Hope you all enjoyed this epic 5-part series with RM Sotheby's! Which video was your favourite? 👇 Discover the Viper for sale here: rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/lm23/le-mans/lots/r0007-1996-chrysler-viper-gts-r/1345429
My favourite was the Aston Martin, since it has the best external features and has the greatest heritage. I really hope you consider making more videos like this in the future, along with regular vlogs. Have a nice day and keep up the great work!
Some channels they just sit around waxing lyrical and show some close up shots of lifelessly still & silent cars. You bring these legendary beasts to life for us and let us hear and even feel them roar. This is one the coolest experiences since Keiichi Tsuchiya's Best Motoring, where I almost feel like I'm being chucked about in my chair. 😁
Thank you for doing all these great videos. You are a legend Ben and a class act. You should have a show like this on full time. Appreciate all the videos
This and the yellow C5 vette are so iconic, I cannot even remember the rest of the cars these beasts were racing back then by how iconc and legendary these cars are. Brutal machine
@@superlight1999 it was true for a while, aside from exceptions like the viper and corvette starting with c5 Z06. But yeah if anyone has said it since ~2010 when the new camaro and Caddy platform came out they're just plain ignorant
Legendary, this car lead the way for a revival of American sports cars, and really reverted the notion that Americans were hopeless when it came to road racing performance, that they didn't have a real worthy car culture. I remember some commentators of the time saying "the Viper has a huge v10 engine so it's faster on the straights, but it's heavy! Let's see how it does around the corners... oh... it goes well too..." Then the Corvette C5 followed, the rebooted GT-40...
Youre joking aren't you? Most of the 90's was a wilderness for Le Mans while they overcame the loss of Group C, lowest attendances and participant numbers and liberties with the rules so you didn't know what the top category was with neutred prototypes and cars like the Dauer and Toyota TS020 allowed to participate despite being so far removed from the intention of the rules. Only two races in the 90's were of any quality 1990 and 1999.
I remember watching these dominate at Le Mans in the red white and blue Oreca paint. You could attach a house to them and they'd still win. 1999 is the first one I remember watching most of the 24 hrs.
For me it is the opposite. Love the Vipers built by the likes of ORECA. They seem like great racing cars - fast, really responsive engine and relatively easy to drive. They look and sound so raw as well.
@@vaenii5056 At the same time, an ACR or GTS-R would be close enough for me! I could easily modify it to feel similar anyway. They're probably the most reliable and cheap to maintain super car out there.
The unmistakable sound of the Viper, a howl & a gurgling at the same time. My favourite place to hear the Viper was at the top of the start/finish straight on the bank by the concert stage, hearing them come up into the first chicane and the blasting out on under the Dunlop bridge and down to the forest esses.
What car was my dream car as kid and still is now. Lucky enough to see Oreca Cars in FIA gt series at Silverstone and Donnington in 2000 & 2001. That noise always takes me back to those days.
@@BenCollinsDrives The Panoz is the unsung hero that decyphered this formula and opened up the road to the Viper, and subsequently the Corvette C5. Underapreciated for sure, perhaps because its consumer offers were not so well structured (or well styled).
Truly one of my all time fave GT racing cars. I never thought any GT racing cars could compete with my love for the Porsche 935's, but this car is it, specifically in the Oreca red/white/blue and the iconic red/white for the last two Le Mans victories. Vipers are truly epic street and race machines. Had I the coin, Id have a red/white Oreca in my garage along with a 935 Martini livery. Just such special cars these Vipers are. Sad day when Dodge decided to kill off its most epic car in its modern history. Thanks for letting us live vicariously through you.
Oh yes. Gran Turismo also provided some tidbits about the Viper, there's also the JGTC Viper. At this point it didn't even matter that the engine is up front or the giant engine. No turbo lag and no extra whoosh sounds other than the air at around 200 mph. Or as that Gran Turismo line said "Viper is about driving." Looks fun!
