I can understand banning the quick-change fuel cells on safety grounds (as brilliant as that idea was), but officials throwing out penalties in the middle of the race because you are driving too fast is just sad. Long live the Viper!
Aloha Quack, didn't expect to find you here. Up for some fh5 or something? Would be nice to talk with you again. :) A la ua-cam.com/video/ifd_A0-H2jw/v-deo.html style. XD
What a shameful display by the race officials. If a car is better, it should win. 2 45 MINUTE penalties are absolutely ridiculous and is bordering on sabotage. The German constructor bias is visible clear as day. What a complete anti-stance against the spirit of competition. When Porsche was dominating group C in their 956 and 962, they didn't get absolutely shafted by the rulemakers. Imagine the uproar if they would have banned boxer engines.
when the officials found out about the 120L tank they gave zakspeed an ultimatum. if they only filled it up 90L at a time they'd only get a drive through penalty. zakspeed refused. gotta love how they just never gave up.
Reminds me something that happened in the 1969 84h of nürburgring (not 24h, 84h), the IKA Torino was the car that did the most laps overall (334, 2 laps more than the first place), but it was penalized, so it won on it's class, but it was a 4th place overall. The team was told by the officials that they had to fix the exhaust, and evert minute in pits was one lap (as far as i understand, there were other cars with loud exhausts, that the officials had no problems letting them race)
You know, it's funny. They tried every way they could to make the Viper's slower. They even changed the rules mid race to make certain things on the Viper illegal; but they could never actually stop Viper from kicking ass.
The best thing about Viper is that in every way, it does not morally oblige with the laws, and yet its performance made it the best. Hell, the safest Viper you can buy had the official's safety concerns about not having side airbag installed.
4:00 I actually contacted Zakspeed about a decade ago and Jessica Zakowski, the daughter of Peter Zakowski, replied to me that they ran about 950 hp in race mode and 1000 hp in qualy mode. Incredible figures, but not too unrealistic. Especially considering the RT/10s in the 1994 Le Mans could run around 800 hp without restrictors. That V10 is just monstrous. Great, great video on what is an awesome car - my favorite of all time. Thank you!
10:00 also, 2007 wasnt the last appearance - that was in 2008 :) The team did the whole VLN season and the N24 with the Viper. BUT!!! in 2009, they did once single VLN friday training session with one of the Viper GTS-Rs, back when they were already the Viper Competition Coupe.
I like to imagine the series organisers as the grumpy dean in a college comedy movie angrily yelling "ZakSPEEEEED!" every time they try to ban the Viper and it comes back and triumphs once again
I'm from germany. And you can be sure, this yellow Monster is cult! I mean V10 8 liter by 1650 KG and 1016 HP! At night on the Nordschleife in wet too! Insane car and story.. I love the car. It was a fantastic time.
"45 minutes stop and go penalty" Excuse me did I hear it correctly? Minutes? Might as well add a rule specifically for them that just says "do not win"
To imagine this thing ran for over 10 years and still managed to podium almost every time it ran is incredible, truly a testimate to how timeless that generation of viper really was.
handing out two 45 minute penalties to zakspeed and then excluding them from the results anyways because they outplayed your rulebook is peak salt from the officials
that 2006 Viper was my favorite car as a child. My dad use to see the 24 hrs since 2000. He printed posters from photos he took from the car. They use to hang above my bed. I remember that i was begging my dad to took me to the ring just to see the Viper fighting against m3 and 911. I´ve drawn the Car and showed it to the people standing on the balcony in front of Zakspeeds vip lounge. As they saw my painting, they´ve invited me and my dad to stay in the lounge, signed autogram cards and allowed me to take a seat in the car. Still the best day in my life and the beautifulest childhood memory i can remember. Thank you for creating this Video. You´ve made my day by bringing up these memories.
Fact that they've made V8 from V10 just to show middle finger to race officials is absolutly legendary! Didn't know about that fact -thanks! Fuel cell also great! They could make a rack on wheels to fit it in :D Viper was reeeeal weapon!
I think the biggest troll to these officials was taking out the 2 pistons and cutting it down to a 6.2L, and youre still driving the viper with the red/white stripes with the Ram logo on the hood. I never knew the dodge viper had such colorful history in eurosports
Well it's not like its a rare story. This happened with porsches when bmw brought out the m3 gtr race car basically taddling on them once noticing the car was competitive. I'm sure there's countless stories like that in major Motorsports that's a 10 top list UA-cam definitely needs. Also I'm not convinced chrysler actually wanted to sell any vipers to the public like it's a sedan, it's a dangerous car that requires skill
@Dr. Spatula yeah but that was NASCAR themselves not because of rivalry. Not just because of crazy aero but the HEMI engine too. Mopar's big wing cars were essentially unfair hackers and that's another side of motorsport that has countless stories. Even toyota hacked/cheated in 90s rally before the heads released and banned them for a year I believe. They pretty much did it again with the Toyota GT1 at Le Mans racing in the GT1 class when it clearly looks like a prototype. Basically being a Japanese daytona if you ask me lmao
The Viper was a natural born killer. Every race series it entered it was always heavily restricted in engine and tire. They did it to the Oreca red/white Vipers that dominated lemans. They even allowed Corvette to use an non-homologated 7 liter V8 while restricting the Vipers engine further and making it run skinnier tires than the Vette. Always loved these cars as they still won many series despite the severe bias it always got by racing orgs around the world. I miss these beasts.
The FiA hates it when Americans show up to race and actually do well, I mean after the GT40 was dominant they threw a hissy fit and said it was unfair because of the engine is the biggest example
Ah motorsport, the only sport where the competition is rigged against you from the start, and even if you manage to overcome the adversity, you will be banned for not losing
The trio of cars that won everything even when officials tried every trick in the book to stop them but failed. Audi Quattro. Nissan Skyline R-32. Dodge Viper.
The motoring world is a whole lot sadder now without the Viper. Such an amazing machine! It especially stings as a life long Viper lover and an American to have such an icon taken away :/
Stupid as shit how hard they nerfed the viper runs, the performance gap could have been incentive for competitors to build better cars, but nah, lets penalize the American car because we want the European ones to win
*The German ones* I used to think it was stupid too, this was absolute Persecution of the dominate car because it was superior. But if they spead up the competition to match the vipers back then the nurburgring n24h and vln series would have deteriorated alot sooner than it is already happening. There would be very few private teams left today if any. By nowbThis race would just of been a GT and TCR race and nothing more.
In an American racing series, I think it was the Speedvision World Challenge series, the viper was hit with everything, weight penalties, restrictor plates, and even a maximum tire width of 10 inches. This meant a race car was actually slower than it’s production counterpart. In the hands of Bobby Archer, it remained a top 3 finisher until the series ended.
