If you wanted to win a gt racing series in the late 90's and early 2000's, what you needed was a Viper. mainly because everyone else had one too.

Initially destined for the GT1 class, the viper gtsr was slightly reworked to be able to race in GT2 class in 1997 and quickly started an era of crushing dominance. the first few cars were manufactured in the US but when the Chrysler brand officially partnered with the French ORECA racing team in 1998, all subsequent viper chassis would be shipped to the team's headquarters in France. This secured a strong foothold in the center of Europe and was an excellent business decision as ORECA quickly became a customer racing hub for any racing team that wanted to get their hands on the viper.

Vipers soon started their international conquest. they won in British GT, the American Le Mans Series, the daytona 24hours, the spa 24hours, the belgian, french, italian and swedish GT championships, The 24h Hours of Le Mans and many more series, no matter where you went, Vipers reigned supreme. Oreca had turned the already potent american racer into the new standard. but that didn't stop several customer teams to make their own improvements on it. The current almost watertight set of regulations in GT3 class are nothing compared to the seemingly wild west of early 21st century national racing series.

All vipers were born the same, but some of them went on to be molded for the specific needs of the teams that bought them. There was for example the japanese team Taisan viper. theirs was actually on of the first customer owned cars. Team Taisan was known for bringing over international racing icons to Japan and racing them in the JGTC and Super GT series so it was only a matter of time as to when they'd get their hands on the V10 brute. when it raced in gt500 class it featured a distinct and unique aero package to be able to keep up with the home grown skylines and supras.

Then there was the Carsport Holland viper in the FIA GT championship, its engine had been placed even further back and lower in the chassis. and was one of the first gtsr's to be fitted with a sequential gearbox

But if there's one team that took their modifications to an unparalleled level, its got to be the german Zakspeed. Even though they had a short an unimpressive stint in F1, Zakspeed is best known for their exploits in the German GT racing scene. Most notably in the 70's as they created one of, if not the most iconic group 5 racecars, the ford zakspeed capri. a turbocharged widebody weapon designed to go head to head with the armada of porsche 935's. they continued racing with ford in group C with the C100 and became a household name in DTM when they raced the Mercedes 190E and opel Calibra. After seeing the vipers clean house in the FIA GT championship Zakspeed reckoned they could put it to good use in germany's biggest and most popular endurance racing series hosted entirely on the nurburgring, the VLN. which just opened up its regulations to allow modern gt cars in

what followed can only be described as a massacre as Zakspeed won every single race in the 1999 season. something that had never happened before and hasn't happened since. the VLN was always a more amateur focussed series so you always saw an immense variety of cars. and the fastest cars on track were limited to group n cars, touring cars and the odd occasional but unreliable supercar. but now these slightly modified road cars shared the track with cars like the viper. the 1999 24h race was a cakewalk for the zakspeed team as they were over 30 seconds a lap faster compared to the closest opposition and won the race with a 3 lap lead

for the 2000 season, the race officials had to do something to prevent zakspeed from steamrolling the competition again. so they forced them to add smaller air restrictors to the engine making it less powerful. but the viper still weighed only just over a tonne so it wasn't slow enough. instead, the officials forced the car to run with ballast. 500 kilograms of it. a ridiculous amount. but in return, the team would be allowed to run without air restrictors. and zakspeed profited of this seemingly unfair compromise by totally unleashing the 8.0L V10. they claim it now produced over 850 horsepower making it the most powerful car on track.

it looked like zakspeed was about to win the 24h race back to back until a damper finally broke after carrying the heavy viper for almost 24h hours, repairs in the pits dropped it back down to second place overall. finishing just one lap down behind a much lighter and agile 911 of phoenix racing

2001 saw a race-long battle. but its unclear in what configuration the viper was running, with or without the ballast and what size air restrictors. but its clear it wasn't running at full power as the 911 was able to overtake it on the long straights. The viper didn't give up though and stayed within reach. this time it would be its reliability that would win the race as the porsche suffered from mechanical issues and eventually crashed out late in the race. it was another win for the viper.

2002 was a lot less exciting as now the phoenix porsche hit problems early on. the viper went on to win yet again virtually unchallenged with a 2 lap lead.

by 2003 many porsche teams finally got the hint and started fitting single and twin turbos to their cars to try and beat the viper, but also to defend themselves from the full blown factory team invasion. Opel, Audi and BMW had joined the party and brought with them brand new race cars and pro drivers. BMW prepared 2 V8 BMW M3 GTR's that had proven to be very successful in the american le mans series while Opel and Audi both had the same idea and adapted their DTM astra and TT to handle the 24h endurance race.