The Viper V10 is actually behind the front tires. So even though it is "front engine" the car can be considered "mid engine" as a result. The engine itself is relatively small in width/height, excluding its length of course. The displacement is large but it's not like it's some kind of boat anchor lol.
@@BenCollinsDrives The Vettes get the iconic status. The Vipers are pure menaces. The looks, the engine, the track records. The Vipers represents what the US can do when we decide to work outside our own traditional boundaries. I'm not shitting on Corvettes by any means. GM won't 'let go' like Chrysler has. The C8 is a new era for GM sports cars. Not Corvettes though, honestly. Front engine, rear drive, manual. The most desirable criteria for anyone who *enjoys driving. C7 will always be the last for me (and a hell of a car at that!). We'll see if the mid engine can rewrite some of Viper's records, I'm sure. Cheers Ben. Thanks for being the Best Stig!
Back in the days as a Young Boy i Had a 1:24 scale model of the zakspeed viper. I Loved IT so much. Absolut timeless Design still looking so damn cool and that legendary V10 IS second to none!!!! Thanks for the Video Mr.Collins Greets from Germany
The 96/97 blue on white Oreca Viper is my favourite of all the Vipers. The later red/white/blue and red/white cars were pretty great looking too, but the moment I first saw one of these aged 8 I knew I had a new favourite car.
My all-time favorite Viper remains the GTS-R GT2 Champion Edition Package, the street-legal version of this same car. Down to the white/blue paint, the huge rear wing and the front splitter. A dream machine.
These cars are so iconic! The gen 2 bodywork is epically timeless and beautiful as well! EDIT: I see this car sold for 623K EUR, that seems like a steal IMO!
I saw one of these back in the day, here in Australia in Geelong. It competed in what they called 'Speed trials' along the Waterfront, which was a 400 meter track with a straight curve. People could enter, and drive their cars flat out. 2 day event, modern cars first day, classics on the second. A red GTS-R was entered, and even with a slight bend in the track, the car ran close to a 10 sec quater.
God, wow. The memories of watching these machines race on TV, in Europe (I'm in Canada) and they would just effortlessly walk away from the competition.
Those car was dominating the 24h of Nürburgring so much that the organization of the event have to banned it. A old GT car dominating the new one was quite humiliating for the manufacturer.
Somewhat the same scenario with the ‘69-‘70 hemi Dodge Daytona/Plymouth Superbird. NASCAR banned them cause of their dominance. IMO the competition needs to go back to the drawing board and build a competitive car, not ban the one that developed a winning formula. Only difference here is the Daytona/Superbird we’re backed by the manufacturer. I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.
A mate of mine here in Australia had one until recently when he crashed it. He fitted a supercharger and had the same hp as this viper and it was crazy wicked fun to drive. And the noise, oh the noise
The last of the vipers they built I thought was just amazing and if I had been a rich man I would have had one I have as many pictures of it on my computer as a screen saver Good one ben 😍😍👍👍
Americans created machines that flew to space in the 60s and continue improving that today. Of course they can make some of the greatest race cars in the world too
@@BenCollinsDrives Indeed! I remember getting Road & Track with all the cars and those Diecast Cars and 18 Wheelers Trucks/Lorries. All kinds of match box! Were the days. One day, I'll have me a Early 90's Foxy Body Trans AM-ed also heavily inspired by Carol Shelby, Ken Miles and Mickey Thompson. On day.
@@BenCollinsDrives both to be honest, for it's uniqueness, looks, and performance (race car) in real life and I had many kms done in a Viper in the Gran Turismo games, ever since the first Gran Turismo game.
Misha drove the non-R without a stock setup and tires and it was beastly. I can imagine this version has much better handling & performance than the road version. Iconic car, great job Ben.
Beside for the Ford GT which was super limited production, the Viper is probably the greatest modern American car ever built, and maybe the greatest American car ever built, looking at performance. Especially the later ones.
Hi, just a bit of trivia for you; I had a friend that worked at Roush and they were commissioned by Chrysler to build the 1st v-10 block engines. Then later when they decided to run the ALMS series in America Roush built then engines for them.
