1998 Dodge Viper GTS Review — Full Transcript & Summary

[00:03] Oh, that's how fast I was going. It is a

[00:06] smooth car.

[00:07] >> It is.

[00:07] >> Yeah.

[00:08] >> You You don't notice.

[00:21] >> YEAH.

[00:23] MY name is William Saber.

[00:31] I WEAR A BANDANA everywhere I go. I GOT

[00:35] A BACK TATTOO that says YOUR MOM. MY

[00:41] FAVORITE DRINK IS DR. Pepper and Uo.

[00:47] I GOT BANNED FROM PHILADELPHIA City Hall

[00:50] after trying to get to the top of the

[00:53] roof to jerk off William PENN AND I

[00:57] DRIVE A 1998

[00:59] Dodge Viper GTS.

[01:03] My middle name

[01:05] is important.

[01:12] When I was in the sixth grade, I SLEPT

[01:15] OVER AT Mike Fiman's house and he had to

[01:18] go to services the next MORNING AND THE

[01:21] CONSISTRY or whatever asked me to leave

[01:25] BECAUSE I WALKED INTO THE SYNAGOGUE like

[01:28] this.

[01:33] Guess what else I learned to do in the

[01:35] sixth grade?

[01:41] Yeah, I learned to swallow air and belch

[01:45] on command. I still do it. I'm 44. Can I

[01:50] get

[01:53] Don't click away.

[01:56] Give me extra.

[01:58] My name's

[02:00] There it is. And I don't hold my farts

[02:02] in when I have sweaty sex WITH YOUR MOM.

[02:05] THEN I PEEL OUT OF A ranch house

[02:07] driveway in my Dodge Viper. Benson and

[02:10] hedges hanging from my lips cuz I'm

[02:12] classy and nookie by Limp Biscuit on the

[02:16] stereo.

[02:21] Invite me to your wedding. I'm going to

[02:23] do this.

[02:27] I'll be out in the parking lot revving a

[02:29] Dodge Viper and doing Gravity Bong hits

[02:31] with your cousins. Today's episode of

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[04:06] LastFit website. Thank you. We rag on

[04:09] Chrysler, Dodge, Stalantis with good

[04:12] reason. Most of what they make, Jeeps

[04:15] included, is junk. Their cars are poorly

[04:18] built unreliable gremlinaden credit

[04:22] ruining money pits. They're like a guy

[04:24] at a bowling alley who picks up a 14lb

[04:27] ball with two hands, swaggers up to the

[04:30] line, and goes, "COME

[04:37] and then chucks the alleyball down the

[04:39] lane." But every once in a while,

[04:41] William important Saber gets a strike

[04:44] and then struts like Travolta in the

[04:47] opening credits of Saturday Night Fever

[04:49] back to his Michelob Ultra. And the

[04:51] second gen Dodge Viper is an 8 L V10

[04:55] sports car making 450 horsepower at

[04:58] 5,200 RPM and 490 lb feet at 3,700 RPM.

[05:04] Uh, excuse me. My name is private equity

[05:07] Peter Merkel and I am a freshman at

[05:10] Princeton University and my M4 makes

[05:14] that. My dad golfs with Chris Christie

[05:17] and my grandpa told Baduire that he

[05:20] should probably do that thing. 450

[05:23] horsepower and 490 lb feet of torque

[05:26] sounds like nothing in 2026 when any EV

[05:30] worth its lithium has to make at least

[05:32] 1,000 horsepower to be special. But not

[05:36] all horsepowers are made equal. 1,000

[05:39] horsepower EVs or a 500 horsepower BMW

[05:43] are techladen machines that are

[05:46] permanently locked in the tutorial

[05:48] level. You can't [ __ ] up. Stability

[05:51] control, traction control, torque

[05:54] vectoring, collision mitigation,

[05:56] autofaladial lanekeeping, liza Minnelli

[05:58] hand jobs, mountable center consoles,

[06:01] vent ducks filled with dried [ __ ] You

[06:04] can't make a mistake in them. But the

[06:06] Gen 2 Viper has no assists, not even

[06:10] anti-lock brakes. You have full power

[06:14] all the time. And the only thing keeping

[06:16] this car in check is the same sense of

[06:19] self-preservation that governs your ego.

