By Steven Symes 
There’s no doubt the Dodge Viper is a special car, something people back in the 90s understood well enough. That’s probably why someone whipped out their camcorder to record the delivery of this 1996 Viper GTS as it’s unloaded at a dealership in Bartow, Florida.
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While the Viper R/T 10 was a tough act to follow, designers at Chrysler punched things up for the GTS model. Some of the body flairs and other details are even more flamboyant, without crossing into being ridiculous.
But the Viper GTS appears more civilized with its hardtop and roll-up windows. Just like how the Viper R/T 10’s original design inspiration was the Shelby Cobra, the GTS is the spiritual successor to the Shelby Daytona.
Ford fans get a little rankled about that because they want to believe Carroll was beholden to the Blue Oval and none other. But the truth is he had a small role in the development of the Viper, which follows his formula of a small sports car with an overly large engine crammed inside.
Engineers made some big improvements with the GTS, which shares shockingly few parts with the R/T 10. Not only is the engine upgraded to produce more power, the chassis is stiffer, resulting in better, more responsive handling. Plus, the upgraded cooling system addressed overheating issues which plagued the first snake.
It’s no wonder people were excited for the Viper GTS to hit the market. Fast, sultry-looking, the Dodge promised plenty of thrills. What we didn’t know at the time was as the Dodge brand kept pushing performance boundaries, it would help reignite American sports cars and muscle cars
When the guy zooms in on the window sticker, you see the total price for the Viper is a whole whopping $69,300. That was expensive back then, and while it still isn’t cheap for a car these days, just try touching a hardcore V10 performance ride for anything near that amount.
Check out the video, which is a little interesting thanks to the lack of camera stabilization tech back then. It’s a nice slice of automotive history documented for future generations.
Images via Blarneystone13/YouTube