1998 Dodge Viper GTS: Regular Car Reviews

[00:00] Oh, that's how fast something's going. It is a smooth car. It is. You don't notice.

[00:21] Yeah! My name is William Sabers. I wear a bandana everywhere I go.

[00:35] I've got a backpack too. That says, Your mom! My favorite drink is Dr. Pepper. And oozoo.

[00:47] I got banned from Philadelphia City Hall after trying to get to the top of the roof to jerk off William Penn. And I drive a 1998 Dodge Viper GTS.

[01:03] My middle name, is IMPORTANT. When I was in the sixth grade, I slept over at my five-man's house.

[01:17] And he had to go to services the next morning. And the consistor here would ever ask me to leave because I walked into the city god like this.

[01:30] Yeah! Just what else I learned to do in the sixth grade.

[01:42] I learned to swallow air and belch on command. I still do it. I'm 44. And I get... Don't click away.

[01:56] Give me extra... My name's William. And I don't hold my farts in when I have 26 with your mom. And I peel out of a ranch house driveway

[02:08] in my Dodge Viper. Bencin' and hedges hanging from my lips cause I'm classy. And no keep a limp biscuit on the stereo. And bite me to your wedding.

[02:22] I'm gonna do this. I'll be out in the park and not wearing a Dodge Viper and doing gravity-bong hits with your cousins. Today's episode of regular car reviews

[02:34] is sponsored by Lazfit. Lazfit, our custom fitted laser-scanned aftermarket floor mats that fit perfectly into your vehicle using the existing carpet anchors.

[02:46] And now I bet you're wondering why these things are so dirty, why I'm not showing them to you all clean. Well this is my friend's Hyundai. He is an EMT worker. We gave him Lazfit mats last fall and now it went through the winter.

[02:59] Road salt, mud, questionable substances in the ambulance. It all ended up in these floor mats. And now we're gonna clean him. All you need is GP cleaner and already I'm too impatient to spray it on

[03:12] so I just take apart the bottle and just dump it on. Then I get a stiff bristled brush, work it into a nice foamy jones. That just lifts all the dirt out and I'm not even using a hose.

[03:24] I'm just using a little pumpy sprayer. Rinse it off, wipe it clean, let it dry, in they go. Easy. Cleaning Lazfit mats is not a pain in the butt and it's not an interruption to your day.

[03:36] And these mats aren't made with harmful chemicals. They use premium TPE material. They're not rock hard and they're not super soft. They're just perfect and they go up under your pedals. They cover more area than your traditional cloth floor mats

[03:50] and you can treat them hard and they're made to last. And honestly they look good too. Try them out, I think you'll like them. So just click the link in the description and use code RCR to save money on the Lazfit website.

[04:02] Once again click the link in the description and use code RCR to save money on the Lazfit website. Thank you. The tag on Chrysler Dodge Stellantis with good reason. Most of what they make, jeeps included, is junk.

[04:17] Their cars are poorly built, unreliable, Gremlin-laden credit ruining money pits. They're like a guy at a bowling alley who picks up a 14 pound ball with two hands,

[04:29] swagger's up to the line and goes, come me, come me, come! And then chucks the alley ball down the lane. But every once in a while,

[04:42] William Importance Saber gets a strike. And then struts like Travolta in the opening credits of Saturday Night Fever back to his Michelob ultra. And the second gen Dodge Viper is an eight liter V10 sports car

[04:56] making 450 horsepower at 5,200 RPM and 490 pound feet at 3,700 RPM. Excuse me, my name is Private Equity Peter Merkel.

[05:08] And I am a freshman at Princeton University. And my M4 makes that. My dad golfs with Chris Krispie and my grandpa told Budweyer that he should probably do that thing.

[05:22] 450 horsepower and 490 pound feet of torque sounds like nothing in 2026. When any EV worth its lithium has to make at least 1,000 horsepower

[05:34] to be special. But not all horsepower's are made equal. 1,000 horsepower EVs or a 500 horsepower BMW are tech laden machines that are permanently locked

[05:47] in the tutorial level. You can't fuck up. Stability control, traction control, torque vectoring, collision mitigation, auto-filladial lane keeping, liza-manelli hand jobs,

[06:00] mountable center consoles, vent ducts filled with dry and calm. You can't make a mistake in them. But the Gen 2 Viper has no assists. Not even anti-lock brakes.