I'm old so I don't remember when this was but I saw this similar car at Laguna Seca in the same year that that car won Le Mans. 1997? Anyway, badass watching the (at then) World GT Championship.
Hope you all enjoyed this epic 5-part series with RM Sotheby's! Which video was your favourite? 👇
Discover the Viper for sale here:
rmsothebys.com/en/auctions/lm23/le-mans/lots/r0007-1996-chrysler-viper-gts-r/1345429
I enjoyed it, thank you. Favorites would be the Nissan R90ck and the Porsche 962, although they are all very cool.
My favourite was the Aston Martin, since it has the best external features and has the greatest heritage.
I really hope you consider making more videos like this in the future, along with regular vlogs.
Have a nice day and keep up the great work!
Some channels they just sit around waxing lyrical and show some close up shots of lifelessly still & silent cars. You bring these legendary beasts to life for us and let us hear and even feel them roar. This is one the coolest experiences since Keiichi Tsuchiya's Best Motoring, where I almost feel like I'm being chucked about in my chair. 😁
Thank you for doing all these great videos. You are a legend Ben and a class act. You should have a show like this on full time. Appreciate all the videos
only niggle I have is Ben saying it won in "1988"
This and the yellow C5 vette are so iconic, I cannot even remember the rest of the cars these beasts were racing back then by how iconc and legendary these cars are. Brutal machine
Like a dozen Porsches IIRC
Back then, they were just racing a bunch of copy & paste German cars. 😅
The Viper is definitely one of the coolest cars to come out of America 😃🙌
And people still says American cars can't turn. I'm getting sick of that joke already.
@@superlight1999 it was true for a while, aside from exceptions like the viper and corvette starting with c5 Z06.
But yeah if anyone has said it since ~2010 when the new camaro and Caddy platform came out they're just plain ignorant
My fave car
Oh yeah, it is.
Because it's old fashioned
Forget the Mustang, the Corvette, the Camaro and the Charger. THIS is the greatest car ever to come out of America
This is probably the coolest of the LeMans mini series you’ve done. Mainly for that engine. Awesome
Glad you liked it! This car was insane to drive.
you are doing such a great job conveying what the car is doing, and how it feels, I hope you get many more cars to film :D
Glad you like my methods! More in the works...
The Viper was a chainsaw at time when everyone was using scalpels. Was it poised? Not at all. Was it brutal and got the job done? Hell yes it did!
Correct!
Legendary, this car lead the way for a revival of American sports cars, and really reverted the notion that Americans were hopeless when it came to road racing performance, that they didn't have a real worthy car culture. I remember some commentators of the time saying "the Viper has a huge v10 engine so it's faster on the straights, but it's heavy! Let's see how it does around the corners... oh... it goes well too..." Then the Corvette C5 followed, the rebooted GT-40...
Vipers are just so special to drive. The racing success they had is unparalleled in the modern era for American Supercars. So underrated
The 90's was one of the greatest era's for endurance racing. Amazing cars!
It just was. 90s ruled.
@@BenCollinsDrives Gotta give credit to the 80s as well, the era of Group C.
Youre joking aren't you? Most of the 90's was a wilderness for Le Mans while they overcame the loss of Group C, lowest attendances and participant numbers and liberties with the rules so you didn't know what the top category was with neutred prototypes and cars like the Dauer and Toyota TS020 allowed to participate despite being so far removed from the intention of the rules. Only two races in the 90's were of any quality 1990 and 1999.
I remember watching these dominate at Le Mans in the red white and blue Oreca paint. You could attach a house to them and they'd still win. 1999 is the first one I remember watching most of the 24 hrs.
Given how gnarly they look was surpised how docile they drive - and a great endurance machine
The road going version of this is gorgeous. A dream car
For me it is the opposite. Love the Vipers built by the likes of ORECA. They seem like great racing cars - fast, really responsive engine and relatively easy to drive. They look and sound so raw as well.
@@vaenii5056 was a lovely car to
And a bit of nutter - drove it on Curfew the TV series and the wheelspin was outrageous in every gear!