But I keep hearing in these comments that only the German VLN rule makers were against the Viper?! 😉 IMO, if the Viper had the best balance of engine capacity, weight, aerodynamics and so forth under the regulations it deserves to win.
watched this video from start to end 3 times since it was out, and even as a fan of the Viper, I'm still flabbergasted by the sheer capability of the truck-powered snake, and the wits of Zakspeed that made them as legendary as the car already is. Thanks for making this video, I'm glad to find your channel in the best way possible.
WOW, and people complain about modern BoP? This is 1000 times worse! Still, great job by the team with all the cheeky mods, I didn't know the story of this car!
Damn that fuel tank rule hack was GENIUS. And the blanking off two cylinders on the V10 - amazing. Very clever. Pity the rulemakers didn't see it that way. DId Zakspeed ever try to fight it in court?
LeMans officials constantly make rules to keep US manufacturers from winning. From the viper penalties, to adding hundreds of lbs of weight to the C5R, it’s always been a shit show. More recently, the FIA has prevented Cadillac from competing in F1 with essentially no reason whatsoever.
The rise of the Vipers always echoed something similar happening on the other side of the planet, when the Skyline GT-R slammed into the scene like the asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs. Those monsters took their series by storm until there was barely anything else left.
So in 2002, they basically were changing the rules on the go just to penalize the Viper (I mean, why the 2nd 45 min. stop & go when it made its way to 3rd place?
its pretty common for race organizers to change the rules of a series just because of one dominating car lol, tbf it creates a poor viewing experience since we all know whos gonna win and it removes competition since everyone is incentivized to copy the winners, but of course changing them sucks for the individual team, "most" times its better for the sport as a whole
@@michael5455 “it removes competition to have a dominant car” you know what else removes competition? Removing the competition for factory teams so that they don’t get their ass beat by an American car on home soil. It’s LITERALLY cheating
@@Dasbulldoge of course it makes it easier but thats the way it is bruh, competition is not lvl 100 vs lvl 20, nobodys watchin that, the factory teams didnt even want the car to get banned cos it felt like their win was being handed to them but it was either they levelled the playing field or kept on losing, and most enthusiasts might watch a race even though they know whos gonna win, but therees no battle, thats no fun is it
@@Dr.Spatula brotherman, of course its whack and it sucks for all parties, but whenever this shit happens theyre gonna pull the plug every single time, they dont give a shit about one teams feelings. if every other team is obsolete because of the one team, they will fuck over the one team. im jus explainin/justifying why they do it, it is what it is 🗿
The Viper has since the launch off the coupe model been my number one favorite car ever. I've never driven one but got a ride along 10 years ago in a 1997 model. You could feel how the power was almost uncontrollable in the street version. The owner is a race driver who has driven a GTS race version and he loved it. He said the performance was totally different from a stock vehicle. I'm not giving up my dream to own a Viper one day, even if it tries to kill me.
I used a Viper as my daily driver in Florida, from 1997 thru 2005. Rock solid car for 8 years and over 100k miles. It was driving hard at times, and even saw track time at Sebring. These things just DON'T BREAK. PERIOD!
Zakspeed actually returned to the Norschleife with a GT3 SRT Viper in 2019/2020, but sadly they didn't participate in many races, and complained that the BOP made them uncompetitive. They've recently sold or are still selling the particular car, which I find rather sad, as I was overjoyed to see them return with a Viper.
BOP basically made most Vipers Mute after many manufacturers complained of them being way too fast. The Viper was a vehicle that didn't need to sandbag in order to win, so it pissed off the Likes of Audi and Porsche to a point that they lobbied against it and nerf it everyway possible.
@@Paolo_Pinkas747 yeah alot of tracks do actually. Even some if the gran prix tracks but that's not going to be a problem for f1 engines today. Am I mistaken but I believe thunder Hill race track that hosts the 25 hour race there ironically has quite a strict noise limit. I remember hearing in the past how a particular Honda integra touring car was disqualified because of noise limits being broken.
i used to love watching Team Oreca race at lemans ; the 1998 was epic ! also back in 2006 or maybe just after the ban in 2007 i cant remember exactly ; at the ring; one evening i went for a few laps when the track just opened after industry pool, back when you could literally be alone on the track or just see one single car all evening...... was pulling towards Shwedeunkreuz; around 210ish kph ( E30 200hp back then ) look up in the rear view mirror barelly out of flugplatz; a red dot ... with a massive wing ... immidiatly recognized the Zackspeed Viper.... just pulling out the bend and going towarsds aremberg ; i think to myself ; hmm... got plenty of room to get there and let him passe once i start down Fuchsrohre..... i barely had finished thinking about the futur pass that i feel a presence behind me right out the corner i was just in... and allready past me and down the hill.... all in an instant .... he was on a mission... to have fun on a close to empty road. the smell of perfect engine tuning on high octane ; with the same smell you'd get on a drag strip from the most performant engines... i could still smell the exhaust on the viper until bergverk easy...
Now has surpassed the Holden Le Mans video for the most viewed on this channel, at least for now. Very glad to see so many people have lots of interest in my favorite car as well.
Well done! I always get a kick out of people (typically Europeans) that say the Viper didn't handle well, lol! The Viper has always been a monster on the track, as long as the driver knew what he was doing... The 911 is another staple as well, but even Porsche realized the rear engine was at a disadvantage and wisely went with the superior mid-engine layout. Too bad Porsche continues to handicap the Caymen. The Corvette's are another great story in this time period and worthy of another domination video...
Haha the viper they sell and that viper they raced are 2 totally different cars the body work just looks the same, don’t kid your self a production viper doesn’t handle like 99% of American cars that’s why the French made the chassis, did you watch this video with out the sound on or something 😂😂
@@ryanhenderson5859 Of course the chassis is somewhat different, none of these cars are 100% production based, lol! Having owned and raced production based Vipers (I still own a gen 2 coupe), as well as Porsches and Vettes, so many people are ignorant to the fact that Vipers can be excellent handling cars on both the street and the track. In fact, with proper sorting and prep they are real weapons. Anyone that says otherwise likely has little firsthand experience with what a well sorted Viper is truly capable of. Being mid engine, having a rigid chassis, IRS, and very wide tires, they obvious come with some inherent advantages over most other vehicles, regardless of country. Do they need tweaking to get the most out of them, sure, but they have the right stuff for the most part out of the box. If the driver is skilled and knows how to handle the massive torque with few nannies, they can be real competitors (especially for their time period)!
