Designer Ralph Gilles on the 2013 SRT Viper

Designer Ralph Gilles on the 2013 SRT Viper

May 3, 2012 2:28 PM Text Size: A . A . A

We actually started off with having a grille. We had SRT’s version of the crosshair because it started off as being a Dodge. When we decided to make it an SRT we got rid of the classic [Dodge] crosshair and made it black on purpose to kind of make it secondary. [Editor’s note: While GM has shed brands, Chrysler is adding them. It peeled off Ram as its standalone truck marque and now SRTâ€"short for street racing technologyâ€"will be its high-performance brand.] We used to have a grille texture in there that we had to get rid of for maximum cooling. The opening is about as big as we can make it before it gets too big visually. The lower opening and the side vents allow air to pass into the wheel well and back out. This releases some pressu re in that area for aero.

We learned a lot with our Dodge SRT-4 ACR. The ACR came with a loose splitter that was attached to the bottom of the front fascia. This time we tried to style the lower front fascia to be as splitter-like as we could to create the maximum amount of downforce in the front. The new car has quite a bit of downforce built into it. Those three things make up the front of the vehicle.

We wanted to preserve the side gill. Obviously that’s from the ’96 Viper. We’ve kind of played with the side gill over the years.

The super gill is unmistakably a Viper cue. The gill that we have today is actually the deepest one we’ve ever done. And it’s 100 percent functionalâ€"in the past it’s only been decorative. It’s almost 2 1/2 times as wide as it’s ever been. And it’s all about getting the pressure and heat out of the engine bay for stability and cooling.

Yeah. I grew up kind of loving that car. That car was in clay when I came to Chrysler. I was like, oh my god, it’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. And it has timeless proportions. There are certain things about that car. I always joke that it’s like a human body. It has these appealing shapes that are always going to be appealing. I don’t care if it’s 100 years from now or 200 years from now, these curvaceous shapes are just ever appealing.

We wanted to take some of that essence and make it more modern so the whole car is not such a cartoon. The ’96 had some very exaggerated proportions, where the hood and the body were almost disconnected. In this case, they’re much more holistic. The front fender lunges all the way to the mirror and then continues and kind of blends into the door and the bottom of the window.

Post a comment

PopularMechanics.com RSS