2008 Dodge Viper SRT10

Just 20 years ago, when Porsche and Ferrari unveiled the astonishing 444-hp 959 and the 478-hp F40 supercars, 400 horsepower was a very big number. Nowadays, the horsepower wars have gotten so crazy that there are a number of sedans—thank you, BMW and Mercedes—that muster at least 500 horsepower. The base Corvette now starts with 430 ponies, and there’s a Mustang out there with 500 genuine horsepower—not the inflated SAE gross numbers that muscle cars of the 1960s claimed. So, to get attention nowadays, you need a really big number. Like 600 horsepower, which just so happens to be the figure produced by the latest Dodge Viper SRT10.

But the new Viper is more than a big horsepower number. While the Dodge engineers were extracting more grunt—horsepower has increased from 510 to 600 and torque from 500 pound-feet to 560—they tweaked many other aspects of the car, and the result is one spectacular automobile.