@@ssoffshore5111 not being funny but most car can be hot half Ling on track and road with proper sorting and prep but they car they sell you isn’t proper sorted and prepped as for the normal guy buying it and just driving off the forecourt and takes it to a garage to have light built changed for that guy and how production cars are judged no they are known for there handling, as for the right driver that’s also for any car, watch Misha Charoudin he drives random car around Nurburgring prob faster than most people could drive any car around the place, I’m not saying a viper with right set up or right driver isn’t hood it just that apples to any car, when people say vipers don’t turn they mean off the forecourt and neither racing driver at the wheel
@@ryanhenderson5859 We'll have to agree to disagree. I have a lot of experience with these cars. For the reasons I mentioned above, even out of the box they handle extremely well (again for their respective time period) and can be made even better with a more cornering focused alignment (again true with most cars). I honestly think the cars get a bad handling reputation due to the huge torque and lack of nannies. In the hands of a less experienced driver that can be a dangerous combination, especially with a car that has a very high amount of grip, that will truly bite you if you aren't experienced and smooth enough to handle that torque (with little electronic safety net). If you haven't had a chance to drive one of these cars, and preferably on a track where they can actually be pushed, you're missing an amazing experience. Especially with the gen 5 ACR, it will blow your mind...
@@ssoffshore5111 I think the bad rep come from all the big earner having mid life break down and buying one or the rich kids using daddy’s money to buy one, any car can be good or bad thing we definelty agree with the right person and understanding of what you driving no car is that bad you just have to adapt you driving, and after that car set up will make it easier on you
such an insane and awesome car, every generation. it has set/broken some of the most track records of any car (though, I think many have been beaten in recent years by much more expensive cars)
I still remember these races. Every success seemed to be drenched by rules changes, allegations, and outright punitive measures. The Viper was simply too powerful and capable for this class. It was the biggest fish in the pond by a long shot, and deserved to be in its own class of racing.
2:26 "the turbocharged, wide-bodied weapon, designed to go head to head with the armada of Porsche 935s." God damn this guy knows how to write sick narration lines
Viper is so iconic and great car of its era! Great looking and huge performance even it wasn't mechanically super modern design, it is still great and fast! I kinda like its design idea behind! Sadly new cars are all too boring
the viper is probably the craziest car that was ever mass produced. the completely overkill 8.0L V10 in the front of a lightweight and absolutely beautiful body. its such a barbarian concept compared to your average mid-engined supercar. and the fact it made an extremely successful race car with this philosophy only adds to the appeal.
@@test-tl8dt The Viper was just a modern take on the Cobra, and it was dreamed up in secret away from Chrysler executives and accountants to turn Dodge from the brand that would sell you your first minivan, to the cowboy hat carmaker we know today. There may not be a Viper now, but when the world needs it the most... the Viper's spirit will come back to bring us out of some stupid malaise era.
Crazy how crooked the ADAC proved to be. HIGHLY doubt they'd have gone to such efforts if the Viper was a German made car, IE the V8 E46 M3's that were nowhere near production cars. It must have seriously irked the ADAC when they finished the Viper tenure with back to back top-3's.
Makes me cringe how the competition gets banned, rather than rival competitors actually being pushed to make THEIR cars more/as competitive… A brilliant video by the way😁
@@toddthezondalover645 One of the various reasons why I stopped watching F1, today the manufacturers only make their cars more modern not because they want, is because FIA wants, and that's not how innovation works. So if a guy like a Adrian Newey cam with a revolutionary idea that can change F1 forever, he can't do it, cuz is 100% that the FIA won't approve it, so instead of breeding innovation, the F1 is actually KILLING innovation. And that's just sad, you know?
Dude vipers are wild. There’s a guy that lives a few blocks away from me that has one with a cut off exhaust. I swear to god it’s louder than when I had my f250 with a single stack out the bed. Whenever he fires it up you could be in a dead sleep and it’ll wake your stupid ass up.
If you can find footage of the GTSR's racing at the 24H of Daytona it's fun to watch. The Vipers lumbering down the long straights and the banking so fast that the prototypes had to wait until the turns to take them was common.
The Viper Just produced tons of torque but the Aeropackage just wasn't there. Imagine if Panoz used a Viper V10 rather than develop a Heavy Arse Hybrid system, it'd be a Viper GT-1 lmao.
@@youngrody2386 Panoz simply insisted on using a Ford 7.0 L V8, because it was cheaper to use and easier to maintain overseas (particularly when they had to travel to Japan and Finland and then from Sebring, Florida to Monterrey, California, on top of competing at Le Mans, back to back for two years in 1997 and 1998) because V10s are very complicated to keep running, not to the level of a V12, but hard enough. They still used that engine with great success in North America, despite losing ground to Audi and eventually the Dyson-operated MG Lolas due to the high weight and cumbersome nature of a front-mounted engine. Also didn't help that the Viper eventually lost ground to the Corvettes at the end due to better factory support and drivercraft.
@@DR3ADER1 That's the interesting story of the Panoz GT1 car, it made it's unconventional Engine layout for it's class amazing inspite the serious cost gap between itself and it's rivals and achieved success. Though the V10 was very good, the V8 was still great. The Vipers did lose the edge to the Corvettes, but wasn't it also because the Vipers were slightly restricted? Or was it because they used the 7.0 Litre V8 that wasn't homolugated on Road Variants at the time?
@@youngrody2386, They lost the battle to the 'Vettes due to Chrysler's dwindling interest in supporting the program as a factory effort. So ORECA had to shoulder the work throughout the 2000s with mixed results.
Stewards back then were crazy. Understandable restricting the car, but tossing out penalties and disqualifying the car just for being quick is outright shameful.
They clearly didn't understand the role of rules vs. balance of performance at all. It's a shame that Zakspeed didn't sue their asses off, they would've had a clear-cut case. But then again the trial would've been in German courts...
Wait, they took 2 cylinders and just plugged them up and said yup, that'll do, let's go racing. That is like the most American thing to do, to the most American "supercar" you could get. I love the Viper, but come on that thing wanted to kill you. And they hacked that thing to hell and back. Love it.
And honestly, that makes it even better, if they would've been American, I wouldn't had to have learned about this through UA-cam, Americans would still be on the hood of the Dodge Intrepid grunting America, fu¢k yeah lol
@@valorfightforthewin what an asshat, these guys sounds like a NASCAR team, but cause they are German, and you are elitist, they are better right? Let me tell you a little secret, not a single person walking this planet past, present, or future chooses where they are born. Get over yourself.
Officials : "Why don't you DIE ?!" Viper: "ZAKSPEED, SON. They respond to all your BS rule changes and bias! Easily THE BEST story you have covered yet!
Zakspeed should have sued or bring the results into court in 2002. It's not even subtle. As soon as the Dodge was doing well, they just kept adding massive penalties for no reason. Thankfully, Ferrari were able to win this years n24 without any Deutsch bias from the stewards (unless they got disqualified and I haven't noticed lol).
The penalty weight is absutely insane. Shame on the other manufacturers. Shows that car development peaked in late 90s to early 00s and became more and more of a bling bling battle between manufacturers imho.
They didn't bother slowing the Ferrari down because it was owned by the hometown team Frikadelli Racing which was the team the brilliant Sabine Schmitz drove for. Penalizing that team would've been sacrilege to the local fans. Any other team though would've probably been fair game for nonsense judging by this video.