@@vaenii5056 At the same time, an ACR or GTS-R would be close enough for me! I could easily modify it to feel similar anyway. They're probably the most reliable and cheap to maintain super car out there.
I drove on in Forza and it was nuts, already 😅 I wish one day I can drive one on a misty twisty mountain road...
The unmistakable sound of the Viper, a howl & a gurgling at the same time. My favourite place to hear the Viper was at the top of the start/finish straight on the bank by the concert stage, hearing them come up into the first chicane and the blasting out on under the Dunlop bridge and down to the forest esses.
I use to dominate Grand Turismo in the Team Oreca Viper!
Great vid, Stiggy!
The noise that car makes is remarkable! What a machine.
Hard to capture on video - in the car the tone reverberates through your whole body
What car was my dream car as kid and still is now. Lucky enough to see Oreca Cars in FIA gt series at Silverstone and Donnington in 2000 & 2001. That noise always takes me back to those days.
As an American I'm so proud of this car.
An iconic car....respect!!!
Man, I miss those days of racing when the Viper had a great presence. Great video, Ben!
Glad you enjoyed it. The Viper has an INSANE track presence.
The Viper & the mental looking Marcos LM600 are my favourite GTS racers
what about the Panoz? Another front engined bronco ;)
@@BenCollinsDrives The Panoz is the unsung hero that decyphered this formula and opened up the road to the Viper, and subsequently the Corvette C5. Underapreciated for sure, perhaps because its consumer offers were not so well structured (or well styled).
Truly one of my all time fave GT racing cars. I never thought any GT racing cars could compete with my love for the Porsche 935's, but this car is it, specifically in the Oreca red/white/blue and the iconic red/white for the last two Le Mans victories. Vipers are truly epic street and race machines. Had I the coin, Id have a red/white Oreca in my garage along with a 935 Martini livery. Just such special cars these Vipers are. Sad day when Dodge decided to kill off its most epic car in its modern history.
Thanks for letting us live vicariously through you.
Oh yes. Gran Turismo also provided some tidbits about the Viper, there's also the JGTC Viper. At this point it didn't even matter that the engine is up front or the giant engine. No turbo lag and no extra whoosh sounds other than the air at around 200 mph. Or as that Gran Turismo line said "Viper is about driving." Looks fun!
Pure driving - very special
The Viper V10 is actually behind the front tires. So even though it is "front engine" the car can be considered "mid engine" as a result. The engine itself is relatively small in width/height, excluding its length of course. The displacement is large but it's not like it's some kind of boat anchor lol.
Best two seater that the US will ever had made. Sorry covette guys, this is the track monster. Beauty, attitude and brute force. #Masterpiece
Tough call vs Corvette - but the V10 does give it an edge 🔥
@@BenCollinsDrives The Vettes get the iconic status. The Vipers are pure menaces. The looks, the engine, the track records. The Vipers represents what the US can do when we decide to work outside our own traditional boundaries. I'm not shitting on Corvettes by any means. GM won't 'let go' like Chrysler has. The C8 is a new era for GM sports cars. Not Corvettes though, honestly. Front engine, rear drive, manual. The most desirable criteria for anyone who *enjoys driving. C7 will always be the last for me (and a hell of a car at that!). We'll see if the mid engine can rewrite some of Viper's records, I'm sure. Cheers Ben. Thanks for being the Best Stig!
Back in the days as a Young Boy i Had a 1:24 scale model of the zakspeed viper. I Loved IT so much.
Absolut timeless Design still looking so damn cool and that legendary V10 IS second to none!!!!
Thanks for the Video Mr.Collins
Greets from Germany
Ah man this is one of my favorite American cars ever it's so awesome to see you put it through it's paces thanks so much for sharing!
Pleasure glad you enjoyed it !
@@BenCollinsDrives you rock Ben thanks very much for the personal response
The 96/97 blue on white Oreca Viper is my favourite of all the Vipers. The later red/white/blue and red/white cars were pretty great looking too, but the moment I first saw one of these aged 8 I knew I had a new favourite car.
