Viper SRT Rollover

[GR8_ASP]

Article in todays Oakland Press (Michigan). The "accident" took place less than 1 block from SRT headquarters. Hmm!

And, it indicates that it was yellow. Now I am pretty sure there have only been a few yellow SRTs. The raffle car and the Fast and Furious cars. The Fast and Furious cars were also the ones we beat on er drove during the Rendezvous.

Amazingly it indicates the driver was not seriously hurt. But the roll hoops do not look like they held the car off the ground by much. The windshield does not appear to offer any protection. Is anyone going to offer improved roll hoops that replace the stock ones exactly (less expensive than a roll bar and without any tearup to the car)? Seeing this is making me set this as a priority!

 

[Toddh]

Holy crap! The sport hoops look like they stood up better than the windshield.

Is anyone going to offer improved roll hoops that replace the stock ones exactly (less expensive than a roll bar and without any tearup to the car)? Seeing this is making me set this as a priority!

I agree 100% here. I've been considering this roll bar thing and my problems are (1) I don't want to cut the car, (2) the view out the rear is bad enough without further impeding it, and (3) I don't know if attempting to install a roll bar myself would make the care more or less dangerous.

Thanks for the pic!

 

[GTS Bruce]

Simple roll bars will not protect if you are upside down on a soft surface

 

[HiYoSilver]

"The man had minor injuries ..." So it looks like the system worked!! However, I agree, I wish the windshield supports held up as well as the rollbars. Bob S. MD
Atleast in the SRT we are not overt "organ donors" like some of the bikers out there.

 

[SnakeEye]

Whoa...seeing that the windshield support completely gave way like that is damn disappointing. It's great the driver walked away with only minor injuries in this accident. Based on the photo he seems to have been very very lucky. A rollbar may be a nice addition to an SRT-10 but if the windshield support fails ... ?

 

[Snakester]

It's good to hear that the driver wasn't seriously hurt (maybe he was short), but the picture doesn't impress me as to the car's rollover protection. I don't think that was the raffle car because it doesn't have the custom black stripes. More likely it was one of the F&F Vipers, or someone's custom yellow paintjob.

I wonder how many weeks until we see the car on E-bay listed as an "easy fix, light rollover" for $64,000.

-Dean.

 

[Chuck 98 RT/10]

The hoops worked, the guy walked with minor injuries, and you guys STILL aren't satisfied? Don't buy the convertible. Wait for the coupe.

 

[Craig 201 MPH]

Aren't convertibles great? Sports cars should have fixed roofs, convertibles are for trophy wives that do nothing but go shopping.

 

[SylvanSRT]

tell that to all the F1 and World Sports car guys, IRL and many more forms of cars that are open top, are those not sports(sporting)cars?

 

[Craig 201 MPH]

LOL you're comparing the street SRT to race cars makde of the stiffest materials possible. Those race cars don't rely on the windshield to absorb any impact in the event of a rollover. Bottom line is it should have rollover hoops that extend up, that would raise the back of the car another 10-12 inches and would use the front of the car to support the weight instead of the windshield frame.

 

[Phoenix SRT]

Sports cars have their roots in open cars. Look at all the English sports cars that got the movement going over here on this side of the pond back in the 40s and 50s and into the 60s. For many serious enthusiasts, nothing beats open air motoring.

Are closed cars safer? If the open cars don't have stout rollover protection, it is a no brainer (pun intended). Even if an open car has proper roll over protection, I'd rather be in a closed car if I'm headed for jelly side down. But, so what? If safety in a crash is the only consideration, what the heck are you doing in any kind of Viper? Get a Volvo or the biggest SUV you can find.

Open cars are the essence of motoring and if they are a bit riskier than closed cars under some circumstances, so be it. Sometimes the risk is worth the reward.

And on an unrelated note, just because the driver walked away from a rollover doesn't mean that the roll hoops worked. It could be that he was just plain lucky. From the looks of the pictures, it seems that luck is the most likely answer. Heck, I recall a pretty nasty F1 accident a few years back where the roll bar snapped off a car during an accident. Even though the driver walked away, I think no rational person would say that the roll bar worked!

 

[Godsil Performance]

Yellow?

 

[jimandela]

what made him roll it in the first place?
Driver error? or mechanic malfunction?
Did something break on the car causing it to roll?

 

[Jay Herbert]

Yellow?

ahhhh... you caught that.... no yellows in '03 except one VCA Raffle Car... (and the Fast and Furious II movie cars)

Two other things that should raise a red, OK yellow, flag "Featherstone Road" and "Auburn Hills"..... Home of PVO....

These three things that say it was potentially an engineering test or DCX internal car.

The Driver must have been doing some (crash?) testing

 

[Tom F&L GoR]

I always thought the two yellow movie cars we used for the PVO-VCA AX were exceedingly tail-happy. Made me ask if the cars were modified for the movie so that they looked "good" sliding around. That or those run-flats are as bad as bias ply tires.

Well, there's another one, so besides yellow snow, watch out for yellow Vipers...

 

[Jay Herbert]

The cars we ran in the autocross at the regional Rendezvous were those yellow movie cars..... I only looped one on one of my runs

I saw a tidbit in Autoweek this week that Mopar Performance is making a "Sliding Viper" for the sliding competition..... guess this yellow car slid a little to far eh?

 

[gowings]

Boy that car sure didn't have alot of damage other than the windshield. Well built car!

 

[Craig 201 MPH]

Well a sliding viper sounds much more useful than a street coupe to help sales pick back up. It's good to know they are allocating resources properly.

 

[Supercharged Vipermad]

 

[Supercharged Vipermad]

I should add that the image was sent to me....all I did was resize it.

 

[Hisserman]

From the story I heard, a junior staffer was bringing the car to a Chrysler exec to drive for the weekend. (Or maybe it was the exec after it had been delivered to him . . . a 53 year old doesn't sound like a junior staffer!) Strange, the road is basically straight right there and the weather was clear -- someone didn't know how to handle torque!! It looks like the way he got out was by opening the door -- very lucky guy.

 

[Skip White]

Seat lowering kit's looking better all the time, and the over priced roll bar to.

Skip White

 

[Viperfreak2]

The tops of the seats look like the 'savior' to me. I can't believe the DC guys would let a car go through their design watchdogs with a windshield frame that weak! I know they roll test all Mercedes convertibles.

 

[MoparMan]

Here's another picture of the carnage (courtesy of someone at SRTforums.com):

You must be registered for see images

A couple of questions come to mind since this car is so unique:
1) was this car a test mule?
2) did it have more hp/tq than a stock SRT-10?

 

[Hisserman]

It was one of the cars made for the "Fast and Furious" movie and it had an idiot for a driver!

 

[GR8_ASP]

Well at least he did not have far to walk to get to PVO, SRT or whatever they call it. Hey, maybe rollover headquarters!

 

[Tom F&L GoR]

Street Rollover Technology for Pushing Vipers Over?

 

[GR8_ASP]

Good one Tom. Bet they also experienced oil starvation don't ya think!

 

[Tom F&L GoR]

That's it, Ron! DC was testing the SRT race oil pan pickup at high g's!

 

[Toddh]

I guess the oil pan becomes a moot point if the car flips before the engine fails, eh?

And that last pick looks like the hoops completely held up, "soft surface" and all. It seems to make the roll bar pointless *in this particular instance* if the windshield is your primary concern.

I wonder how much trouble you get in for doing that to a company-owned Viper close enough to HQ that everyone knows who was driving it? Assuming the dude is okay, of course.