[06:12] You have full power all the time. And the only thing keeping this car in check is the same sense of self-preservation that governs your ego. Gen 2 Viper.

[06:24] Good luck, Chocolnats. And this lack of safety is even funnier because the Gen 1 Viper didn't have driver's aids either. And you'd think that Dodge would have been like, oh, that weird experiment

[06:36] that the Viper is is actually selling and it's selling enough to necessitate another generation? Well, we better modernize it. But no. This is Dodge. They just grabbed their favorite metal straw

[06:48] and went, yeah, we're doing it again. Oh, feeling good. Feeling a little bit warm. Feeling fantastic. Here's what we're going to do. More bulges.

[07:00] More power. And get you. And that's it. What? What? Who are you and what department do you? What? Oh, oh, oh, fine. Okay, sure. Air conditioning.

[07:12] We'll give it air conditioning. You want real glass in the windows? Fine. But that's it. Man, I'm sick of you guys. This thing is pretty much a kit car.

[07:24] Still. It just got updated styling. More power out of the V10. That's it. 1998 Dodge Viper GTS. The official car of weekend warriors and rag-top shirts shouting,

[07:36] no mercy as they plank in the middle of the free-weight area. This car is a joy to drive. It's expensive. Who does this thing drink? The funny thing is the core vets of the same year.

[07:50] Especially the C5's once they came out. They did not get hit with the gas guzzler tax. Because core vets, competitor of this car, sort of, had very tall fifth and sixth gears.

[08:02] They could get 30 miles a gallon. If you babyed them, they were geared nice and nice and high at the end for cruising. The Viper? No. No.

[08:14] This thing is geared as if it's meant to be on a track. But it is so sketchy. This thing did get hit with the gas guzzler tax. Did the buyers care? No. Because it's awesome.

[08:26] And everybody's looking at you. While we were filming this, there were people who came up and didn't even know what it was. There's nothing that looks like this. Nothing is wild. Nothing is eye-catching.

[08:39] The styling is perpetually aggressive. But in that weird welcoming way, I suppose because it lacks the angular fake aggressiveness that so soaked the 20 teens.

[08:52] Oh, this is 1998. Try to find a right angle on the car. No. Sensual curves. True beauty is non-binary. The perfect mix of masculine and feminine

[09:04] together doing dead lifts. There are very few, and this is for the straight people out there, cars that are very fast, muscular and strong,

[09:16] that also attract females. And this is one of them. Now, on the outside. You get on the inside of a viper. Ooh, it's... Your shoulders are squished together. Your feet are off to the side.

[09:29] It gets you... The windows aren't enough. You need to have the air conditioner on and the windows down. There is just heat pouring out of the engine. Heat pouring out of the transmission. You're sitting next to the transmission. Not on top of it.

[09:41] You can't see out the sides. The hood bulges are up to your eyes. It's like a woman with big megalodons. Just all pushed up to the bottom of her nose, trying to tire shoes. You don't know where the front of this car ends,

[09:53] and good luck trying to see out the back. But it's joyous. Every gear change is an affirmation to acceleration and the upcoming future. So, let's get into some literary theories.

[10:05] So, all right, class. Today, we're going to be talking about object-oriented ontology. Object-oriented ontology. Write it down in your notebooks, please. This theory suggests that humans

[10:18] are not a privileged class. And by privileged class, I mean, not privileged at all in the hierarchy of all objects in the known universe.

[10:32] Humans, according to object-oriented ontology, are just another type of object among countless other objects, both living and non-living.

[10:44] And we all have equal value, because all things have a material reality and independent worth outside of human perception and use.

[10:58] Sort of think of this as like scrap prices. We are just the sum of the things that make us up. You may have a car that's just oozing sentimental value, but to a scrapper, it's $350 in metal.

[11:12] As Rocky said, the grace in the Hail Mary book, you are leaky space blob. It's sort of an answer to the question of whether or not a tree can fall in the woods if a person isn't around to hear it.

