Quote:
Originally Posted by Hog
Saying the Viper used a truck engine isn't accurate. The V-10 was installed in the Viper 2 model years before it was available in the Dodge trucks.
The trucks got the iron block V10 from 1994-2003 in 488 cid and only in the 3/4 and 1 ton trucks.
Though the 488 prototype was a Magnum 5.9 with 2 extra cylinders, the Viper V-10 was never cast in iron.
The only actual Viper V10 that saw truck useage was the aluminum block V-10 in the 505cid version for MY 2004, 05, 2006 with a total production of 9,527 Dodge Ram SRT-10s 1/2 ton trucks. 6 speed manual trans was used in the reg cab 2wd( 13.6@106 1/4 mile time/speed weighing 5100lbs), while the 48RE auto trans was used in the Quad cab 2wd version(13.7 seconds at 100 mph weighing 5600lbs). |
I thought Lamborghini reworked the cast iron block V10, by redoing the heads and block out of aluminum.
"A man who would prove vital to Viper, Francois Castaing, was at that time head of Chrysler's Jeep and Truck Engineering division. He had come over in July 1987, after a career in European motorsports, where he helped turbocharge Formula 1 as technical director of Renault's Formula 1 effort.
"One of the first major projects we got going was to put a new big V-10, a big gas truck engine, on its way," Castaing recalled. "Jokingly, we said, 'That's the kind of engine that back in the '60s, Bizzarrini and DeTomaso would have bought to create the great sports car of back then. You know, very powerful, torquey, big gas American engine, put into a nice body.' And we kept saying, 'Well, maybe we should sell the engine to people like that.' Bob [Lutz] owns a Cobra, so Cobra was another car we talked about. One day -- and I don't remember how it happened -- but the idea of creating a concept car like the Cobra, using the big gas truck engine as a core, came up."
You are right that it was put in the Viper before going into production trucks. But it was still designed as a truck engine before going into the Viper.