I stumbled upon these pics in a rather good article in the VCA Notes by Roy Sjoberg. It is regarding a mid-engined Viper coupe concept that never came to fruition. Here are some pics I scanned from the article:
It probably would have been hotter than hell having your head and back sitting less than a foot away from the engine bay, but it would have definitely been worth it in my opinion to see the monstrous V10 through the rear hatch.
Looking at the pics, I think the side profile is awesome, but the front needs a little reworking. In terms of styling, I believe the manufactured GTS design, with the long front hood and short rear deck, looks more American, whereas this concept looks more European. I don't think I would give up my GTS for this, but I definitely think it looks cool nonetheless. Anyone feel the same way?
Years ago somebody sent me a couple sketches of "Vipers that might have been" to post at the Morgue. I'll dig up the CD and put them online later today and link them. One appears to be a drawing of exactly the car in your first image (assuming that isn't a really tediously executed photochop).
Also, somebody did some PhotoShop work and demonstrated that the Stratmaro would look a lot more interesting in a mid-engine layout. I'm not a fan of the first one, but the second one is about a hundred times more attractive than anything that has rolled out of CAAP since model year 02:
CC as a mid engine looks freaking bad ass. Love that pic. The hood looks great too. It is a shame that DC doesn't do a Mid Engine super car. *cough, cough....build the ME412 cough, cough*
I could see this as DC's sports car layout something like this:
Entry level. 20,000-25,000 SRT-4 230hp to 300hp (with stage 3 kit.) The trick here would be to Keep working with Mitsu and drop the SRT-4 motor into the Evo and we take the AWD system and put it into the SRT-4. production # 15,000/yr. This car should be raced in Rally, speed world and drift.
Mid Level: 35,000 to 50,000 Charger/Magnum/300C 425-500hp: This would be the "entry level RWD V8" sports car. Keep up with the Mustangs and Vettes. 15,000/yr. Take this to Nascar
Hard core sports car: 80,000 to 90,000 Viper GTS 600-700hp: Back to basics Big Block Bad Boy, Racer for the street. Need I say more. This would be perfect for Speed Chanel and LeMans. Production # 500/yr.
High End: 300,000 to 350,000 ME412 to go head to head with crazy priced exotics like the Veryion EB 16/4 (sp?) F1 and Enzo. All the Go and Gizmos in one package. Production numbers should be in the 200 range TOTAL (people payed 650,000 for an enzo this is a bargan.)
WOW, that SRT looks nice. I think it's the first one I ever saw that I would actually consider buying.
Here is another pic I found of the mid-engine concept Viper coupe:
It looks a little different than the photos I posted above, but is pretty much the same. I think our eyes are accustomed to associating "exotic" to mid/rear-engined cars. Lambo's, Ferrari's, etc all seem to define what is visually exotic. I still prefer the GTS though. It just seems to flow more nicely. I am sure with a little tweaking this design could definitely look even more awesome, but too bad that will never happen with the wave of Viper apathy over at DC.
Would there be a significant performance gain to making the Viper mid-engined??...As it sits now with the motor where it is the car has very good weight distribution, and I just personally can't seem to see what the advantage of scrapping the whole design as it sits for something that may not bring about much better performance....now a car like the ME 412 on the other hand is a different story and should be built....
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