[06:22] Gen 2 Viper. Good luck, chuckle nuts.

[06:25] And this lack of safety is even funnier

[06:28] because the Gen 1 Viper didn't have

[06:31] driver's aids either. And you'd think

[06:33] that Dodge would have been like, "Oh,

[06:35] that weird experiment that the Viper is

[06:37] is actually selling and it's selling

[06:39] enough to necessitate another

[06:41] generation. Well, we better modernize

[06:44] it." But no, this is dodge. They just

[06:47] grabbed their favorite metal straw and

[06:49] went,

[06:50] "YES, WE'RE DOING IT AGAIN."

[06:55] Feeling good. Feeling a bit of warmth.

[06:57] Feeling fantastic. Here's what we're

[06:59] going to do. More bulges, more power,

[07:02] and and

[07:04] that's it. What? What? Who are you and

[07:06] what department do you what? Oh. Oh. Oh,

[07:10] fine. Okay, sure. Air conditioning.

[07:13] We'll give it air conditioning. You want

[07:15] real glass in the windows?

[07:18] Fine. But that's it, man. I'm sick of

[07:21] you guys. This thing is pretty much a

[07:24] kit car still. It just got updated

[07:27] styling, more power out of the V10, and

[07:29] that's it. 1998 Dodge Viper GTS. The

[07:33] official car of weekend warriors and

[07:34] ragtop shirts shouting no mercy as they

[07:38] plank in the middle of the freeway area.

[07:40] This car is a joy to drive. It's

[07:44] expensive.

[07:46] Does this thing drink. The funny thing

[07:47] is the Corvettes of the same year,

[07:50] especially the C5s once they came out,

[07:53] they did not get hit with the gas

[07:55] guzzler tax because Corvettes competitor

[07:58] this car sort of had very tall fifth and

[08:01] sixth gears. They could get 30 m a

[08:03] gallon if you babyed them. They were

[08:06] geared nice and nice and high at the end

[08:10] for cruising. The Viper. No. No. This

[08:15] thing is geared as if it's meant to be

[08:16] on a track, but it is so sketchy. This

[08:20] thing did get hit with the gas guzzler

[08:22] tax. Did the buyers care? No, cuz it's

[08:25] awesome. And everybody's looking at you.

[08:28] While we were filming this, there were

[08:30] people who came up and didn't even know

[08:32] what it was. There's nothing that looks

[08:34] like this. Nothing is wild. Nothing is

[08:37] eye-catching. The styling is perpetually

[08:41] aggressive, but in that weird welcoming

[08:44] way. I suppose because it lacks the

[08:46] angular fake aggressiveness that soaked

[08:51] the 201s. Oh, this is 1998. Try to find

[08:54] a right angle on the car. No. Sensual

[08:58] curves. True beauty is non-binary. the

[09:02] perfect mix of masculine and feminine

[09:04] together doing deadlifts. There are very

[09:07] few, and this is for the straight people

[09:09] out there, cars that are very fast,

[09:14] muscular, and strong

[09:17] that also attract females, and this is

[09:19] one of them. Now, on the outside, you

[09:22] get on the inside of a Viper. Oo, it's

[09:25] your shoulders are squished together,

[09:27] your feet are off to the side, it gets

[09:29] you, the windows aren't enough. You need

[09:31] to have the air conditioner on and the

[09:32] windows down. There is just heat pouring

[09:35] out of the engine. Heat pouring out of

[09:37] the transmission. You're sitting next to

[09:39] the transmission, not on top of it. You

[09:41] can't see out the sides. The hood bulges

[09:43] are up to your eyes. It's like a woman

[09:45] with big megalodons. Just all pushed up

[09:48] to the bottom of her nose trying to

[09:50] attire shoes. You don't know where the

[09:52] front of this car ends. And good luck

[09:53] trying to see out the back. But it's

[09:55] joyous. Every gear change is an

[09:58] affirmation to acceleration and the

[10:01] upcoming future. So let's get into some

[10:04] literary theory. So all right class,

[10:07] today we're going to be talking about

[10:08] objectoriented

[10:10] onthology. Objectoriented onthology.

