Vintage Footage: 1996 Viper GTS Coupe Delivery September 1996

[njsteve]

Back in 1996, if you bought originally and still owned your Viper R/T-10, (we had a '93 and still have it today) Dodge sent you a coupon good for an allocation for purchasing a 1996 Viper GTS Coupe. You could bring the coupon to any dealership and order the car. It was a real-life Willy Wonka Golden Ticket. If was good for you only and the dealer had no say in it. You'd work the purchase deal directly with them and if you didn't like the terms, you took your coupon and walked into the next dealer. I bought mine at Tom Edwards Dodge in Bartow, Florida. I also purchased my 93 there so they knew me well and agreed to my $500 over invoice purchase offer. Here's the video of the day it arrived and the dealer prep on the car. I sold it back in 1999 in case anyone still has this car it's vin #200222.

[JRC99]

This spec GTS and an '03 SRT-10 vert are my dream Vipers. I can't say I'll ever own either, but, damn, I want one.

[A12pilot]

Good stuff, Steve. Yes…..you need one!



Cheers
Dave

[njsteve]

LOL. Someone commented on the video on hugh-toob and it reminded me why I sold it. It was poisonous. No, not venomous, actually poisonous. When it was delivered, the chemical outgassing from the adhesive resin (the body panels were Sheet Molded Compound SMC not fiberglass) used to assemble the structural sub-assemblies was so toxic especially in the Florida heat, that if you left the car in the sun with the windows up, you would vomit and pass out from the vapors inside the car. It was terrible.

Way back when, I worked part time in a body shop so I was use to fiberglass repairs on Vettes and also vacationed near a surfboard shop in CapeCod that did repairs, and the chemical smell was nothing like that: it was 100 times worse.

Dodge was aware of the problem but very tight-lipped about it and would just gaslight you (pun fully intended) and say to park it with the windows rolled down. They never did anything about it. That was why we sold it in late 1999. The outgassing never went away. At the time, my wife was pregnant with our son and there was no way that car was going to be near the house with the toxic cloud it was emanating.

I wonder if they spilled a large amount of improperly mixed/uncured adhesive in between the panels somewhere and that was the cause. It was not isolated to my car, many others owners complained of it as well.

[njsteve]

Internet Sleuths Win!

Someone found the car. It's now in California and painted dark blue.

https://www.beverlyhillscarclub.com/..._uvlmyKJQHmGPg

[njsteve]

This is what I posted on FB on the Viper Owners site:

"WOW! It still exists. I had painted it BMW Polaris Silver in 1997 to try to get rid of the outgassing smell that was so bad in the car. That was one of the reasons I eventually sold it in 1999 - it was downright poisonous to be around if it had been sitting in the sun. Lots of new owners complained about the smell but Dodge just "gaslighted " them into thinking they were imagining it. I'm beginning to think that the assembly line improperly mixed the panel adhesive or spilled a bunch of uncured adhesive in between the panels. The source could never be isolated but it was a health hazard to my family so we sold it.
Yup, I forgot back in the day I paid to have the hEnNeSeY 5-hunnert Package sent me to install...of course he never sent all the parts but did send the little dash plaque! I was told the parts should arrive by next week. Just shipped them out today. "

Here's some photos in 1997 after we had it painted.

[dykstra]

Love those blue/white stripe GTS'!!