped and a raucous ten-cylinder engine exerting overwhelming muscle from a huge herd of horses, the SRT-10 Viper roadster from Dodge in new format for 2003 clearly stands apart from so many sedate sedans and tall sport-utility wagons on the California freeway as we jockey around the lanes in search of an uncluttered patch of pavement.

Viper's RT-10 roadster and GTS coupe, original versions of Dodge's exotic sports car, faded into automotive history in 2002 but a fresh design for the roadster emerges in 2003 to beat everything else on the road.

This treatment, with a stiff new chassis and revised suspension components cast in aluminum, stretches the wheelbase even longer and applies a sleek new molded plastic shell to Viper's hunkering package.

Exterior forms look familiar yet Viper's extended hood slips even lower and there are swept-back fenders on-board with deep-cut scallops on the flanks.

In the snug cockpit with a wrap-around bucket nestled on either side of the central console that divides the compartment into two halves, Viper supports new instruments with a center-mount tachometer and the speedometer notched way up there at 220 mph.

Try to engage the engine by turning the ignition key in the conventional switch set on the right side of the steering column, but nothing happens. To crank it up you must also depress the big red button located on the console. It's an idea carried over from a design for the Viper GTS/R concept car and evokes images of vintage motorsports racing with the familiar call to arms: "Gentlemen, start your engines."

During our run on the 101 freeway when a clear slot occurs amid the traffic, we apply the throttle -- but only a modest tap. Still, it sends a wake-up call to all of those ponies, and Viper lurches forward so quickly that it feels like we have a jet-pack strapped to those fat back tires.

Of course, it roars as it romps, commanding attention from anyone witnessing this raw expression of automotive muscle and speed.

The SRT-10 delivers staggering performance figures.

Viper's big-block V10 powertrain numbers have been elevated into the stratosphere of the triple 500 Club. It brings 500-hp with 500 lb-ft of torque and more than 500 cubic inches in engine displacement.

Viper's aluminum V10 engine has been expanded from 488 to 505 cubic inches (or from 8.0 liters to 8.3 liters), which pushes the power curve up from 450-hp at 5,200 rpm to 500-hp at 5,600 rpm, with torque increasing from 490 lb-ft at 3,700 rpm to 525 lb-ft at 4,200 rpm.

A heavy-duty Tremec T56 six-speed manual transmission translates all of that power into torque muscle to turn the enormous rear wheels.

SRT-10 rolls on bolt-on alloy wheels that vary in size, front to rear. In front, wheels are 18 inches tall and ten inches thick, with Michelin Pilot Sport ZP tires at P275/35ZR18. In back, the alloys increase to 19 inches high by 13 inches wide, capped by P345/30ZR19 Michelins. These are zero pressure run-flat tires, which nix the need for a spare tire or a jack, thus saving space as well as weight.

To rein so many horses, Viper's wheels also carry four of the largest disc brakes ever mounted on a street-legal car. Up front there are 14-inch rotors rigged with Brembo 44/40 dual opposing front calipers. Rear ones also with 14-inch rotors show Brembo 42/38 dual opposing calipers. All four discs are linked and controlled through an advanced new anti-lock brake (ABS) system.

And to keep cool air flowing over those discs, there are molded brake-cooling ducts up front on the body.

The steering system with power assistance remains a rack and pinion device with 16.7:1 ratio and 2.4 wheel turns from lock to lock.

New cast aluminum components apply to the four-wheel independent suspension system. The assembly front and rear includes unequal-length upper and lower A arms in aluminum with coil springs, high-pressure gas-charged shocks with adjustable rebound rates, and a stabilizer bar.

The chassis, still a design of backbone tubular steel space frame, has been stiffened measurably, and the wheelbase length extends for 2.6 inches longer than the original RT-10 roadster.

Gone is the clumsy clamshell hood design, as well as the RT-10's superfluous roof hoop positioned behind the cockpit in targa-esque design, so now this Viper has a smooth low profile when the top is dropped with only two round roll-bar blips evident but conforming to round tops of the seatbacks.

Also gone is the soft-top contraption employed by the RT-10, which actually was an after-thought addition. The new top, consisting of a rigid forward section and a flexible rear portion with heated glass rear window, folds back manually and tucks behind the seats in an arrangement that also functions as a tonneau cover when dropped.

Several traits of the RT-10 are still evident in the SRT-10, such as noise -- all that horsepower kicks up a ruckus -- and heat, stemming from the humongous engine and flowing into the cockpit but also lighting up side pipes. And the sills over rocker panels are still so broad you must work your way into the cockpit while making sure to avoid searing contact with the pipes.

The reward for work required to strap into a tight cockpit becomes a glove-like fit at the helm of a street-legal rocket that can blow everything else off the road.

It's also uncanny when pointed down a wiggly road, like our course through the Santa Ynez Mountains running snaky California route 150 from Santa Barbara to Ojai.

Although steering this Viper requires a driver's attention at every moment -- else all of that muscle gets out of hand from a car that can rip from zero to sixty in something less than four seconds -- a compliant gear box fully synchronized with short-throw shifter permits skip-shifts from one to four, and we discover you can run those wiggles through a range of speeds while holding only one gear.

This powerful SRT-10 Viper, which out-drives some other exotics where price tags can reach well beyond a hundred grand, carries a MSRP of $79,995.

MORE DATA

Where Built: USA

Seating: 2

Number of Rows: 1

Crash Test Ratings:

• NHTSA Frontal Impact/Driver Crash Test Rating: Not Yet Tested
• NHTSA Frontal Impact/Passenger Crash Test Rating: Not Yet Tested
• NHTSA Side Impact/Front Seat Crash Test Rating: Not Yet Tested
• NHTSA Side Impact/Rear Seat Crash Test Rating: Not Yet Tested
• NHTSA Rollover Resistance Rating: Not Yet Tested
• IIHS Frontal Offset Crash Test: Will Not Test

Length in Inches: 175.6

Warranties: 3 years/36,000 miles bumper-to-bumper, 5 years/100,000 miles corrosion, 7 years/70,000 mile powertrain (has deductible), 3 years/36,000 mile free Roadside Assistance.

Weight in Pounds: 3,380

Towing Capacity in Pounds: Not Applicable

Gas Tank Capacity in Gallons: 18.5

Destination Charge: $800