[10:13] Write it down in your notebooks, please.

[10:16] This theory suggests that humans are not

[10:19] a privileged class. And by privileged

[10:23] class I mean not privileged at all in

[10:27] the hierarchy of all objects in the

[10:32] known universe. Humans according to

[10:34] object-oriented onthology are just

[10:38] another type of object among countless

[10:41] other objects both living and

[10:43] non-living. And we all have equal value

[10:47] because all things have a material

[10:51] reality and independent worth outside of

[10:56] human perception and use. Sort of think

[10:58] of this as like scrap prices. We are

[11:02] just the sum of the things that make us

[11:04] up. You may have a car that's just

[11:07] oozing sentimental value, but to a

[11:09] scrapper it's $350 in metal. As Rocky

[11:12] said to Grace in the Hail Mary book,

[11:15] "You are leaky space blob." It's sort of

[11:17] an answer to the question of whether or

[11:19] not a tree can fall in the woods if a

[11:22] person isn't around to hear it. Well, of

[11:24] course it can because a tree has an

[11:26] independent relationship with the world

[11:28] and its surroundings that we don't see.

[11:31] Now, it might seem weird to compare the

[11:33] two, but but the Dodge Viper is the

[11:36] Mario to the Cybert truck's Wario. And

[11:40] together they make a great case for

[11:43] objectoriented

[11:45] ontology. Both the Cybert truck and the

[11:48] Viper are the same. Both are

[11:50] uncomfortable. Both are needlessly

[11:52] expensive. Both are aggressively

[11:55] overpowered. Both are uncomfortable on

[11:58] the inside, poor visibility looking

[12:01] outside, and are completely impractical

[12:04] and expensive. And by the way, they're

[12:07] both poorly built. Even Dodge Vipers,

[12:10] yes, have body lines that don't line up

[12:13] and never will. On the one hand, these

[12:16] cars wouldn't have any use if humans

[12:19] disappeared tomorrow. But on the other

[12:20] hand, they would still have interactions

[12:24] with time and the environment and with

[12:28] the objects they contain. They will

[12:30] rust, they will degrade, and they will

[12:32] become home to squirrels and birds. So,

[12:35] a car might need humans to maintain its

[12:37] function, but not its existence. In that

[12:41] sense, the Viper and the Cybertruck

[12:43] might just be the only two cars we can

[12:45] think of that behave as if they don't

[12:48] need us. And they do this by being

[12:51] straight up hostile to the driver's

[12:53] existence. The Cybertruck doesn't care

[12:56] if you enjoy driving it, while the Viper

[12:58] doesn't care if you can even understand

[13:00] how. And yet, when faced with choosing

[13:02] between these two cars that force you to

[13:05] adapt to their independent qualities,

[13:07] who do you think I'm choosing? Come on.

[13:11] I'm picking a second gen Dodge Viper GTS

[13:15] every single time because the Viper may

[13:17] be chaotic, but I'll never not be able

[13:21] to enjoy driving it, even if the car

[13:23] never trusts me to actually do it. 1998

[13:26] Dodge Viper GTS. When I die, scatter my

[13:30] ashes on the tail of the dragon. This is

[13:32] a loud, fast, power- hungry, fuel

[13:36] thirsty car that doesn't even make sense

[13:39] on the track. And it displaces 8 L of

[13:43] American Venom.

[13:50] And when you hear it ex when you hear

[13:53] its exhaust screaming through a gated

[13:56] community of weepy snot bubbling hoa

[14:02] belly who complain anytime someone mows

[14:04] a lawn earlier than noon, you'll know

[14:07] that only one of two things has

[14:09] happened. Either your neighbor's son

[14:10] Kyle got an early parole or one of the

[14:13] neighborhood dads has had a new

[14:15] self-care ritual that involves edging

[14:17] the grim reaper. Let me put it this way.

[14:20] Speed you can control feels different

[14:23] than speed you can't. And the Dodge

[14:26] Viper requires you to know what the hell

[14:30] you're doing because it's not going to

[14:32] compensate for your shortcomings in the

[14:34] way all modern performance cars will.