I was waiting for you to take this for a drive ever since I saw it in the intros of the other videos 😁
Beautiful car
My first memory is gran turismo 😍
Who knew the Stig had so much to say? I love hearing Mr. The Stig really break down a car, thank you!
Ben was truly enjoying his time with this car. Analogue, powerful, engaging. Long live the STIG.
My all-time favorite Viper remains the GTS-R GT2 Champion Edition Package, the street-legal version of this same car. Down to the white/blue paint, the huge rear wing and the front splitter. A dream machine.
Love the Praga suit with Czech flag!
Fantastic! Love this channel. Hope you get to drive whatever you wish. Your descriptions nearly transport me to the driver's seat!
All the best.🎉
My all time dream car! I still have posters and hot wheels of these gts-r's! Such beautiful and awesome cars
I watched the whole of this with a massive grin on my face!
Good to hear!
Ben, your channel is a goldmine, so glad I found it. Time to binge some of your videos 😂
Welcome along!
Amazing video 😍i love Corvette and Viper ❤️💪
Ben Collins, livin’ the dream, baby. 🤟🏼 His book The Man in the White Suit was fantastic, as well. Had me in stitches plenty of times. 😂
More of this!!!
More in the works....
Black Stig raced a Chrysler Viper at 1996 Le Mans.
Us mere mortals love sim racing, because its about as close as we can get to driving amazing machines like this! Awesome 👌🏼
Working on a new Sim - incher ever closer to perfect immersion
I remember my first ride in a Viper. It was awesome!
Watching you feed the power in on corner exit, lovely
Question....With all that vocal enthusiasum while riding cars, how did you keep so quiet in top gear as stig ?
Saw these racing at Philip island back 1997. What a great sight!
These cars are so iconic! The gen 2 bodywork is epically timeless and beautiful as well!
EDIT: I see this car sold for 623K EUR, that seems like a steal IMO!
The Stig quoting Ludichris. How the coolest guy with the coolest job gets even cooler.
Absolutely incredible Ben...thank you for such awesome content man!
Been looking forward to this one for a while, it didnt disappoint. Look forward to whatever videos you have in the pipeline 👍🏻
Glad to hear it 🙌🏻
ABSOLUTELY loving this Le Mans car test drive series !!!! Hope to see more of theses videos
Thank you will be working on some more specials like this one!
Impressive and very enjoyable video. Talking while driving Viper without it killing you, also impressive.
Thank you - actually it didnt want to kill me it was very friendly in a kind of tame T-Rex way
Just a beautiful car, an original that strikes the namesake's appearance, a snake, without looking cartoonist. Awesome look
I saw one of these back in the day, here in Australia in Geelong. It competed in what they called 'Speed trials' along the Waterfront, which was a 400 meter track with a straight curve. People could enter, and drive their cars flat out. 2 day event, modern cars first day, classics on the second.
A red GTS-R was entered, and even with a slight bend in the track, the car ran close to a 10 sec quater.
God, wow. The memories of watching these machines race on TV, in Europe (I'm in Canada) and they would just effortlessly walk away from the competition.
Great video, thanks Ben. A friend of mine had a street viper, strangely at idle it sounded like a inline four motorcycle.
Those car was dominating the 24h of Nürburgring so much that the organization of the event have to banned it. A old GT car dominating the new one was quite humiliating for the manufacturer.
Somewhat the same scenario with the ‘69-‘70 hemi Dodge Daytona/Plymouth Superbird. NASCAR banned them cause of their dominance. IMO the competition needs to go back to the drawing board and build a competitive car, not ban the one that developed a winning formula. Only difference here is the Daytona/Superbird we’re backed by the manufacturer. I’m sure I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know.
A mate of mine here in Australia had one until recently when he crashed it. He fitted a supercharger and had the same hp as this viper and it was crazy wicked fun to drive. And the noise, oh the noise
The Viper is a Car Guys Car. Just pure sport. Carroll Shelby and Bob Lutz are true innovators, The Viper is their quintessence
Ben Collins... you are the man 🎉
Love the noise off that thing man it sounds awesome. What a machine.