@@TeamAbrams Fair point there. The rest of ther top 5 were all German marques, and you have to go all the way down to 21st place to find the first non-German team, in a SP10 Supra. One thing for certain is that it doesn't effect lower classes, as Hyundai were able to take the victory in TCR, but I can't help but feel that other teams just won't bother showing up because of the farcical past of the event. Its a good event, don't get me wrong, but it is really a national event, not an international one.
Very cool Video. I knew about the ZakSpeed car winning all those races but I had no idea all the hoops they had to jump though to make it happen. Well done on them. Fun fact over here in the states there was a team that ran a Viper in the Trans Am series with a V8. The series had a simple formula, the engine size dictated the weight the car during the races. So the team installed a Dodge V8 to race at the same lighter weight the Corvettes had at the time.
If the officials were math teachers: What is the quickest way to 0 from 10? A:10-10 Viper engineers: remove the 1 and you are left with 0. Officials: Not convinced - detention for you and your family.
I remember watching it as a teen in different gt categories on eurosport from the late 90s to early 2000s. Was difficult to get much racing in the UK for the vln back then, but I didn't realise how much the organisers tried to kill it off. Massive respect to zakspeed who also raced one of my favourite race cars ever, the opel calibra. Maybe you could do a video on the 1997 Zakspeed Calibra that never raced. Beautiful looking car (in aero terms) Watching this back, it's gotta be one of the greatest racecars of the 90s.
Just want to say that I've been going through your videos and love what you're doing. Quality, nerdy videos about mostly retro motorsport with Ace Combat tracks in the background? Instant subscribe. Keep it up!
@@crabby112 Audi had 4 times the budget and was a completely factory backed effort. Zakspeed was a german privateer team receiving minor updates from Chrysler 😂
Here are some more informations about this race: Basically there were a couple of DTM cars which were transformed to long distance runners but they were seen as unreliable. Then there was the BMW team which was the big favourite next to the Viper. But they made the stupid decission to cool the engine with dry-ice shortly before the race, which broke the oil lines, thus breaking both cars in the first lap. It was an embaressment for the team and even the head of motorsport of BMW flew in from Monaco to help getting the cars back on track. (which they achieved after a long repair) I think after seeing the BMW shenanigans the officals set their sights on Zakpeed, preventing them their earned victory by randomly throwing penanties at them. I remember watching the 2003 race live and beeing furious. The brodcast of the race is on youtube (only in german) and after watching it again its amazing how biased even the commentators and drivers were against the Viper. During the race they invited some drivers of the factory teams to do Co- commentary and everyone was bitching how Zakspped is destroying the sport etc. So yeah, this was a win for the german manufactures by bribing the officials. If the Viper wasn't penalized it would have won.
Absolutely awesome video from the history books of the eifel. Stories like this are the proof that the 90-00s motorsport was a amazing era. I watched as a kid on DSF highlights from 2001 and the skyline and viper just stuck in my head since.
Race officials: "Noooo stop using your dumb Chrysler Viper!!!"
Zakspeed: "what the hell is a Chrysler Viper?"
You can say, they DODGED a bullet.
(Well not really they just scrap the 5th place anyway)
@@donnycorn3086 Im gonna have tk ask you to leave lmao
imagine losing to a car that was required to stand still for 1 1/2 hours
Ferrari in 2020: MISSION ACCEPTED
I can understand banning the quick-change fuel cells on safety grounds (as brilliant as that idea was), but officials throwing out penalties in the middle of the race because you are driving too fast is just sad.
Long live the Viper!
That one feels biased and bullshit like they need a official release to do that.
"Thus ending the Viper's reign of terror on the 'Ring."
*screen darkens*
"HOWEVER"
Aloha Quack, didn't expect to find you here.
Up for some fh5 or something? Would be nice to talk with you again. :)
A la ua-cam.com/video/ifd_A0-H2jw/v-deo.html style. XD
What a shameful display by the race officials. If a car is better, it should win. 2 45 MINUTE penalties are absolutely ridiculous and is bordering on sabotage. The German constructor bias is visible clear as day. What a complete anti-stance against the spirit of competition. When Porsche was dominating group C in their 956 and 962, they didn't get absolutely shafted by the rulemakers. Imagine the uproar if they would have banned boxer engines.
when the officials found out about the 120L tank they gave zakspeed an ultimatum. if they only filled it up 90L at a time they'd only get a drive through penalty. zakspeed refused. gotta love how they just never gave up.
Reminds me something that happened in the 1969 84h of nürburgring (not 24h, 84h), the IKA Torino was the car that did the most laps overall (334, 2 laps more than the first place), but it was penalized, so it won on it's class, but it was a 4th place overall.
The team was told by the officials that they had to fix the exhaust, and evert minute in pits was one lap (as far as i understand, there were other cars with loud exhausts, that the officials had no problems letting them race)
This happened in America too in IMSA, Trans-Am, Can-Am, etc. Countries just want to defend their own manufacturers I guess
They were just mad that America was giving em L after L😂😂😂😂😂
Sadly it is the reality of every series
Zakspeed when any inconvenience occurs: *The Engineer*
The engineer: fuck em 😂😂
You know, it's funny. They tried every way they could to make the Viper's slower. They even changed the rules mid race to make certain things on the Viper illegal; but they could never actually stop Viper from kicking ass.
The best thing about Viper is that in every way, it does not morally oblige with the laws, and yet its performance made it the best.
Hell, the safest Viper you can buy had the official's safety concerns about not having side airbag installed.
The quick change....fuel tank?
That's both hilarious, and absolutely amazing, a genius midle finger to the rules
And swapping the entire car as plan B bahahahhahaa
Their attempts to ban the viper only make the domestic cars look that much worse. Lovely video!
4:00 I actually contacted Zakspeed about a decade ago and Jessica Zakowski, the daughter of Peter Zakowski, replied to me that they ran about 950 hp in race mode and 1000 hp in qualy mode. Incredible figures, but not too unrealistic. Especially considering the RT/10s in the 1994 Le Mans could run around 800 hp without restrictors. That V10 is just monstrous.
Great, great video on what is an awesome car - my favorite of all time. Thank you!
10:00 also, 2007 wasnt the last appearance - that was in 2008 :) The team did the whole VLN season and the N24 with the Viper. BUT!!! in 2009, they did once single VLN friday training session with one of the Viper GTS-Rs, back when they were already the Viper Competition Coupe.
I like to imagine the series organisers as the grumpy dean in a college comedy movie angrily yelling "ZakSPEEEEED!" every time they try to ban the Viper and it comes back and triumphs once again
"And i would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling zakspeed kids"
Sounds like Solid Snake screaming ocelot's name every now and then.
That “quick change fuel tank” is an absolutely brilliant idea 😂
Smokey Yunick would be proud
I'm from germany.
And you can be sure, this yellow Monster is cult!
I mean V10 8 liter by 1650 KG and 1016 HP!
At night on the Nordschleife in wet too!
Insane car and story..
I love the car.
It was a fantastic time.
