|
The history of SRT vehicles can actually be traced as far back as early 1989. On January 4, 1989, an outrageous V-10-powered concept car was unleashed on the public at Detroit's North American International Auto Show. The Dodge Viper's show-stopping design and over-the-top performance claims brought the company a whole new kind of attention. Enthusiasts were outspoken in their demands for a new American muscle car. And Chrysler executives called up their fondest Woodward Avenue memories and made a decision that would inspire the company for decades to come.
Build it, they declared.
And so, a team was formed.
The search was made company-wide to find men and women with an enthusiastic passion for cars, an openness to out-of-the-box thinking and a willingness to step into a new risk-taking venture. That group came to be known as Team Viper and in less than three years, it delivered the first production version of that remarkable Dodge Viper show car. Four years after the initial launch of the Dodge Viper RT/10 Roadster, Team Viper went back to the drawing board to create the 1996 Viper GTS Coupe. More than simply adding a roof to the roadster body, the GTS featured a more powerful engine, all-aluminum suspension and stiffer frame. The improvements were introduced to the RT/10 the following year.
About that same time, Plymouth was introducing the Prowler, another concept-to-reality story from Chrysler Corporation. This hot rod-style retro-car originally debuted at the 1993 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, where it was a true showstopper. In 1997, production of the aluminum-intensive, handcrafted specialty vehicle began alongside the Viper at Chrysler Group's Conner Avenue Assembly Plant in Detroit. Shortly thereafter, Specialty Vehicles Engineering (SVE) was formed when Team Viper and Team Prowler merged. In 1997, a Team Viper-developed, all-out racing version of the GTS Coupe called the GTS-R was unveiled. The GTS-R featured a carbon fiber and Kevlar composite body and a race-tuned engine producing more than 600 horsepower. In partnership with the French Team ORECA, the car went on to an unprecedented string of international endurance racing successes including the 1997-1999 FIA GT2 Championships, 1989-2000 Le Mans GTS Class wins and the overall win at the 2000 Daytona 24 Hours. To mark the 1997 FIA GT2 championship-winning success of their GTS-R, Dodge worked with Team Viper to unveil a limited-edition run of 100 individually numbered Dodge Viper GT2 commemorative models for 1998 featuring the same white with blue stripe graphics of the race car. The cars also featured high-mounted racing-style rear wings, front splitters, ground effects and blue interior accents with "Viper GTS-R" seat inserts, five-point restraint system and other special features. Meanwhile, the Team Viper side of SVE also developed club-racing versions of the Dodge Neon (1998) and Viper GTS (1999) known as American Club Racing (ACR) models. The limited-volume, street-legal ACR packages deliver enhanced performance and handling. They are designed to meet the demands of grassroots racers looking for affordable, competitive entries.
Shortly after revealing the new Viper SRT-10 Convertible, Specialty Vehicles Engineering once again demonstrated their prowess for performance tuning. In August 2001, Dodge showed off the Viper Competition Coupe, a closed-cockpit competition model based on the next generation Dodge Viper SRT-10 convertible. With concept car bodywork, full racing cage and other safety features, the Competition Coupe was designed to be an affordable, limited-production race car for competition-oriented owners. The event also served as an unofficial debut of the new Performance Vehicles Engineering organization.
When Wolfgang Bernhard was named Chief Operating Officer of DaimlerChrysler Corporation on November 17, 2000, Specialty Vehicle Engineering gained an experienced supporter. Before being named as the executive responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Chrysler Group, Bernhard led a world-famous Stuttgart, Germany-based performance group known as AMG. As Chief Executive Officer of Mercedes-AMG GmbH, Bernhard oversaw the processes that took the high-technology Formula One expertise of Mercedes-Benz and applied it to Mercedes-Benz production cars in the form of Mercedes-AMG models. Bernhard saw the same potential for Dodge, Chrysler and Jeep vehicles. And the natural leaders for such an in-house technical group would be a group to be known as Performance Vehicle Operations (PVO), the former Specialty Vehicle Engineering team.
The overall history leading up to the current PVO team created the following vehicles between 1989 - 2002. Team Viper
Dodge Viper RT/10 Roadster
Dodge Viper GTS Coupe
Dodge Viper GTS-R
Dodge Viper GT2
Dodge Neon ACR
Team Prowler
Chrysler Prowler
Specialty Vehicles Engineering
Dodge Viper ACR
Dodge Viper SRT-10
Performance Vehicles Operations
Dodge Viper Competition Coupe
Dodge SRT-4
Dodge Ram SRT-10 Concept |  |
Officially announced at the 2002 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit, the SRT name was created to leverage all of the performance resources within the Chrysler Group. Taking the vast experiences within the PVO team and combining it with Mopar Performance Parts engineering, the goal was to create a line of industry-leading performance vehicles and parts. SRT stands for Street and Racing Technology, although some say it stands for Street, Road and Track. SRT was originally created to not only boost performance but also to boost the image of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep® vehicles - and of Mopar parts and accessories. During a 2004 interview with Dan Knott, Director of Street and Racing Technology at the Chrysler Group, Knott said “SRT never compromises on four key aspects. First, SRT delivers outrageous, head-turning vehicles to the enthusiast. Next, everything we design and develop is done to the highest standards of excellence. Third, each vehicle program contributes to the bottom line. And finally, SRT strives for continuous improvement throughout all our programs.”
The foundations of SRT have led Chrysler Group to build on the success of the original SRT vehicle - the Dodge Viper SRT10 - with standout vehicles that include: The Dodge SRT4, which debuted in 2003 as the quickest sub-$20,000 entry among the sport compact “tuner crowd", only to be “upgraded” for 2004 to 230 horsepower with the addition of a limited-slip differential as standard equipment; The 500-horsepower Dodge Ram SRT10 - the Viper of pickup trucks - developed with SRT engineering to be the toughest, boldest truck on the planet, resulting in a Guinness Book of World Records entry as "The World's Fastest Production Pickup Truck;" The 330-horsepower Chrysler Crossfire SRT6, unveiled as a new level of Crossfire with an infusion of race-inspired, street-legal American performance; And the 425-horsepower Chrysler 300C SRT8, which represents the next level in the evolution of the Chrysler brand, the SRT brand and the legendary HEMI®.
Today (May 2007), PVO and the SRT team have created a total of 9 SRT vehicles. They include:
|
SRT History 
