The future of SRT Viper

[JHamilton]

Originally Posted by Salamus

I don't think there is going to be a next year.

The situation in the Crimea is bad and all but surely we'll make it through. If not, I think I would survive pretty well in a Mad Max-type scenario.

[Salamus]

Allow me to clarify, I don't think there is going to a next year for SRT Viper.

And if people want me to elaborate, I think the program could shut down due to lack of sales. You could argue that the racing presence brings value to the brand but if cars aren't being sold, where is the money coming from? SRT and its parent companies are businesses...surely if the racing presence is not helping sales, then there is little point in continued funding past 2014. But 2015 is far away and things can change from now till then.

[GT6]

If the racing programe is organised correctly then sponsorship should contribute a large share of the costs and with some decent people around selling tv rights to the story etc then it can almost pay for itself

[Rodger Davies]

I'm afraid sponsorship will go down as one of those 'things that used to happen' in the original ROI sense. In the 'sporting' side of racing, more and more funding is coming from drivers' private sponsors (more often who you know than what you do), from the manufacturers or occasionally wealthy benefactors. The 'entertainment' branch (F1, NASCAR) is primarily kept going by the TV money. NASCAR is probably the closest we get these days to sponsor-driven programmes.

Kaspersky and Gulf are not providing vast funding to Ferrari and Aston respectively, and Porsche and Corvette's works cars are practically bereft of external brands now, any they do get will be appreciated but not counted upon I suspect.

[Salamus]

They have Pennzoil as the primary sponsor for one of the cars but the other only has SRT decals. So SRT is definitely putting a lot of money into this project.

As for TV...well, it's not great.

In my book, SRT is as much a factory-funded team as Porsche and Corvette are.

[TF110]

Hope they have success. Im counting on it actually. They were the rightful winners at Sebring, and even though they came 2nd place, their speed in the late part was faster than any other gte.

[joeb]

Originally Posted by JHamilton

The situation in the Crimea is bad and all but surely we'll make it through. If not, I think I would survive pretty well in a Mad Max-type scenario.

Post of the month!

[aneesh99]

If they can't shift their road car, I think we'll see the programme getting trimmed more and more. It's cliche as flip but the old adage of 'race on Sunday, sell on Monday' isn't wrong, even if sources inside Chrysler were stating that motorsport and corporate are treated as separate entities. Still waiting in Ralph Giles to shed some light on what's going on (hopefully not something akin to his response to Donald Trump!)

Damn shame, the team looked smart and the car was great. Reality sucks sometimes. I should probably crawl back into my parents basement now....

[MoMedic9019]

The LM entry was cut due to the insane cost....

The amount of money to transport the cars from the US to Europe and back 6 times for the BoP test, the test day, and then the race is massive. To go along with that, now they are supposed to develop a homologation LM aero kit at an increased expense, for build, development, and testing...

This is simply SRT saying, sorry, we aren't going to spend that kind of money for one race.

[Ginaro Zukovsky]

Originally Posted by MoMedic9019

The LM entry was cut due to the insane cost....

The amount of money to transport the cars from the US to Europe and back 6 times for the BoP test, the test day, and then the race is massive. To go along with that, now they are supposed to develop a homologation LM aero kit at an increased expense, for build, development, and testing...

This is simply SRT saying, sorry, we aren't going to spend that kind of money for one race.

What are you on about? The cars don't go back to the USA between the test day and the start of scrutineering - that would be pointless given there's less than 7 days between them. http://www.drivesrt.com/news/2013/06...rney-home.html

And there's been no mention of any date for the Le Mans aero test, but with the test track 3-4 hours away it could probably be done between the test day and scrutineering to save costs.

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by Ginaro Zukovsky

And there's been no mention of any date for the Le Mans aero test, but with the test track 3-4 hours away it could probably be done between the test day and scrutineering to save costs.

I doubt that would give them enough time to do what they need to do.

[Lagunaseca_4life]

Nvm

[MoMedic9019]

Six times, four times...whatever...

It's still more than was planned for.

The BoP test will not be during the week of scrutineering, I've heard late April or early may, two days.

[Lagunaseca_4life]

Originally Posted by MoMedic9019

Six times, four times...whatever...

It's still more than was planned for.

The BoP test will not be during the week of scrutineering, I've heard late April or early may, two days.

Yea that'd be right between long beach and laguna.theyd have to ship cars and equipment from long beach then back to laguna then back to Le Mans.yea that'd get expensive really fast.i remember reading last year they had to rent equipment and transporters from farnbacher's father (old team equipment) and also had to buy stuff ineurope to setup the factory paddock.

So yea it might be a pretty big budget just got bigger than it could.

And why does the aco want aero bop now on gte-pro? I thought only p2 had homologated aero? Why mess With the gte's more than the already aston vs Ferrari vs Porsche bop mess?

[TF110]

I like the idea. Low drag configuration specs will be nice to see. But costs might be the issue for some teams.

[chernaudi]

Some of us will have to get used to referring to the SRT Vipers as Dodges again: SRT has been absorbed as a sub-brand of Dodge (like BMW's M-Division, Mercedes-Benz AMG, etc), and all SRT cars will now be known as Dodge X SRTs.

[Mike E]

http://sportscar365.com/industry/srt...ram-continues/

Well, that strange little experiment is over. Can we have your cars back at Le Mans now, please?

[GT6]

Originally Posted by Mike E

http://sportscar365.com/industry/srt...ram-continues/

Well, that strange little experiment is over. Can we have your cars back at Le Mans now, please?

That would be nice, and with the possibility of a few spare slots on the le mans grid this year i am sure the ACO would do all they can to get the vipers back

[Deleted]

Good news.

In regards to Le Mans they used to be called Chrysler Vipers at la Sarthe, not Dodge Vipers.

[carbon_titanium]

Originally Posted by GT6

That would be nice, and with the possibility of a few spare slots on the le mans grid this year i am sure the ACO would do all they can to get the vipers back

unlikely, only if 2 entries decide to retire there will be room for SRT to come back... but the question is: Does really SRT/riley team want to run this year at le mans? without testing with michelin for a custom le mans compound they risk to have another embarassing week-end like 2013.

[Simmi]

Originally Posted by carbon_titanium

unlikely, only if 2 entries decide to retire there will be room for SRT to come back... but the question is: Does really SRT/riley team want to run this year at le mans? without testing with michelin for a custom le mans compound they risk to have another embarassing week-end like 2013.

There's zero chance of them running at Le Mans this year. Don't worry about it.

It will take more than a name change to bring them back. But at least they saw sense and reversed a properly stupid idea in SRT.

[pederb]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Good news.

In regards to Le Mans they used to be called Chrysler Vipers at la Sarthe, not Dodge Vipers.

Yes they were sold as Chrysler in Europe and Dodge in US.

Why, who knows but I'm sure they spent millions figure that out

[TheDude]

Originally Posted by Simmi

There's zero chance of them running at Le Mans this year. Don't worry about it.

thank the lords

[NaBUru38]

Chrysler were cars for riches, like Cadillac. Dodge always had sports cars: Charger, Challenger, Super Bee.

[Beetle]

Originally Posted by Mike E

http://sportscar365.com/industry/srt...ram-continues/

Well, that strange little experiment is over. Can we have your cars back at Le Mans now, please?

And the plot thickens. Highly unlikely we'll see them back to Le Mans this year, mainly because the race is only a month away and we still thankfully haven't dropped below 56 cars.