I'm very proud you cooperate with Praga 👍
The last of the vipers they built I thought was just amazing and if I had been a rich man I would have had one
I have as many pictures of it on my computer as a screen saver
Good one ben 😍😍👍👍
Love this first GTS-R
So beautiful!… So awesome!…Thank you!
Viper has always been my favorite.
Americans created machines that flew to space in the 60s and continue improving that today. Of course they can make some of the greatest race cars in the world too
what a machineeeeeeeeeeee
one of my favorite cars of all time
Love these & all the front engined GTR racers from late 90,s-early 2000,s.Try to get hold of a Panoz Esperante & the mental looking Marcos LM600!
Still remember this being unreal in Gran Turismo. Still love it in GT7 (the newer gen)
The Viper is one hell of a car! IF you can buy one, you buy it!
Your last 2 videos including this one, its like gran turismo dreams but hands on
Magnificent beast. Well done Sir; enjoyed every second of this video.
👍 thank you
Another great video...loving the content 👌
So awesome!
One of my favorite cars since I was 5!
Iconic!
@@BenCollinsDrives Indeed! I remember getting Road & Track with all the cars and those Diecast Cars and 18 Wheelers Trucks/Lorries. All kinds of match box! Were the days. One day, I'll have me a Early 90's Foxy Body Trans AM-ed also heavily inspired by Carol Shelby, Ken Miles and Mickey Thompson. On day.
The Viper was a raw car when it came out. No windows, a snap on soft top that totally impractical.
Saw them racing in Estoril, against other fantastic GTs of the era...amazing beasts.
Yes - up there with Corvette & Aston for driveability
Reminds me of 1972 Le Mans and 7 litre C3 Corvettes. They rumbled.
One of my all time favourite cars, love it.
From viewing on motorsport or as a gamer ??
@@BenCollinsDrives both to be honest, for it's uniqueness, looks, and performance (race car) in real life and I had many kms done in a Viper in the Gran Turismo games, ever since the first Gran Turismo game.
Misha drove the non-R without a stock setup and tires and it was beastly. I can imagine this version has much better handling & performance than the road version. Iconic car, great job Ben.
Loving the excitement
I'm glad I still have my 2001 gts!
Yeah! Right on Ben !!! #HEMI #Shelby #701 #MorePowerBaby !!❤❤❤
MT should make a return to high end motorsport.
One of my dream cars!😊
Always loved the styling of the Viper.
Can you get any more sponsor stickers on there?
Peniston Oils ?
The car I hated in Gran Turismo 1 before knowing how to tame RWD beasts. Once I got the hang of them this car was one of the best!
One of the most dominant race cars of all time, and very possibly the car that made Ballance of Performance necesary in GT racing. Legend.
BoP became a thing because the FIA kept messing up the engine-dependent minimum weight and manufacturers were and still are a bunch of whiners
The most recent ACR is one of my favorite cars
Beside for the Ford GT which was super limited production, the Viper is probably the greatest modern American car ever built, and maybe the greatest American car ever built, looking at performance. Especially the later ones.
I always loved the Viper, especially in race trim.
If the original was a widow maker i can not imagine this one. Lovely car❤
Hi, just a bit of trivia for you; I had a friend that worked at Roush and they were commissioned by Chrysler to build the 1st v-10 block engines. Then later when they decided to run the ALMS series in America Roush built then engines for them.
Another great video. Keep them coming. 😊
I think Mr Collins was enjoying himself quite a bit. The Stig was showing through when that got sideways.
Had to be done!
I'm old so I don't remember when this was but I saw this similar car at Laguna Seca in the same year that that car won Le Mans. 1997? Anyway, badass watching the (at then) World GT Championship.
Another Great car. Great video and of course Amazing Driver 👍👍
Great vid thanks
Loving the videos, Ben. Quality stuff. Do me a favour and do a video on the XJR-9!
A true legend