Yes it is! Realy a fantastic Time.. I was there in 2002 - 2007.. The years from 2003-2005 I love at most.. Remember the Turbinchen :)
Imagine being banned from something because you were doing it better than everyone else was.
That's a badge of honor if i do say so myself.
and not even the first, or last time that's happen to Mopar vehicles.
@@lucascalegare9180 Dodge should've embraced this part of their history more. Everywhere they went to race, the competition was pissed
"45 minutes stop and go penalty"
Excuse me did I hear it correctly? Minutes?
Might as well add a rule specifically for them that just says "do not win"
More like "just drop out damit!!"
Just nonsense!
Well, they kinda did that too after the officials stripped the viper of its 5th place finish
TWICE
To imagine this thing ran for over 10 years and still managed to podium almost every time it ran is incredible, truly a testimate to how timeless that generation of viper really was.
handing out two 45 minute penalties to zakspeed and then excluding them from the results anyways because they outplayed your rulebook is peak salt from the officials
Yeap. How the officials got away with it is beyond me. IT has all shades of the Democrats in the US Rigging elections and Bsing about it
@@tyronnezxWell the first half of your comment is right at least.
@@trombonekingdom i think all of its right, unless youre some sort of commie sympethizer
@@tyronnezx lmaaooo that last part came out of nowhere
@@Mrpartyallnight101 true 😂😂
that 2006 Viper was my favorite car as a child. My dad use to see the 24 hrs since 2000. He printed posters from photos he took from the car. They use to hang above my bed. I remember that i was begging my dad to took me to the ring just to see the Viper fighting against m3 and 911. I´ve drawn the Car and showed it to the people standing on the balcony in front of Zakspeeds vip lounge. As they saw my painting, they´ve invited me and my dad to stay in the lounge, signed autogram cards and allowed me to take a seat in the car.
Still the best day in my life and the beautifulest childhood memory i can remember.
Thank you for creating this Video. You´ve made my day by bringing up these memories.
Fact that they've made V8 from V10 just to show middle finger to race officials is absolutly legendary! Didn't know about that fact -thanks! Fuel cell also great! They could make a rack on wheels to fit it in :D Viper was reeeeal weapon!
Massive props to Zakspeed for giving the officials the middle finger with ingenious solutions like the fuel tank strategy and plugging the cylinders.
Removing 2 pistons from the V10 was genius.
I just hear Clarkson's American impression after he disconnected Hammond's ignition coils saying "And he's got his V8 motor".
I think the biggest troll to these officials was taking out the 2 pistons and cutting it down to a 6.2L, and youre still driving the viper with the red/white stripes with the Ram logo on the hood. I never knew the dodge viper had such colorful history in eurosports
Why wouldn't they use this as advertisement? A car that pissed others so off that it got banned
Well it's not like its a rare story. This happened with porsches when bmw brought out the m3 gtr race car basically taddling on them once noticing the car was competitive. I'm sure there's countless stories like that in major Motorsports that's a 10 top list UA-cam definitely needs. Also I'm not convinced chrysler actually wanted to sell any vipers to the public like it's a sedan, it's a dangerous car that requires skill
@@MIIIVideo the Daytona in NASCAR
@Dr. Spatula yeah but that was NASCAR themselves not because of rivalry. Not just because of crazy aero but the HEMI engine too. Mopar's big wing cars were essentially unfair hackers and that's another side of motorsport that has countless stories. Even toyota hacked/cheated in 90s rally before the heads released and banned them for a year I believe. They pretty much did it again with the Toyota GT1 at Le Mans racing in the GT1 class when it clearly looks like a prototype. Basically being a Japanese daytona if you ask me lmao
The Viper was a natural born killer. Every race series it entered it was always heavily restricted in engine and tire. They did it to the Oreca red/white Vipers that dominated lemans. They even allowed Corvette to use an non-homologated 7 liter V8 while restricting the Vipers engine further and making it run skinnier tires than the Vette. Always loved these cars as they still won many series despite the severe bias it always got by racing orgs around the world.
I miss these beasts.
The FiA hates it when Americans show up to race and actually do well, I mean after the GT40 was dominant they threw a hissy fit and said it was unfair because of the engine is the biggest example
the viper GTS-R in its many forms will forever be the coolest GT car ever.
Ah motorsport, the only sport where the competition is rigged against you from the start, and even if you manage to overcome the adversity, you will be banned for not losing
I loved the move: This isn't a chrysler viper, it is a dodge viper.
you can say that they *dodged* a bullet there
The trio of cars that won everything even when officials tried every trick in the book to stop them but failed.
Audi Quattro.
Nissan Skyline R-32.
Dodge Viper.
The Quattro was outdated in 1 year, Peugeot was already faster in 1984.
@@R4M_Tommyso was the Viper by that point, but who was going to stop them?
Don’t forget the M3 GTR
The motoring world is a whole lot sadder now without the Viper. Such an amazing machine! It especially stings as a life long Viper lover and an American to have such an icon taken away :/
Stupid as shit how hard they nerfed the viper runs, the performance gap could have been incentive for competitors to build better cars, but nah, lets penalize the American car because we want the European ones to win
That part!
*The German ones*
I used to think it was stupid too, this was absolute Persecution of the dominate car because it was superior.
But if they spead up the competition to match the vipers back then the nurburgring n24h and vln series would have deteriorated alot sooner than it is already happening. There would be very few private teams left today if any. By nowbThis race would just of been a GT and TCR race and nothing more.
"However, Zakspeed had a plan...." What an incredible story! ...500kg of ballast?! hahahahah
500 kg of pure copium
500kg of ballast and they STILL couldn't out-race it. Only a mechanical failure kept it from holding first.
And even that was a consequence of the said ballast! The Viper was a true beast@@reinbeers5322
In an American racing series, I think it was the Speedvision World Challenge series, the viper was hit with everything, weight penalties, restrictor plates, and even a maximum tire width of 10 inches. This meant a race car was actually slower than it’s production counterpart. In the hands of Bobby Archer, it remained a top 3 finisher until the series ended.
But I keep hearing in these comments that only the German VLN rule makers were against the Viper?! 😉 IMO, if the Viper had the best balance of engine capacity, weight, aerodynamics and so forth under the regulations it deserves to win.
watched this video from start to end 3 times since it was out, and even as a fan of the Viper, I'm still flabbergasted by the sheer capability of the truck-powered snake, and the wits of Zakspeed that made them as legendary as the car already is. Thanks for making this video, I'm glad to find your channel in the best way possible.
WOW, and people complain about modern BoP? This is 1000 times worse! Still, great job by the team with all the cheeky mods, I didn't know the story of this car!
I just love these stories of motorsport. The ingenuity to work around the rules , or bend the rules. The stories between the rule makers and teams.
Damn that fuel tank rule hack was GENIUS. And the blanking off two cylinders on the V10 - amazing. Very clever. Pity the rulemakers didn't see it that way. DId Zakspeed ever try to fight it in court?
