The first Viper concept debuted at the 1989 NAIAS, followed by prototypes; the late-1989 VM01 was powered by the 360 V8, but a V10 was already planned. The early-1990 VM02 was powered by the 8-liter V10. The original V10 was reportedly built with the involvement of Lambourghini, which was partly owned by Chrysler at the time; the basic engineering was of course Chrysler’s, since it was based on the venerable 360, but Lambourghini worked on the cooling system, crankshaft balance, weight reduction, and fine tuning; the Italian automaker’s expertise in aluminum was also tapped, since the Viper had an aluminum block to save roughly 150 pounds of weight
The first prototype was tested in December 1989. It first debuted in 1991 with three pre-production models as the pace car for the Indianapolis 500 when Dodge was forced to substitute it in place of the Stealth, and went on sale in January 1992 as the soft roofed RT/10 Roadster.
The centerpiece of the car was its engine, with the car claimed as being built around it instead of the driver, boasting very few comforts, which did not even include door handles. Originally conceived along side a similar V10 truck engine, which it is commonly mistaken as the same engine, and based on the Chrysler LA engine, then a division of the Chrysler Corporation, revamped Dodge's cast-iron block V10 for the Viper by recasting the block and head in aluminum alloy, and giving the engine a significant power boost. Some within Lamborghini felt the pushrod two-valve design was unsuitable for a performance car and suggested a more comprehensive redesign which would have included four valves per cylinder. However, Chrysler was uncertain about the Viper's production costs and sales potential and so declined to provide the budget for the modification, though Lamborghini was still very active in the creation of the original engine.
The engine produced 400 hp (298 kW) at 4600 rpm and 450 ft·lbf (610 N·m) of torque at 3600 rpm, and thanks to the long-gearing allowed by the torquey engine, provided surprising fuel economy at a claimed 21 mpg US (11.2 L/100 km) if driven sedately. The body was a tubular steel frame with resin transfer molding (RTM) fiberglass panels. Typical of American performance car design, it had a front-mounted engine driving the rear wheels; it was also heavy with a curb weight of 3,280 lb (1,488 kg) and lacked many modern driver aids such as traction control or anti-lock brakes. Car and Driver magazine referred to this generation as "the world's biggest Fat Boy Harley", and likened driving it to "playing ping pong with a Louisville Slugger baseball bat." Despite this, in straight line performance, it completed a quarter mile in 12.9 seconds and had a maximum speed of 164 mph (264 km/h).
Suspension on the first-gen Viper was equally frugal, with many front-end pieces coming directly from the Dakota pickup truck.
Performance:
0-60: 4.6 sec.
0-100: 9.2 sec.
quarter mile: 12.5 sec. @ 112 mph
top speed: 180+ (confirmed by Road and Track magazine / 1992)
700 ft slalom: over 65 mph
skidpad average g: .96
