Dodge Viper Rear End Near Indianapolis Speedrome, Indianapolis, Indiana 2021

These Viper’s are extraordinarily easy to work on, a few bolts and this came right out. The center section is basically a Dana 44 so parts can be sourced if you need them, usually. If you have a damaged case it may be a little more cumbersome to find a replacement there but not impossible.

These rears did not have a drain provision from the factory, so when/if you find yourself removing one, we like to drill and tap them so gear oil changes are easier. If you don’t track your car this may not be as important, many of these cars won’t see the mileage required for regular fluid changes.

As you can tell with this 1997, the first and second generation viper use your standard universal joint and a short little drive shaft to carry the power from the center section to the hub. Later cars use constant velocity shafts which tend to be more common in the industry today.

This center section is a standard replacement with a 3.07:1 gear which is the factory provided ratio among all generation 2 vipers. Many owners opt to “upgrade” to a numerically higher ratio, however in certain competition settings it seems the factory ratio helps a driver to carry speed and focus on car control instead of wringing out the big V10. Speaking of which, the v10 is happy at all points through it’s RPM range, the big 488 cubic inch power plants delivers enough grunt off corners at low rpm and still enough pull at full song. If you are used to driving other sports cars you might find yourself shaving more time off your laps by simply skipping a downshift and letting the big lug drag you off the apex, rather than down shifting and risking wheelspin, or worse, a trip to the guardrail club.

With less than 35 thousand units sold in the 25 years of the Viper, there simply aren’t enough of these instant classics to go around and this certainly inspires some to treat these cars as collectors items and not risk them on the race track. I am thankful for those who chose to save their cars for the future generations to enjoy.

For those of us at Ellsworth Racing, life is short and we plan to use these cars just as they were intended. On the track, risking it all in the summer sun.

Thank you to our partners for helping us out and making stuff like this possible