Great bit of automotive history, and the Ace Combat Zero OST in the background was a lovely touch!
Very glad to read i wasn't the only one who got it!
it's such a shame that a lot of people only just now have started to appreciate how crazy the viper is
Great video, the early 2000's gt scene was truly wild. I find it to be greatly overlooked, modifying factory racecars is as crazy as it gets.
And just like that, zakspeed is my favorite team, all because of that spiteful move at the end lol
LeMans officials constantly make rules to keep US manufacturers from winning. From the viper penalties, to adding hundreds of lbs of weight to the C5R, it’s always been a shit show. More recently, the FIA has prevented Cadillac from competing in F1 with essentially no reason whatsoever.
The rise of the Vipers always echoed something similar happening on the other side of the planet, when the Skyline GT-R slammed into the scene like the asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs. Those monsters took their series by storm until there was barely anything else left.
Dream car. From 1996 til the end of time. The Viper literally takes my breath away.
So in 2002, they basically were changing the rules on the go just to penalize the Viper (I mean, why the 2nd 45 min. stop & go when it made its way to 3rd place?
its pretty common for race organizers to change the rules of a series just because of one dominating car lol, tbf it creates a poor viewing experience since we all know whos gonna win and it removes competition since everyone is incentivized to copy the winners, but of course changing them sucks for the individual team, "most" times its better for the sport as a whole
@@michael5455 “it removes competition to have a dominant car” you know what else removes competition? Removing the competition for factory teams so that they don’t get their ass beat by an American car on home soil. It’s LITERALLY cheating
@@Dasbulldoge of course it makes it easier but thats the way it is bruh, competition is not lvl 100 vs lvl 20, nobodys watchin that, the factory teams didnt even want the car to get banned cos it felt like their win was being handed to them but it was either they levelled the playing field or kept on losing, and most enthusiasts might watch a race even though they know whos gonna win, but therees no battle, thats no fun is it
@@michael5455 "... but there's no battle..." There's no incentive to get better. THAT'S no fun
@@Dr.Spatula brotherman, of course its whack and it sucks for all parties, but whenever this shit happens theyre gonna pull the plug every single time, they dont give a shit about one teams feelings. if every other team is obsolete because of the one team, they will fuck over the one team. im jus explainin/justifying why they do it, it is what it is 🗿
The Viper has since the launch off the coupe model been my number one favorite car ever. I've never driven one but got a ride along 10 years ago in a 1997 model. You could feel how the power was almost uncontrollable in the street version. The owner is a race driver who has driven a GTS race version and he loved it. He said the performance was totally different from a stock vehicle. I'm not giving up my dream to own a Viper one day, even if it tries to kill me.
Fascinating. I had no idea of the success, trials and tribulations the Zakspeed team went through over the years. This video just made my day.
I used a Viper as my daily driver in Florida, from 1997 thru 2005.
Rock solid car for 8 years and over 100k miles. It was driving hard at times, and even saw track time at Sebring.
These things just DON'T BREAK.
PERIOD!
Crazy how far the Nurburgring organisers went to reign in the Viper. Shows how formidable it really was.
The red viper with the white stripes and yellow headlights was my first crush as a kid. Such an amazing car
Zakspeed actually returned to the Norschleife with a GT3 SRT Viper in 2019/2020, but sadly they didn't participate in many races, and complained that the BOP made them uncompetitive. They've recently sold or are still selling the particular car, which I find rather sad, as I was overjoyed to see them return with a Viper.
Lets all chip in and buy it together to use it as a trackday weapon
BOP basically made most Vipers Mute after many manufacturers complained of them being way too fast. The Viper was a vehicle that didn't need to sandbag in order to win, so it pissed off the Likes of Audi and Porsche to a point that they lobbied against it and nerf it everyway possible.
This thing was also to damn loud for racing in the peaceful eifel. Germany - the only (?) place in the world, where racetracks have noise-limitations.
@@Paolo_Pinkas747 oh thats not true tho. I live in Canada and 90% of the tracks have noise limits too, even some below 100dB...
@@Paolo_Pinkas747 yeah alot of tracks do actually. Even some if the gran prix tracks but that's not going to be a problem for f1 engines today.
Am I mistaken but I believe thunder Hill race track that hosts the 25 hour race there ironically has quite a strict noise limit. I remember hearing in the past how a particular Honda integra touring car was disqualified because of noise limits being broken.
At the end i was expected Zakspeed to have their whole Viper's engine to run not on petrol but clean, efficient, high performance spite as fuel
My love for the Dodge Viper will never fade away. Childhood dream car and still is today. One day I will purchase one.
i used to love watching Team Oreca race at lemans ; the 1998 was epic !
also back in 2006 or maybe just after the ban in 2007 i cant remember exactly ; at the ring; one evening i went for a few laps when the track just opened after industry pool, back when you could literally be alone on the track or just see one single car all evening...... was pulling towards Shwedeunkreuz; around 210ish kph ( E30 200hp back then ) look up in the rear view mirror barelly out of flugplatz; a red dot ... with a massive wing ... immidiatly recognized the Zackspeed Viper....
just pulling out the bend and going towarsds aremberg ; i think to myself ; hmm... got plenty of room to get there and let him passe once i start down Fuchsrohre..... i barely had finished thinking about the futur pass that i feel a presence behind me right out the corner i was just in... and allready past me and down the hill.... all in an instant .... he was on a mission... to have fun on a close to empty road.
the smell of perfect engine tuning on high octane ; with the same smell you'd get on a drag strip from the most performant engines... i could still smell the exhaust on the viper until bergverk easy...
Now has surpassed the Holden Le Mans video for the most viewed on this channel, at least for now.
Very glad to see so many people have lots of interest in my favorite car as well.
Viper is love.
Viper is life.
Well done! I always get a kick out of people (typically Europeans) that say the Viper didn't handle well, lol! The Viper has always been a monster on the track, as long as the driver knew what he was doing... The 911 is another staple as well, but even Porsche realized the rear engine was at a disadvantage and wisely went with the superior mid-engine layout. Too bad Porsche continues to handicap the Caymen. The Corvette's are another great story in this time period and worthy of another domination video...
Haha the viper they sell and that viper they raced are 2 totally different cars the body work just looks the same, don’t kid your self a production viper doesn’t handle like 99% of American cars that’s why the French made the chassis, did you watch this video with out the sound on or something 😂😂
@@ryanhenderson5859 Of course the chassis is somewhat different, none of these cars are 100% production based, lol! Having owned and raced production based Vipers (I still own a gen 2 coupe), as well as Porsches and Vettes, so many people are ignorant to the fact that Vipers can be excellent handling cars on both the street and the track. In fact, with proper sorting and prep they are real weapons. Anyone that says otherwise likely has little firsthand experience with what a well sorted Viper is truly capable of. Being mid engine, having a rigid chassis, IRS, and very wide tires, they obvious come with some inherent advantages over most other vehicles, regardless of country. Do they need tweaking to get the most out of them, sure, but they have the right stuff for the most part out of the box. If the driver is skilled and knows how to handle the massive torque with few nannies, they can be real competitors (especially for their time period)!