[11:24] Well, of course it can, because a tree has an independent relationship with the world and its surroundings that we don't see. Now, it might seem weird to compare the two, but the Dodge Viper is the Mario to the Cybertruck's Wario.

[11:40] And together, they make a great case for object-oriented ontology. Both the Cybertruck and the Viper are the same. Both are uncomfortable, both are needlessly expensive,

[11:53] both are aggressively overpowered, both are uncomfortable on the inside, poor visibility looking outside, and are completely impractical, inexpensive, and by the way, they're both poorly built.

[12:09] Even Dodge Viper's, yes, have body lines that don't line up and never will. On the one hand, these cars wouldn't have any use if humans disappeared tomorrow. But on the other hand, they would still have interactions

[12:24] with time and the environment, and with the objects they contain, they will rust, they will degrade, and they will become home to squirrels and birds. So a car might need humans to maintain its function,

[12:38] but not its existence. In that sense, the Viper and the Cybertruck might just be the only two cars we can think of that behave as if they don't need us.

[12:50] And they do this by being straight-up hostile to the driver's existence. The Cybertruck doesn't care if you enjoy driving it. The Cybertruck doesn't care if you can even understand how. And yet, when faced with choosing between these two cars

[13:04] that force you to adapt to their independent qualities, who do you think I'm choosing? Come on! I'm picking a second-gen Dodge Viper GTS every single time

[13:16] because the Viper may be chaotic, but I'll never not be able to enjoy driving it. Even if the car never trusts me to actually do it. 1998 Dodge Viper GTS.

[13:28] When I die, scatter my ashes on the tail of the dragon. This is a loud, fast, power-hungry, fuel-thirsty car that doesn't even make sense on the track.

[13:40] And it displaces eight liters of American venom. And when you hear it, when you hear its exhaust,

[13:54] screaming through a gated community of weepy, snot bubbling HOA belly acres who complain any time someone mows a lawner or the earlier the noon, you'll know

[14:07] that only one of two things has happened. Either your neighbor's son, Kyle, got an early parole or one of the neighborhood dads has had a new self-care ritual that involves edging the grim reaper.

[14:19] Let me put it this way. Speed you can control feels different than speed you can't. And the Dodge Viper requires you to know what the hell you're doing

[14:31] because it's not going to compensate for your shortcomings in the way all modern performance cars will. Let me reiterate, there's no traction control or ABS here. So if you push this car past its limit,

[14:45] you will not be able to recover unless you are a very skilled driver. And by that, I mean that you have already taken a Viper past the limits of adhesion

[14:57] on a track and know what this is going to do. But that's also why the GTS is so compelling. It's like a hyper motorcycle. You look at it and realize you're looking at greatness.

[15:12] But you're also looking at exclusion. For our skiers and snowboarders up there, remember the first time you gazed over the edge of a true double black, not an East Coast double black,

[15:25] you know, maybe Killington, but West Coast double black, or Utah, Colorado. Oh, and you see the horizon, you look down and down.

[15:37] Oh, I thought I was skilled. The skill pit goes deeper. The Viper utilizes its aggression in a more thoughtful way than something like the cyber truck. It maximizes driver influence rather than minimizing it.

[15:52] A drive that requires track day focus is more rewarding than showing up to a place without any memory of the drive that got you there. And there's also something to be said for this design

[16:04] because while both cars have a sort of off-puttingly edgy appearance, the Viper feels a lot less tri-hard, right? If the cyber truck is a goth loner

[16:16] who acts like they're above the cool kids while desperately craving their validation like the creator of this car desperately wants our validation, guess what?

[16:28] No amount of money buys coolness, no amount of money buys hip. Money does not equal popularity, it never will. You're a loser if you think so.

[16:41] But the Viper is the cool kid who couldn't possibly care less about whether anybody likes him or not. He's got pit Viper's on and he's owning them. It's effortless cool.

[16:55] That's reinforced through a combination of performance and aura. The Viper is doing its own thing and doesn't care if you don't care to watch. It's an outsider artist. And for that, I love Dodge

[17:08] that kept this car going. There are few cars that were built for the love of the game, and this is one of them. You buy a Dodge Viper when you realize you haven't known peace since age 10,

[17:20] and chaos is what feels most like home. The type of kids who played chicken with oncoming trains grew up and bought Dodge Viper's. After all, nothing reaffirms life like a car that doesn't care

[17:33] if you'll ever die. 1998 Dodge Viper GTS skill issue. But even while I enjoy this car eternally, chat, I can't see myself ever wanting to own one.

