Out of everything that the Dodge Viper ever got knocked for by critics and enthusiasts, only one item actually made sense. The violent temperment, the “suffer no fools” handling, the lack of safeguards for the unskilled and the absolute refusal to shove an automatic gearbox into the car, to us anyways, aren’t faults…they are character traits that were instilled by the Viper team from the first meeting. That’s just the way the car is. No, the one fault that was honest was it’s exhaust note. A car that apes the AC/Shelby Cobra and looks like the ultimate roadster fantasy should not sound like a hot-rodded Dyson vacuum. You can compare the noise to an eight cylinder or a ten-cylinder…it’s not great. And some fans were thrown off by the V-10 in the first place. Why didn’t Dodge just use a stomper of a V8? (Clue: the 318 and 360 just weren’t up to the task of making horsepower and meeting EPA requirements at the same time.)

The first-generation roadsters are now in reasonable price territory, but a good deal of money certainly has been thrown at this candy green-painted Mopar. You’ll notice that it’s been back-halved and tubbed out for a full Pro Street look. We can dig that. We can dig a blower sticking through the snake’s clamshell hood, too. But we suspect that an 850 horsepower Chevrolet 427 wearing a BDS 6-71 iron lung on top might raise a couple of eyebrows…some good, some not so good. And just to really troll Viper purists, there is an automatic in the car, a GM TH400.

Does it matter that this Viper has been changed up from stock? Far as we are concerned…no. It’s still brutal, still fast and will still scare the hell out of the unsuspecting and unskilled. Far as we are concerned, it’s doing just fine.

Ebay Link: 1998 Dodge Viper RT/10