@@ssoffshore5111 not being funny but most car can be hot half Ling on track and road with proper sorting and prep but they car they sell you isn’t proper sorted and prepped as for the normal guy buying it and just driving off the forecourt and takes it to a garage to have light built changed for that guy and how production cars are judged no they are known for there handling, as for the right driver that’s also for any car, watch Misha Charoudin he drives random car around Nurburgring prob faster than most people could drive any car around the place, I’m not saying a viper with right set up or right driver isn’t hood it just that apples to any car, when people say vipers don’t turn they mean off the forecourt and neither racing driver at the wheel
@@ryanhenderson5859 We'll have to agree to disagree. I have a lot of experience with these cars. For the reasons I mentioned above, even out of the box they handle extremely well (again for their respective time period) and can be made even better with a more cornering focused alignment (again true with most cars). I honestly think the cars get a bad handling reputation due to the huge torque and lack of nannies. In the hands of a less experienced driver that can be a dangerous combination, especially with a car that has a very high amount of grip, that will truly bite you if you aren't experienced and smooth enough to handle that torque (with little electronic safety net). If you haven't had a chance to drive one of these cars, and preferably on a track where they can actually be pushed, you're missing an amazing experience. Especially with the gen 5 ACR, it will blow your mind...
@@ssoffshore5111 I think the bad rep come from all the big earner having mid life break down and buying one or the rich kids using daddy’s money to buy one, any car can be good or bad thing we definelty agree with the right person and understanding of what you driving no car is that bad you just have to adapt you driving, and after that car set up will make it easier on you
such an insane and awesome car, every generation. it has set/broken some of the most track records of any car (though, I think many have been beaten in recent years by much more expensive cars)
But none of those that beat him has a stick.
I still remember these races. Every success seemed to be drenched by rules changes, allegations, and outright punitive measures. The Viper was simply too powerful and capable for this class. It was the biggest fish in the pond by a long shot, and deserved to be in its own class of racing.
2:26 "the turbocharged, wide-bodied weapon, designed to go head to head with the armada of Porsche 935s." God damn this guy knows how to write sick narration lines
The only car to be able to beat the dominating 935k3s.......
Funny how the cut the balls off of ZS for years, but never even give Manthey of Porsche a 2nd look.
But now it's ferraris take :)
German officials: Your car is...problematic
Zakspeed: Try and stop me
German officials: sure, here's a 1 1/2 penalty for no real reason whatsoever
Zakspeed: It was okay but can you do better?
That makes me so angry
Viper is so iconic and great car of its era! Great looking and huge performance even it wasn't mechanically super modern design, it is still great and fast! I kinda like its design idea behind! Sadly new cars are all too boring
the viper is probably the craziest car that was ever mass produced. the completely overkill 8.0L V10 in the front of a lightweight and absolutely beautiful body. its such a barbarian concept compared to your average mid-engined supercar. and the fact it made an extremely successful race car with this philosophy only adds to the appeal.
@@test-tl8dt The Viper was just a modern take on the Cobra, and it was dreamed up in secret away from Chrysler executives and accountants to turn Dodge from the brand that would sell you your first minivan, to the cowboy hat carmaker we know today.
There may not be a Viper now, but when the world needs it the most... the Viper's spirit will come back to bring us out of some stupid malaise era.
Zakspeed had some of the most creative tricks in racing.
Smokey Yunick enters chat
Crazy how crooked the ADAC proved to be. HIGHLY doubt they'd have gone to such efforts if the Viper was a German made car, IE the V8 E46 M3's that were nowhere near production cars. It must have seriously irked the ADAC when they finished the Viper tenure with back to back top-3's.
The viper that could! Absolutely love the idea of it being an annoyance to officials. Awesome stuff from Zakspeed back in the day
Makes me cringe how the competition gets banned, rather than rival competitors actually being pushed to make THEIR cars more/as competitive…
A brilliant video by the way😁
Just like the shitshow of F1. How can you claim to be the PINNACLE when you snuff out innovation?
@@toddthezondalover645 One of the various reasons why I stopped watching F1, today the manufacturers only make their cars more modern not because they want, is because FIA wants, and that's not how innovation works. So if a guy like a Adrian Newey cam with a revolutionary idea that can change F1 forever, he can't do it, cuz is 100% that the FIA won't approve it, so instead of breeding innovation, the F1 is actually KILLING innovation. And that's just sad, you know?
So happy to see you made a video about my favorite GT car, and a very unique one it is. Thanks for the video and keep up the great work!
I love how in random motorsport video I hear Ace Combat music. You have new subscriber thanks to topics and music.
Seeing fellow AC fans in AC unrelated videos always put a big smile on my face.
Zakspeed REALLY loved that Viper 😅👍
Dude vipers are wild. There’s a guy that lives a few blocks away from me that has one with a cut off exhaust. I swear to god it’s louder than when I had my f250 with a single stack out the bed. Whenever he fires it up you could be in a dead sleep and it’ll wake your stupid ass up.
it's insane how it was giving the clk gtr a run for its money. THE CLK-GTR which in itself is already a monster.
If you can find footage of the GTSR's racing at the 24H of Daytona it's fun to watch. The Vipers lumbering down the long straights and the banking so fast that the prototypes had to wait until the turns to take them was common.
The Viper Just produced tons of torque but the Aeropackage just wasn't there. Imagine if Panoz used a Viper V10 rather than develop a Heavy Arse Hybrid system, it'd be a Viper GT-1 lmao.
@@youngrody2386 Panoz simply insisted on using a Ford 7.0 L V8, because it was cheaper to use and easier to maintain overseas (particularly when they had to travel to Japan and Finland and then from Sebring, Florida to Monterrey, California, on top of competing at Le Mans, back to back for two years in 1997 and 1998) because V10s are very complicated to keep running, not to the level of a V12, but hard enough. They still used that engine with great success in North America, despite losing ground to Audi and eventually the Dyson-operated MG Lolas due to the high weight and cumbersome nature of a front-mounted engine. Also didn't help that the Viper eventually lost ground to the Corvettes at the end due to better factory support and drivercraft.
@@DR3ADER1 That's the interesting story of the Panoz GT1 car, it made it's unconventional Engine layout for it's class amazing inspite the serious cost gap between itself and it's rivals and achieved success. Though the V10 was very good, the V8 was still great.
The Vipers did lose the edge to the Corvettes, but wasn't it also because the Vipers were slightly restricted? Or was it because they used the 7.0 Litre V8 that wasn't homolugated on Road Variants at the time?
@@youngrody2386, They lost the battle to the 'Vettes due to Chrysler's dwindling interest in supporting the program as a factory effort. So ORECA had to shoulder the work throughout the 2000s with mixed results.
