Viper - 1000 BHP and 225 MPH 

We started this project back in 1994 with an American specification car which  had 1100 miles on the clock .The breif was twin turbos. abs brakes, kevlar roof, electric windows and door mirrors, uprated brakes and suspension - the list just went on and on.   Twin to4 modified turbos running variable boost control upto 20 psi of boost were fitted for starters, with turbo manifolds and exhaust made up for us by Maniflow in Salisbury . We then asked Mcloud clutches to manufacture a twin 10.5 inch custom clutch for our project, for which we supplied them with new flywheel to develop this as it had to support 1000 bhp and 1000 ft lbs of torque. Ours was the first clutch of this type made and they've since been selling them for vipers for 14 years ( Ha! Where's our royalties?)

Click here to read what 'The Daily Telegraph' wrote about the car when the had Mark Hales test drive it back in 1996

1000 BHP Viper engine during development - TO4 turbos mounted either side of engine 'Vee'
 
The gearbox was changed to modified ZF 6 speed to take the power using an adapter plate and a new propshaft..Brakes were custom made based on the front brakes from Jaguar XJ 220, wqorking with with an ABS braking system and working in conjunction with.air ducts to front and rear brakes.
 
Doors were extensively modified to include electric windows and mirrors, with and bonded new rear screen - remember, when first released, the Viper came with only a folding roof, and pop-out flexible sidescreens! To round out the bodywork modifications,

Suspension on the car featured custom made koni adjustable coilovers.
 
Engine management systems were developed by MBE Systems as was the  traction control. We found out later that though the management system should have been sequential, it was in fact a bank fired system - each set of 5 injectors on the 'Vee' being pulsed alternately..


Man hard at work. Dyno testing the twin-turbo Viper V10 motor
 
Initial dyno testing went well but we but we found that the fuel system was not up to the job so we designed and fitted a new system in three days while the engine was still bolted on the dyno. This was based upon a 100 bhp injector fuel return system using twin Cosworth 4x4 fuel pumps which worked well and is still working today. Incidentally, we broke the dyno at 900 ft lbs of torque at 3600 rpm ...

Racing driver and Daily Telegraph contributor Mark Hales about to test drive the Viper at Thruxton race curcuit for a feature on the car for the paper's motoring section

As a postscript to all of this, in 2005 we were called by our original  customer  to sort out the car and MOT it, as it had been sat in his garage for two years. We found the car in a rather sorry state. On checking the oil and coolant, we found no antifreeze in the system. We were told that the car had been to Silverstone and been thrashed  around the track and overheated. The head gaskets had gone and the heads had corroded so we purchased two new heads and got the engine running. Unfortunately the emissions were then still too high,  and when we  found the engine management system was u/s, MBE were not interested in sorting it for us.


In-car engine installation of the twin-turbo V10. Everything fitted neatly into the stock engine bay, though much of the work done is hidden out of sight down the sides and underneath where the intercooler and additional exhaust heat shielding were located.

As the customer had lost interest, we purchased the car from him and set about putting things to rights. We remade the exhaust manifolds to a better design to take heat away from the plug caps and better flow. A new Motec management system was fitted too, this time with the injectors batch fired in pairs. What a difference! The engine was perfect on the rolling road at 7lb of boost, and  we made 700 bhp and 850 ft lbs, with the option of  running upto 20 psi to make over 1000 bhp. 1100 ft lbs of torque.
 
 

Page 3 stunner Jo Guest posing with the car at the Auto Sport Show in 1996 at Earls Court in London - wonder where she is now? 

And for the technically minded, here are some data sheets for the engine and dynamometer figures that may be of interest -