[14:38] Let me reiterate, there's no traction

[14:40] control or ABS here. So, if you push

[14:43] this car past its limit, you will not be

[14:46] able to recover unless you are a very

[14:49] skilled driver. And by that, I mean that

[14:52] you have already taken a Viper past the

[14:56] limits of adhesion on a track and know

[14:58] what this is going to do. But, but

[15:01] that's also why the GTS is so

[15:04] compelling. It's like a hyper

[15:06] motorcycle. You look at it and realize

[15:10] you're looking at greatness.

[15:12] But you're also looking at exclusion.

[15:15] For our skiers and snowboarders up

[15:17] there, remember the first time you gazed

[15:20] over the edge of a true double black?

[15:23] Not an east coast double black, you

[15:25] know, maybe Killington, but west coast

[15:28] double black or Utah, Colorado. Oh,

[15:33] and you see the horizon. You look down

[15:35] and down. Oh, I thought I was skilled.

[15:39] The skill pit goes deeper. The Viper

[15:42] utilizes its aggression in a more

[15:45] thoughtful way than something like the

[15:47] Cyber Truck. It maximizes driver

[15:50] influence rather than minimizing it. A

[15:52] drive that requires track day focus is

[15:55] more rewarding than showing up to a

[15:58] place without any memory of the drive

[16:00] that got you there. And there's also

[16:02] something to to be said for this design

[16:04] because while both cars have a sort of

[16:07] offputtingly edgy appearance, the Viper

[16:10] feels a lot less tryh hard. Right? If

[16:13] the Cybert truck is a goth loner who

[16:16] acts like they're above the cool kids

[16:18] while desperately craving their

[16:21] validation, like the creator of this car

[16:24] desperately wants our validation. Guess

[16:27] what? No amount of money buys coolness.

[16:31] No amount of money buys hip. Money does

[16:35] not equal popularity. It never will.

[16:39] You're a loser if you think so. But the

[16:42] Viper is the cool kid who couldn't

[16:45] possibly care less about whether anybody

[16:48] likes him or not. He's got pit vipers on

[16:51] and he's owning them. It's effortless

[16:54] cool that's reinforced through a

[16:56] combination of performance and aura. The

[16:59] Viper is doing its own thing and doesn't

[17:02] care if you don't care to watch. It's an

[17:05] outsider artist. And for that, I love

[17:08] Dodge that kept this car going. There

[17:10] are few cars that were built for the

[17:12] love of the game, and this is one of

[17:14] them. You buy a Dodge Viper when you

[17:17] realize you haven't known peace since

[17:19] age 10. And chaos is what feels most

[17:22] like home. The type of kids who played

[17:25] chicken with oncoming trains grew up and

[17:28] bought Dodge Vipers. After all, nothing

[17:30] reaffirms life like a car that doesn't

[17:33] care if you live or die. 1998 Dodge

[17:36] Viper GTS skill issue. But even while I

[17:40] enjoy this car eternally, chat, I can't

[17:43] see myself ever wanting to own one. And

[17:45] the biggest reason is how much money you

[17:48] risk just to keep this thing on the

[17:50] road. Aside from keeping up with basic

[17:53] maintenance, uh you have to pray stuff

[17:55] doesn't break since stock parts on

[17:58] Vipers are expensive and difficult to

[18:00] find. It got to the point where our

[18:02] volunteer Matt just went out and bought

[18:05] aftermarket wheels and tires because

[18:07] they were cheaper than the stock tires

[18:09] and took the side markers off an old

[18:11] utility truck when they needed a

[18:13] replacement. And now one of the

[18:15] headlights is cracked and Matt doesn't

[18:17] have many options since these headlights

[18:20] were made in fairly low volumes. And

[18:22] there are no aftermarket options for

[18:24] these headlight enclosures. At least not

[18:27] in 2026. According to Matt, if you want

[18:30] a new headlight enclosure for a second

[18:33] gen Viper, guess what? $4,000

[18:37] a piece. So it has a cracked headlight

[18:40] enclosure. I don't blame him. Crack

[18:42] doesn't go all the way through. and he's

[18:43] not getting a fix it ticket. But even if

[18:45] it didn't have any of these problems,

[18:47] it's still a mechanically absurd car in

[18:50] a lot of ways. It has electric door

[18:52] handles, yet there's no way to open the

[18:54] rear hatch from inside the car. It has

[18:57] cold and hot air, but only heat comes

[18:59] out of the lower vents, and only cold

[19:01] air comes out of the top vents, which

[19:03] Matt tells us that's from factory. Dodge

[19:05] said this thing will do 20 on the

[19:07] highway. Matt says it's closer to eight

[19:10] miles per gallon city and

[19:14] 13 highway.