When a set of rules were made because of you you know you made waves.
Stewards back then were crazy. Understandable restricting the car, but tossing out penalties and disqualifying the car just for being quick is outright shameful.
They clearly didn't understand the role of rules vs. balance of performance at all.
It's a shame that Zakspeed didn't sue their asses off, they would've had a clear-cut case. But then again the trial would've been in German courts...
I didn't know any of this. Thx, great content.
The Viper is so alpha.
Wait, they took 2 cylinders and just plugged them up and said yup, that'll do, let's go racing. That is like the most American thing to do, to the most American "supercar" you could get. I love the Viper, but come on that thing wanted to kill you. And they hacked that thing to hell and back. Love it.
Zakspeed are Germans
I know, but the solution was soooo American lol 🤣.
And honestly, that makes it even better, if they would've been American, I wouldn't had to have learned about this through UA-cam, Americans would still be on the hood of the Dodge Intrepid grunting America, fu¢k yeah lol
@@danarose2677 its not. Its understanding the rules and smart thinking. Thats more of a germand or italian thing.
@@valorfightforthewin what an asshat, these guys sounds like a NASCAR team, but cause they are German, and you are elitist, they are better right? Let me tell you a little secret, not a single person walking this planet past, present, or future chooses where they are born. Get over yourself.
Officials : "Why don't you DIE ?!"
Viper: "ZAKSPEED, SON. They respond to all your BS rule changes and bias!
Easily THE BEST story you have covered yet!
Zakspeed should have sued or bring the results into court in 2002. It's not even subtle. As soon as the Dodge was doing well, they just kept adding massive penalties for no reason. Thankfully, Ferrari were able to win this years n24 without any Deutsch bias from the stewards (unless they got disqualified and I haven't noticed lol).
The penalty weight is absutely insane. Shame on the other manufacturers.
Shows that car development peaked in late 90s to early 00s and became more and more of a bling bling battle between manufacturers imho.
They didn't bother slowing the Ferrari down because it was owned by the hometown team Frikadelli Racing which was the team the brilliant Sabine Schmitz drove for. Penalizing that team would've been sacrilege to the local fans. Any other team though would've probably been fair game for nonsense judging by this video.
@@TeamAbrams Fair point there. The rest of ther top 5 were all German marques, and you have to go all the way down to 21st place to find the first non-German team, in a SP10 Supra. One thing for certain is that it doesn't effect lower classes, as Hyundai were able to take the victory in TCR, but I can't help but feel that other teams just won't bother showing up because of the farcical past of the event. Its a good event, don't get me wrong, but it is really a national event, not an international one.
Very cool Video. I knew about the ZakSpeed car winning all those races but I had no idea all the hoops they had to jump though to make it happen. Well done on them. Fun fact over here in the states there was a team that ran a Viper in the Trans Am series with a V8. The series had a simple formula, the engine size dictated the weight the car during the races. So the team installed a Dodge V8 to race at the same lighter weight the Corvettes had at the time.
9:51 theres a youtube channel i think throttle house or some shit they actually have a 6.2 S/C hemi in a viper
When you're too good, they always wanna toss you out or handicap you.
Absolute shameful debauchery!
If the world isn't against me it isn't a fair fight! ^_^
Stories like this are exactly why I love motorsports.
What an amazing story! I geniunely never heard of Zakspeed running a Viper before. Learned a lot today.
If the officials were math teachers: What is the quickest way to 0 from 10?
A:10-10
Viper engineers: remove the 1 and you are left with 0.
Officials: Not convinced - detention for you and your family.
Really great and enjoyable to watch and learn the Racing Story of the Famed Viper..
Cheers from Southern California
I remember watching it as a teen in different gt categories on eurosport from the late 90s to early 2000s. Was difficult to get much racing in the UK for the vln back then, but I didn't realise how much the organisers tried to kill it off. Massive respect to zakspeed who also raced one of my favourite race cars ever, the opel calibra. Maybe you could do a video on the 1997 Zakspeed Calibra that never raced. Beautiful looking car (in aero terms)
Watching this back, it's gotta be one of the greatest racecars of the 90s.
Just want to say that I've been going through your videos and love what you're doing. Quality, nerdy videos about mostly retro motorsport with Ace Combat tracks in the background? Instant subscribe. Keep it up!
TWO 45 minute stop-go penalties?!?
That’s unreal hating 🤣🤣🤣
I’m a simple man. I hear Ace Combat tunes, I like the video
Imagine making new rules just to beat one team but losing to them anyway.
Not so uncommong. U most likely have heard Audi in Trans am series or Skyline in ATCC.
Edit: Also Mazda in Le Mans with the rotary engine.
@@crabby112 the last one had nothing to do with mazda
@@hertzwave8001 It had to do with the engine. Which mazda's car was sole user for.
@@crabby112 Audi had 4 times the budget and was a completely factory backed effort.
Zakspeed was a german privateer team receiving minor updates from Chrysler 😂
@@crabby112 Audi and Porsche turned IMSA into a spending game, which caused everyone else to drop out.
Here are some more informations about this race:
Basically there were a couple of DTM cars which were transformed to long distance runners but they were seen as unreliable. Then there was the BMW team which was the big favourite next to the Viper. But they made the stupid decission to cool the engine with dry-ice shortly before the race, which broke the oil lines, thus breaking both cars in the first lap. It was an embaressment for the team and even the head of motorsport of BMW flew in from Monaco to help getting the cars back on track. (which they achieved after a long repair)
I think after seeing the BMW shenanigans the officals set their sights on Zakpeed, preventing them their earned victory by randomly throwing penanties at them. I remember watching the 2003 race live and beeing furious. The brodcast of the race is on youtube (only in german) and after watching it again its amazing how biased even the commentators and drivers were against the Viper. During the race they invited some drivers of the factory teams to do Co- commentary and everyone was bitching how Zakspped is destroying the sport etc.
So yeah, this was a win for the german manufactures by bribing the officials. If the Viper wasn't penalized it would have won.
Good lord it's like putting Goku in a kid's karate tournament!
Absolutely awesome video from the history books of the eifel. Stories like this are the proof that the 90-00s motorsport was a amazing era. I watched as a kid on DSF highlights from 2001 and the skyline and viper just stuck in my head since.
Love the Ace Combat menu music in the background. Nice touch.
Great video, Had no idea ZakSpeed put up with so much bull shit from the officials.
I've always been a Ford guy. But vipers always have a place in my heart.
The greatest crossover I never thought I needed: Motorsports with Ace Combat Zero music
They should not have DQd them during the race! The gas thing wasn't a rule yet. You can't just add rules during a race.
in europe they love to do that lol
RIGHT !!!!!!!!!!
Back in 1993 - Dodge Viper was my first Toy Car Model by Burago in 1:18 scale. Still pleasing my eyes on a shelf.