1993 Production Information

[not_today_satan]

I inherited my parents' 1993 black Viper. When purchased from the original owner in 1996/1997, we were told it was the fifth black Viper produced. Is there any way to verify this information? It's not essential, but I'm curious to know if it's true. I've done some scouring online but can't seem to find what I'm looking for.

 

[redtanrt10]

No way to tell the build sequence of that year viper, vin#'s are not in production order.

Jay Leno has the 1st Black viper built in 1993

 

[GTS Dean]

It would HAVE to be a rear antenna car, with 2-piece exhaust manifolds. Check the driver's door sticker for the build MDH on the bottom line.

 

[not_today_satan]

Thank you. The MDH on mine is 020414 - which I now know means it was built Feb 4, 1993 at 2pm. I still don't have a clue what that means as far as the number of production. I know that Tom Gale had the 1st and Jay Leno has the 2nd, but I can't find any info on the MFD of their cars to use as a reference for when mine was built.

And yep - rear antenna, 2-piece exhaust manifolds.

 

[No2Viper]

How about 1992 production build? I pretty much have the same story. We were always told it was #2 in production build. I just realized I don't have the vin on my phone need to go check vin number.

 

[ViperJeff]

depends on what you allow as your proof of build order. I have the date of build, but not the full MDH. The first 2 I show built were both built on 01/10/1992

 

[No2Viper]

Possibly the 20th production? We are starting to find some holes in the stories that we were always told about the car from our father.

 

[ViperJeff]

Possibly the 20th production? We are starting to find some holes in the stories that we were always told about the car from our father.

6 built on 04/16/1992, as it has the hour of 4pm, was probably near last one of the day(guessing)

Makes it between 20th and 23rd

VIN 018-023 have 04/16/1992 as the build date

One of the only production years where most, not all were produced in VIN order

 

[No2Viper]

I appreciate that info. My dad is probably rolling over in his grave. Now to see if I can change my profile name

 

[ViperJeff]

No20Viper (would match the last two of the VIN)

 

[njsteve]

I was on the assembly line in mid-January 1993 photographing my car, #102 being built. They let me have access to the assembly line since car 102 was destined to become the Mopar Muscle Project Pit Viper. I saw Jay Leno's black car there at the time. BTW, none were in VIN order. IIRC they were building them in shipping zone order so six at a time could fill a truck to a specific geographic delivery area. I took a ton of Fujichrome slides of the cars and the parts and nuts and bolts etc., but the mercury vapor lights messed up the exposure levels and everything was dark. I imagine we could scan them all into a database and adjust the exposure with modern technology. Anyway, I have a small Excel database I made up of a bunch of the 1993s (41 at last count) dividing them into the late cars and the early "antenna" cars (which also had the "Viper" front calipers, the yellow zone on the temp gauge, the 2-piece exhaust manifolds, the round gas cap with the thumb notch in the quarter panel, the center of the trunk-mounted battery.)

Not-today-satan, What are the last 4 digits of your VIN? I'll add it to the database and send you a copy. You can PM me if you want to keep it confidential. So far the last antenna car I have was built in May 1993. Earliest are all January since they started the 93 model year on 1/1/93 due to motor vehicle laws at the time. Essentially all the antenna cars were just carry-over 1992's, using those same parts including a more internally restrictive muffler setup. (I have a basement full of various examples of the early exhaust systems that team viper sent me back in the day).