Dodge’s legendary Viper comes stomping out of mothballs and gets back to the business of tearing up the asphalt at face-melting speeds with 3 new SRT reincarnations for 2013-14. Yes, you can call it a crude American muscle car. Yes, it’s a brutal answer to the more nuanced and larger production Corvette. And yes, it’s expensive with an MSRP of around $100,000 before the massive array of performance options that can make this street legal car a sinister and legitimate super car slayer. But with it’s relatively limited production run and defiant rebuke of smaller, turbo charged engines, the new Viper has “rebel” tattooed on its distinctive snarling snout. In fact, one could say that its awe-inspiring normally aspirated V-10, which delivers 610 horses and a brutal 600 pounds of torque, is not so much defiant of the trend towards smaller engines and improved fuel economy as it is a slap in the face and a challenge to a fist fight.

All you have to do is add up the minuscule gas mileage that the Viper achieves in trade off for all that available performance — a puny 12 mpg in the city, 19 on the highway — and the lack of creature comforts for anyone who does not spend all day turning fast laps at the track — it does not come in an automatic and is as stiffly sprung as a Springfield rifle — and you have the definition of “acquired taste”. But if that taste runs to pure unbridled speed and power on demand, the Viper’s massive power train and minimum available weight of just under 3300 pounds will satisfy that craving in spades. Do the math on that power-to-weight ratio and you come up with 0-60 in 3.1 seconds in GTS trim a top speed of 206 mph. This beast is designed to do one thing: blow away any street car you care to put up against it. That sounds like good fun to us.

After a very good second half in the final season of the ALMS series, the Viper will get its chance to take on all comers on the track, including Ferrari, Porsche & Corvette, in the maiden season of the Tudor United Sports Car Challenge in 2014. It is also highly likely that SRT teams will compete again at next year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans, where they will look to improve on last year’s results and return to their glory days of dominance at that legendary race.

For bonus gearhead grins, here’s the previous generation ACR-X bitching it around the Nurburgring in 2011 and setting the lap record (since broken by an $800k Porsche 918 Spyder–not exactly apples to apples in MSRP):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e48df97st2s

For more on the rebirth of the SRT Viper check out this classic and laugh out loud funny take from Ezra Dryer at the New York Times. Also worth a read: this LA Times review by Aaron Bragman.