The Dodge Viper may have gone production years ago, but you it’s still possible to find examples in impeccable shape.
One of those Vipers, a 1997 GTS, is about to go up for grabs as part of RM Sotheby’s annual Miami sale in early March. The bright red coupé doesn’t just look good, though—it’s also got just 64 miles on the odometer.
Dodge may have started building muscle cars in the 1960s, but it didn’t get into the sports car game until the beginning of the 1990s. That was when it launched the Viper RT/10, an outrageous roadster with a serpentine design inspired by the Shelby Cobra Daytona from the mid-‘60s. An ostentatious look wasn’t the only aspect that set it apart from the rest of the automaker’s lineup. It was also powered by a potent V-10. The car was never a hit per se—although it did inspire a surprisingly long-lived sci-fi series— but that didn’t stop Dodge from introducing a coupé variant called the GTS was introduced in 1996.
1997 Dodge Viper GTS
Jasen Delgado/RM Sotheby’s
The GTS going up for bid looks just the same as when it rolled off the line. The car’s entire body, including its trademark “double bubble” roof, is finished in a bright red and it has a black leather interior, as well as silver wheels with the Viper logo at their center. Under the hood, you’ll find an 8.0-liter V-10 that pumps out 450 horses (which was 35 hp more than the roadster) and 490 ft lbs of torque. All that oomph is sent to the back wheels via a six-speed manual. It could sprint from zero to 60 mph in 4.6 seconds and hit a top speed of 185 mph when it was brand-new, numbers that it should still be capable of reaching owing to their only being 64 miles on the car. The vehicle, which has only been owned by two private collectors, has been regularly maintained over the years and promises to be in great shape.
The pristine Viper is scheduled to hit the block during RM Sotheby’s two-day Miami auction, which starts on March 1 at the Biltmore Hotel Coral Gables. The auction house expects the car to fetch between $100,000 and $150,000. That means some collectors might stand to get a bargain, considering the car started at around $70,000 when it first went on sale.
Inside the Viper GTS
Jasen Delgado/RM Sotheby’s
If you want a Viper that’s a little more recent, there are some other options out there, too. Dodge does not seem to have exhausted its stock of brand-new Vipers just yet, even though the model went out of production more than a half-decade ago in 2017. Last year, the Detroit giant managed to sell two examples of the defunct sports car. That marked an increase of 100 percent in “new” Viper sales over 2022, when Dodge only sold a single unit.
Click here for more photos of the 1997 Dodge Viper GTS.
Jasen Delgado/RM Sotheby’s