Meanwhile the Viper was hit with a new set of limitations. the not so subtle bias towards the german factory teams was showing as the officials now forced zakspeed to run a smaller fuel tank limited to 90 liters. which greatly reduced the amount of laps they could do in one stint. But there was a plan. Zakspeed had taken a good look at the rules and found a loophole and came up with an unusual solution.

you may have heard of a quick change rear end in drag racing, or quick change brake pads. but zakspeed came up with the quick change fuel tank. the rules stated that they could only fill up the tank with 90 liters at a time, but it didn't say where the refueling should be done. so the team brought 2 fuel tanks. while the car was out on track, the crew could fill up the second fuel tank at any time, then when the car came in for a pitstop they'd simply take out the empty tank, and put in the second full tank. they adapted the rear bodywork into one giant hatchback to help with the process. the result? refueling would now only take 20 seconds. It was a genius invention that sadly was instantly banned by the officials as soon as they saw it. it was a health and safety nightmare to have two guys carrying 90L of fuel around in the pit area.

this obviously upset the team as all the development work was now for nothing, but they still had an ace up their sleeve. this time it related to paperwork. zakspeed by now had two vipers, while the plan with the fuel tank failed on one car, the second car's plan initially went unnoticed. that kept on racing and stayed around the top of the leaderboard as it still had the original 120L fuel tank so it was a lot more competitive.  Vipers were sold in europe as chrysler vipers. so thats the name the name that appeared in the official rules giving the car the fuel limit. but zakspeed didn't enter this car as a chrysler viper, but as a dodge viper. thus it was relieved of any limitations. but the officials weren't convinced and the car was hit with a 45 minute stop and go penalty.

But throughout the race the viper was steadily making its way up the order again despite the enormous amount of time lost. they even managed to get back into the top three. this prompted the officials to give the car another 45 minute penalty later on in the race. the viper then eventually finished in fifth place 9 laps back on the winning opel astra. not bad for a car that was standing still for an hour and a half. zakspeed were understandably pretty annoyed as the obvious bias from the race officials towards the factory teams lost them a near guaranteed victory. and were even more upset when they scrapped the zakspeed from the official results stripping it off its fifth place finish and essentially making the car show up as a DNF.

the 2004 24h race was one to forget as the viper, now back as a chrysler, only lasted 8 laps.
but the final nail in the coffin was yet another new rule aimed squarely at the viper in 2005. the officials wouldn't even try to slow it down anymore as the VLN series now had an engine size limit. cars with an engine size bigger then 6.2L were not allowed to race. and seeing as the viper with its 8L engine doesn't even come close to this, it was effectively banned. thus ending the vipers reign off terror on the ring...

However. Zakspeed had a plan. was it because they still thought the viper was competitive enough to win or out of sheer spite? who's to say. but zakspeed came up with another ridiculous solution. swapping the v10 for a smaller engine was not possible, rules stated that cars had to run the engine they were homologated with. so zakspeed kept the V10 engine block but took it too Caldwell Development Inc who removed the
pistons, valves, rods and more from the first two cylinders and plugged them up, turning the 8L V10 into a 6.2L V8 still capable of a very impressive 600 horsepower. So, much to the annoyance of the officials, it was back on the grid for the 2005 24h race.

down on power compared to when it was in its prime and now in a new red livery, the viper still annoyed the much lighter factory BMW's in the early half off the race, but running out of fuel one lap and having an unusually long pitstop late at night dropped the car down the order. still, it clawed its way back up the field and finished in a respectable 3rd place overall. the viper was back on the podium where it belonged.

the v8 viper was back for 2006 but now had to face a lot more modern GT3 cars that proved to be the way forward for the nurburgring 24h race. it was still competitive against the modern machinery but mechanical gremlins once again relegated it to a third place overall finish.

2007 was the final appearance of zakspeed at the ring with their viper and they went out with a bang. fastest lap of the race and a second place overall finish. it was a passing of the torch moment as the car that team that beat them fair and square, was the grello porsche 911 of manthey racing. they'd go on to be the new dominant force at the ring , and still are to this day.

and so came an end to years of zakspeed dominance at the ring. they embraced the viper and refused to let it go. even when big budget factory teams and biased officials tried to bully it away. the stubborn snake held its ground and became a nurburgring legend.