Three Monsters On The Track

Yep! Three monsters...  😬 😬 😬 

Or 3 Amigos.

@100ford2003

@100ford2003 Funny thing about the Dodge Viper, in Europe there was no Dodge brand so the car was called a Chrysler Viper. The German Zakspeed Vipers were so dominant that the rules makers kept changing the rules to try and slow down the Vipers. Every time they would make a new rule to slow the Viper down Zakspeed would find a way around the rule, towards the end the rule makers passed a rule that the vipers could only carry half the fuel load the other cars could carry so instead of 120 liters of fuel the Vipers could only carry 60 liters making them have to stop a lot more than the other cars. Zakspeed found a way around this as well as they designed a quick change 60 liter fuel tank. The rules did not say when you had to fuel the tank so instead of waiting for 60 liters of fuel to flow into the tank on a pit stop the Zakspeed team would have a 60 liter fuel tank filled and ready to go and could change it in 90 seconds. 

The rule makers somehow got wind of this and banned it before Zakspeed could use it. So Zakspeed being so good at reading the rule book, the rule on the 60 liter fuel tank only applied to the Chrysler Viper so they used the Dodge name instead which could carry the full 120 liter fuel tank. The rule makers were beat again by Zakspeed. So the rule makers decided the Viper V-10 engine was too big at 8 liters and made a rule for engine size of 6.2 liters, that they thought would be the end of the Vipers dominating. 

Zakspeed once again figured out a way to get around the rules, they plugged the front two cylinders of the V-10 dropping the displacement to 6.2 liters which allowed them to run the 120 liter fuel tank, the viper lived on. The rules makers were not done yet with the viper, now they started changing the rules during the race and because the Viper was still very competitive they told the team they were being given a penalty of :45 minutes in the pits. After serving that penalty and climbing back up to third place overall in the race standings the rule makers told the Viper team they were being given a second :45 minute penalty in the pits. The Viper still fought back with a respectable finish but the rules makers still were not done, because the Viper spent 1:30 minutes in the pits sitting stationary (serving the two penalties) they decided that was enough to rule the Viper as a DNF (Did Not Finish) for the race. 

Zakspeed appealed and was set to appeal to the sanctioning body in France but decided against it as it was a losing battle in the end with the never ending rules changes. 

While the Europeans like to make fun of American cars the Zakspeed Viper spanked all the European brands hard, just like Henry Ford did with the GT40's.