What’s Next: The Last Dodge Viper
It’s been awhile since I last wrote up a post here on the ‘ol blog and as usual it’s not for a lack of desire but rather a lack of time and energy…
Sometimes otherwise known as having no good neuron firing solution upstairs…
But the synapses are funny things and as crazy as life has been over the last two or three years, somehow it’s become even nuttier in the interim… (more on that later)… And I find it truly amazing that no matter how fast you think you’re capable of running, you always can seem to run faster and yet still faster…
To what end I am not sure, though I suspect at some point soon I shall find out…
Speed however is an even funnier thing — There’s fast… And then there’s fast…
For the past 18 years the Dodge Viper has been one of the fast, fast cars…
A couple of weeks ago I had the distinct privilege of watching, and filming, one of the last great American Muscle cars roll off the line for the final time…
I’m sure some will quibble with the assertion that the Viper is the last great American Muscle Car — and that’s ok, everyone has the right to their own opinion — but in my mind all the other classic muscle car badges have somehow evolved into something else these days… The Viper has and always will be very different…
As they say, ‘it is what it is’… A raw, unadulterated, 600+ horsepower beast of a Supercar… And it never wavered from that from day until now… There’s no Traction Control, no computerized noth’in… Just full power all the time… The Viper was neither a production car in the truest sense nor was it quite a hand-built ride exotic either, yet somehow it existed in-between those two realms for a very long time. Admittedly that’s a very hard place for a car to stand and it’s not the most friendly business model, however somehow Dodge made it work and I think you have give them incredible props for that…
One of the things that I find most fascinating about the Viper is that it takes just one look at it to know it is a special ride. Somehow that doesn’t happen exactly the same way with Vettes or Mustangs or Camaros… They’re cool but they blend in… They’ve become part of our daily automotive lexicon… The Viper never was — it was rare from day one and stayed that way…
At this point I’ve now had the good fortune of shooting in a hell of a lot of car and motorcycle factories — well over thirty at this point — and I’ve got to say that the folks who build the Viper are unlike any I’ve ever come across. There was a palpable sense of passion in the Viper factory the likes of which I’ve never quite witnessed before in person. A lot of factories say that they have that kind of passion, or more accurately the ’suits’ who sit upstairs say they do, but a lot of times the folks on the actual line are just doing their job and it wouldn’t really matter whether it was building that particular machine or a coffee grinder. That was not the case at the Viper Factory. It instantly felt different. The people there were some of the most caring, artisan, passion-filled wrenchers I’ve ever had the pleasure to get to know and frankly it showed — all day long.
The Viper is not only a hell of a supercar and beauty to look at but it’s crafted by a select group of individuals in a way that somehow articulates not only the incredible engineering that went into making the machine work superbly at speed but also echos each individual mechanics’ personal pride in what they do.
If I had the money, I’d buy a Viper tomorrow, hands down… And there’s a whole host of supercars that show up in the auto mags every month that I’d by-pass in a heartbeat and without even thinking about it… I don’t know that there’s a stronger statement about how moto-romantic I found the Viper factory…
More picts after the jump… (more…)
This Week: ‘Man Made Bugatti Super Car’ Premieres
After many months of hard work, long days and sometimes even longer nights, I’ve finally got some fantastic news to share — The Bugatti Veyron documentary that I produced and directed finally has an air-date!
‘Man Made: Bugatti Super Car’ will make it cable television debut this coming Thursday, February 11th, at 8 pm on The National Geographic Channel.
It is a project that I am immensely proud of and am eager to share. The film looks and sounds fantastic, as I briefly wrote about before, and it would be my hope that everyone in the audience enjoys the watch.
The folks at Bugatti were extraordinary in terms of the access they granted us and frankly we were able to capture some tremendous things on tape – Sometimes for the very first time. Even though I’ve had the distinct privilege to go inside of a lot of factories, design studios and engineering departments in the past, I don’t know if there’s any one group of people that I have more respect for then the VW engineering staff, given what they have successfully accomplished with this machinel.
People can knock the Veyron for the price or ask whether the world needs a 1,001 horsepower machine that can break the 250 mph barrier, but it unquestionably one of the most amazing engineering exercises ever undertaken and successfully completed in the automotive world. If you’re lucky enough to sit in the car and pull 1.9 G’s while braking from top speed, I guarantee you’ll agree with me. The Veyron is just an amazing thrill ride…
All told, this has been a wonderfully inspiring project to work on and to be a part of, and now it’s time to let it go… Time for you the audience to enjoy it and to get ready for the next great moto-adventure…
'Man Made: Bugatti Super Car' premieres this week on National Geographic
From the National Geographic Website:
The Bugatti Veyron is a “super” super car - part automobile and part airplane. And with a base price of $1,750,000, it is the most expensive production car in the world. Designed with materials and construction techniques normally found in the aerospace industry, this remarkable engineering achievement is one of the fastest street-legal cars ever built. Now, NGC takes an insider look at the Bugatti factory to see how this modern engineering masterpiece is built.
There’s also some video from the show available on their website, along with other info & air-date times;
http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/series/man-made/4237/Overview#tab-Overview
6 Channels of Veyron Goodness
Audio Mixing for Bugatti Super Car
Every now and then, the various bits of life come together in truly remarkable ways — Today I got the chance to hear the 5.1 surround sound mix of Bugatti Super Car, our latest documentary for The National Geographic Channel, for the very first time. As much as I love the visuals of the show, there’s nothing quite as exciting as hearing a brand new 5.1 mix for a doc that you’ve been working on for months and months. It’s truly awe-inspiring as it brings new life to something you’ve seen a thousand times. Amazing how sounds has such a remarkable ability to impact the soul.
It’s one thing to be in the field filming for a doc, another to put the show together and yet something even better and more profound to hear it for the very first time… As always the final result will be up to you the audience to judge, but right now I’m very, very excited about it…
Many thanks to Salami Studios in Burbank…