[19:16] He says he was able to e this thing to

[19:19] 18 m gallon highway in sixth gear while

[19:23] staying to the 65 mph speed limit. And I

[19:26] know who who cares about fuel economy in

[19:27] a Viper. The GTS wasn't cheap in its

[19:30] heyday. uh 1998 it MSRPD for $66,000

[19:35] which adjusted for inflation to 2026 is

[19:39] $130,000.

[19:41] That's a lot to pay for a frictionless

[19:44] majestic 1990s Mopar pile of garbage.

[19:48] However, you can also kind of understand

[19:51] it since the GTS was such a low volume

[19:54] car. It was handbuilt by small teams for

[19:56] limited runs which separated it from

[19:59] anything else on the road. There is

[20:01] there was nothing like this and there

[20:03] will be nothing like this. Oh, in

[20:05] addition to air conditioning and real

[20:07] glass for the side windows, this was the

[20:09] first Viper to get airbags. And because

[20:11] this is a pre2000 Viper, you also get

[20:14] forged pistons. This car represents a

[20:16] time when Chrysler used to be with it in

[20:18] a very Abe Simpson way. Chrysler used to

[20:21] knew what it was. They took risks in the

[20:25] way athletes take peeds without any

[20:28] thought to who might see them do it or

[20:31] how it might impact their future earning

[20:33] potential. And the world loved them for

[20:35] it. Chrysler was 1998 Mark Maguire

[20:39] drilling homers all the way back to the

[20:41] cheap seats. They were making these

[20:43] kinds of cars because people responded

[20:45] to these types of cars. And people

[20:47] responded to them because Chrysler cared

[20:50] about making them fun. But as with just

[20:53] any product that was halfway decent in

[20:55] the9s, Chrysler fell out of touch with

[20:58] what people wanted from them and has

[21:01] become something unrecognizable. They're

[21:04] the automotive equivalent of Gwen

[21:06] Stefani. They're saving face these days

[21:08] by cutting costs to the bone, but all

[21:11] that does is leave their current

[21:13] customer base saltier than target

[21:15] popcorn. People still like Jeeps and

[21:18] people still like Chargers and

[21:20] Challengers, but it seems like the Mopar

[21:24] scene is defending your choice. It's

[21:27] like buying a Sega Genesis too late and

[21:29] realizing it's all over, man. And I'm

[21:31] not saying the answer in 2026 is for

[21:34] Chrysler to make something like this

[21:36] again. I'm not entirely convinced they

[21:38] can. Stalantis build quality is so far

[21:41] down the toilet, it's practically in the

[21:43] Mushroom Kingdom. Maybe they'd luck into

[21:46] something great. Or maybe they'd build

[21:48] something that looks fun but sputters

[21:50] like a dying can of whipped cream. I

[21:52] don't know. A car like a Dodge Viper

[21:54] doesn't make sense today. But that

[21:57] hasn't stopped it from rising in value

[21:59] on the used market because Chrysler was

[22:01] just open to throwing caution to the

[22:04] wind and in the process ended up

[22:06] creating a reference point to their

[22:08] former greatness. Even within the Viper

[22:11] line, the second gen Dodge Viper GTS is

[22:14] the save point. It's the bookmark slid

[22:18] between the pages of automotive history.

[22:20] And even if Stalantis is around for

[22:23] another 100 years,

[22:26] as long as a single Viper is still in

[22:29] existence, as long as a single Viper is

[22:30] still on the road, its individuality

[22:34] will survive the company that made it.

[22:38] Just ask Minnie.