A Rare Dodge Viper Carroll Shelby Edition Is Currently Up For Auction
Here’s your chance to score one of the rarest Dodge Vipers of all.
A 1996 RT/10 Carroll Shelby Edition is currently up for bid through Hagerty. The head-turning roadster is one of just 19 examples of the exclusive model that were built.
At this point, Shelby may be most closely associated with Ford—where he helped develop the GT40 and improve the first-generation Mustang—but he worked with plenty of other automakers. In the late 1980s, Dodge’s then parent company, the now-defunct Chrysler, was trying to get the Viper off the ground. At the time Shelby was also working on a new sports car, so the automaker brought him in. He’d end up contributing to Viper’s design, but not its engineering, and even drove a pre-production example at the Indianapolis 500 in 1991.
1996 Dodge Viper RT/10 Carroll Shelby Edition
Hagerty
The Shelby variant, which was built by Conneticut’s Fitzgeral Motorsports, dates back to the same year the sport’s car’s second-generation, the SRII, launched. There were two version of this iteration—the GTS coupe, which featured a fixed roof, more powerful engine, and revised suspension, and the RT/10 Roadster, which was basically identical to the previous-gen SRI, according to The Drive. Unless, of course, you opted for the Carroll Shelby variant.
Fitzgerald wasn’t content to release a “new” RT/10 that was basically unchanged from the previous year’s model. Its special edition is easy to spot at just a glance. The standard version of the roadster was only available Viper Red, White, or Black, but the Carroll Shelby Edition added more choices to the mix, including the GTS Blue, a color that was used just twice during the production run. This example also features white racing stripes, a Cobra-style grille, and a whole slew of Shelby accessories, including a steering wheel, badges, and rims.
Inside the RT/10 Carroll Shelby Edition
Hagerty
Fitzgerald also put in some work under the sports car’s hood. The Viper’s 8.0-liter V-10 has been tuned to produce an additional 35 horses, pushing its output to 450 hp. The suspension has also been revised and features a new sway bar and shocks.
Are you in the market for an early Viper that stands out? The auction for the RT/10 Carroll Shelby Edition runs through next Thursday, May 15. As of press time, bidding had reached $32,777, but it wouldn’t be a complete shock if that number starts to climb in the days to come.
Click here for more photos of the 1996 Dodge Viper RT/10 Carroll Shelby Edition.