[17:45] And the biggest reason is how much money you risk just to keep this thing on the road. Aside from keeping up with basic maintenance, you have to pray stuff doesn't break since stock parts on Viper's

[17:58] are expensive and difficult to find. It got to the point where a volunteer mat just went out and bought aftermarket wheels and tires because they were cheaper than the stock tires, and took the side markers

[18:11] off an old utility truck when they needed a replacement. And now one of the headlights is cracked. And Matt doesn't have many options since these headlights were made in fairly low volumes. And there are no aftermarket options

[18:24] for these headlight enclosures, at least not in 2026. According to Matt, if you want a new headlight enclosure, for a second gen Viper, guess what? $4,000 a piece.

[18:38] So it has a cracked headlight enclosure. I don't blame him. Cracked doesn't go all the way through and he's not getting a fix at ticket. But even if it didn't have any of these problems, it's still a mechanically absurd car in a lot of ways.

[18:51] It has electric door handles, yet there's no way to open the rear hatch from inside the car. It has cold and hot air, but only heat comes out of the lower vents, and only cold air comes out of the top vents.

[19:03] Which Matt tells us that's from factory. Dodge said this thing will do 20 on the highway. Matt says it's closer to eight miles per gallon city and 13 highway.

[19:15] He says he was able to heap this thing to 18 miles per gallon highway in six gear while staying to the 65 mile an hour speed limit. And I know who cares about fuel economy and a Viper.

[19:28] The GTS wasn't cheap in its heyday. 1998, it MSRPed for $66,000, which adjusted for inflation to 2026 is $130,000.

[19:41] That's a lot to pay for a frictionless majestic 1990s MoPAR pilot garbage. However, you can also kind of understand it since the GTS was such a low-volume car.

[19:54] It was hand-built by small teams for limited runs, which separated it from anything else on the road. There was nothing like this and there will be nothing like this. Oh, and addition to air conditioning and real glass

[20:08] for the side windows, this was the first Viper to get airbags. And because this is a pre-2000 Viper, you also get forged pistons. This car represents a time when Chrysler used to be with it. In a very Abe Simpson way, Chrysler used to knew what it was.

[20:23] They took risks in the way athletes take PEDs. Without any thought to who might see them do it or how it might impact their future earning potential. And the world loved them for it.

[20:36] Chrysler was 1998 Mark McGuire. Drilling homers all the way back to the cheap seats, they were making these kinds of cars because people responded to these types of cars. And people responded to them because Chrysler cared

[20:49] about making them fun. But as with just any product that was halfway decent in the 90s, Chrysler fell out of touch with what people wanted from them and has become something unrecognizable.

[21:03] They're the automotive equivalent of Gwen Stefani. They're saving face these days by cutting costs to the bone. But all that does is leave their current customer base saltier than target popcorn.

[21:16] People still like jeeps and people still like chargers and challengers. But it seems like the Mopar scene is defending your choice. It's like buying a Sega Genesis too late

[21:29] and realizing it's all over, man. And I'm not saying the answer in 2026 is for Chrysler to make something like this again. I'm not entirely convinced they can. Stellantis build quality is so far down the toilet

[21:42] it's practically in the mushroom kingdom. Maybe they'd look into something great or maybe they'd build something that looks fun but sputters like a dying cannon whipped cream. I don't know. A car like a Dodge Viper doesn't make sense today.

[21:56] But that hasn't stopped it from rising in value on the use market. Because Chrysler was just open to throwing caution to the wind and in the process ended up creating a reference point

[22:08] to their former greatness. Even within the Viper line, the second gen Dodge Viper GTS is the save point. It's the bookmark slid between the pages of automotive history.

[22:21] And even if Stellantis is around for another hundred years, as long as a single Viper is still in existence, as long as a single Viper is still in the road, its individuality will survive the company that made it.

[22:38] Just ask many.