I finally belong...

After 32 long hours, ~1100 miles, 80-90 gallons of fuel, countless elevation changes peaking at 2520ft, unknown quantities of Mt. Dew, Sun Drop, Dr. Pepper and Diet Pepsi, 4hrs of sleep and countless memories, we made it home with my first Viper! My fiance' and father joined me for the road trip of a lifetime. We may have taken a few "detours" along the way and arrived home with depleted immune systems, but I'd do it again in the morning. Well... maybe next weekend, anyhow!

2002 GTS
Graphite
15k miles
Mostly stock (not for long) - cat delete, smooth tubes, SRT10 wheels, MGW shifter

-Fueling up at 02early hours





-Enjoying beautiful scenery across Ohio and PA on the way to pick up the car











-Finally arrived to see the car and check everything out before taking a test drive with the fiance'









-Agreed on the sale, ran to the bank and notary for necessary paperwork and loaded her on the trailer. If you have access to a Power Product No Ramp U19 trailer, I highly recommend it. Only open trailer I've ever used that can load something like a Viper without a single piece of extra lumber or any cheater ramps or other loading trick. The caveat is the fender prevent opening the car doors, but I hear they're working on both (lighter) aluminum models and version that will raise the deck above the fender for vehicle access/egress before lowering back to neutral position for transportation. This all-steel beast weighs in at ~3500lbs!







-Hit the road back to O-H-I-O with a much-needed pit stop at the always travel-popular ******* Barrel











-Caught a 4hr cat nap at my father's house, once back in Toledo, before taking her on home for final offload. Looking and feeling very rough at this point!








-Time to get her unstrapped and offloaded. The Dukes of Hazzard rear entry/egress was a lot funnier when I was only ~12hrs into the trip and loading the recently-purchased car in PA! No so much the following morning...

Very nice. I am hauling my car from Ottawa to Naples in 4 weeks. Always enjoyed the trip. Might take a detour, just for fun. Welcome and enjoy the new ride.

She's a beauty. Very pristine condition, too. That's a great color on a GTS. Congrats!

I borrowed a trailer once, to take mine to Thunderhill raceway. Needed no cribbing, wood, ramps of any sort. Plus, the fender folded away, to allow access to the drivers' door. Don't remember the brand.

Congrats! Nice pics

Great looking Viper.

You and it have many many miles to share together.

Congrats on the new to you ride!!!! Make sure one of the first mods you add to that list is a set of new tires.

Man that is a good feeling knowing after all the searching and driving to get a car that you hope is the right one, it turns out out it is the one. Good luck and have fun playing with it.

Congrats on the new car!!! 1st new mod should be throwing the run flat tires away. Yes, they are that bad. When I purchased my car it had the SRT 10 spokes with the runflats as well. That last about a month when I realized how horrible they really are.

Congratulations! Beautiful GTS. Here's the link to join the club. If you're going to mod her there are lot's of articles in the Illustrated upgrades section for VCA members.

https://www.viperclub.org/join/

Congrats on the new car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats.. Great find. She looks clean. Looks like you had good weather and missed an opportunity to really get aquainted with your new toy. I'm sure there will be more road trips in the plans.
Enjoy and be safe.

Worth every minute of the trek. Nice clean car. Great feeling when it's finally in the garage......

Thanks for all the kind words. The weather turned out beautiful and we could have just driven, but the forecast was all over the map leading up to the trip and I couldn't fit a third person in the hatch of the Viper. Taking my fiance' and father was an important part of the trip.

Tires will be the first major purchase, along with new wheels and welding in hi-flow cats before swapping the catback. Car sounds decent with the cat delete and stock exhaust, but I want cats back in before swapping to a better flowing (louder) exhaust.

Congratulations and welcome to the family!

Nice car!! Congrats.

You can open the doors with a Sloan's Kwik Load Trailer...

Very nice GTS. I noticed that the car has Run Flats. Do some research around here and you will see our collective negative opinions on those tires. Aside from that, great purchase.

Tires are top on the replacement list

Very nice. Congrats!!!!!!!

Nothing like a good road trip..... Now if you just found a way to do it in that awsome viper!!

Great post sir!!!

- cheers -

congrats and welcome

have fun with it

Great post. Thanks for sharing your trip and brilliant find. Congratulations on your recent acquisition of what looks like a gem of a car. All the best.

Congrats! I bought my 97 B/W from PA and did a similar road trip with one of my buddies. Pretty good time except for the lack of sleep and occasional nod off while driving. Always fun doing a road trip to buy a nice car.

Great pics. Smart move taking the finance... keep her involved early on so she doesn't get jealous of the new girl!

Congrats! Car looks nice and clean! I have a guy putting a deposit on mine today

Enjoy! And I know your not too far, so hopefully in the near future we will cruise together. And FYI as stated above, get the run craps off, they are BAD!

Thanks, Tim. Definitely like to hook up with some locals. There is an Ohio VCA event coming up in early October down in Bowling Green, which is just about 20mins from me.

VYPR BYT 94 said:

Great pics. Smart move taking the finance... keep her involved early on so she doesn't get jealous of the new girl!

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Absolutely. She loves the car and is excited to see what I'll do with it. We took it out last night for a nice drive, at her request.

WDW MKR said:

Absolutely. She loves the car and is excited to see what I'll do with it. We took it out last night for a nice drive, at her request.

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What a cool fiance...you have a keeper there! Make that two...include the GTS.

Thanks for sharing your pictures from the road trip. The hunt is always fun, and a trip like that is pretty cool.

The folks posting earlier about replacing tires are not kidding...Otherwise, that car will be a WDW MKR.