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For those of you who have 2008-2010 Vipers or those who have fitted the later T6060 to your earlier year model viper. There are some close ratio 5th ad 6th (.80 and .63) gearsets available. This allows you to reach top speed in 6th instead of 5th and makes 6th gear much more user friendly. This change makes the upper gears more responsive, putting the engine in the better part of the torque range.

For those with the later T6060 (2009-10) that has the .80 5th gear, you can get just the lower 6th gear.

Installed price is about $1500, parts and labor with the better Syncromax fluid.

Feel Free to call:

Dan Cragin
Specialty Performance
310-597-6295

For those of you that want to make your car run the best, Specialty Performance has been perfecting computer calibrations for the Viper since 1996. We have numerous calibrations for all year models (including Gen 1) that we have developed on the dyno using 91 California fuel. If you want your car to run smoother, cooler, have better snap throttle and no annoying skip shift, we can help.

All we need is your computer and have a 1-2 day turn around. Some cars require a cooler thermostat.
For those supermodified cars, we offer dyno tuning in real time by appointment.

Calibrations are $300 plus any applicabile shipping. Gen 1 calibrations $450.

Please feel free to call for any Viper related question or service.

Dan Cragin
310-597-6295

We had a great weekend out at the Mojave Mile last weekend. For those of you who have never been, its held at Mojave Air and Space Port. Cars can run flat out down the 12000 foot runway. This year they had a 1 mile and 1 1/2 mile event.

We ran several Vipers, saw 200 and met some nice folks. A Suzuki Hybusa went 247mph and drove home! It was something differant and lots of fun, every Viper owner should try it once.

We are going to go again next year, everyone is invited.

Dan Cragin

Hi Folks, I have been going through my storage and have the following parts for sale:

1996-2002 Viper 65mm throttle bodies with inlet tubes and modified airbox  $500
2008-2013 Viper American Racing headers with cats/ new less gaskets $1800
2008-2010 Viper cylinder heads, repairable, one broken valve $1500
2008-2010 Viper intake manifold/ Ported $1700
1992-1995 Viper hub caps (set) $150
1997-2002 Viper rear exhaust system (OE Cat back) $300
2003-2006 Viper rear exhaust system (OE Cat back) $300
2003-2006 Viper hood (Red) $500
2003-2006 Viper Oil pand (non-swing) $200

Dan Cragin 310-597-6295

Hey Folks,

For those of you who would like a track car fully prepared for NASA or SCCA wheel to wheel racing at a great price, here is the car for you. It's a 2000 GTS and is like new with only 1083 original miles.  It's fully prepared, all safety equipment with current certification, new tires and wheels (one practice session). This car is turn key and needs nothing.

It was bought new and driven 500 miles on the street before being made into a race car. The car was originally prepared for T1 by Exoticraft when new, competed in two races, then was completely rebuilt for SCCA/ Viper Challenge wheel to wheel specs by Archer Racing.

The car was stored inside, unused for numerous years. I went through the entire car and prepared it for current competition. The engine has perfect leakdown and all the driveline works perfectly.

Production engine has full race preparation/ race headers and exhaust/ Mopar Performance Race controller/ Dyno tuned, race wiring harness, race battery relocated to front, Race Trans, Differential, trans and diff coolers, Motons, adjustable bar links, full cage, race seats, fuel cell, race fuel system, fire system, cool suit, new paint, ground effects, wing splitter, graphics and car cover. Too much to list, must see it if interested, email [email protected] for pics.  The customer has 150k invested.



$42,000

Dan Cragin
310-597-6295

Many Viper owners have found the benefit of "Gearing Down" for better performance. A gear change will get your engine up in the power band quicker and apply more torque to the rear wheels. This makes your car feel faster without changing its HP. A gear change is by far your biggest performance gain for the dollar. For about $1200 you can make your car feel like its gained 50-70hp. Gearing down gives you quicker acceleration by allowing your existing HP to get to the rear wheels faster. Vipers were built with a high 3.07 gear, this was done to keep the Gas Guzzler tax down, This gear in combination with the 1-4 skip shift allows 20mpg during 6th gear cruising. The 3.07 gear may be good for mileage but it makes 5th and 6th gears hardly useable for passing acceleration. A lower gear makes 6th gear) more usable and makes the car a real performer in the lower gears. Lower gears give better off throttle braking as well.
So what gears should you use? The most popular it the 3.55 ratio, for the street and canyon driver this gear provides great seat of the pants acceleration. The Drag Race and Road racer like the 3.33 ratio. The 3.33 gear helps with taller drag race tires and still lets the car pull good mph in 4th gear. The road racers like it as it lets them really hang it out in high-speed corners without getting stuck shifting into a higher gear. For those who just like to burn rubber from stoplight to stoplight the 3.73 is very popular. Lower gearing does create more heat, so 12,000-mile fluid changes are recommended. 1992-2002 Vipers require a speedometer calibration box to correct the speedometer. 2003-2010 models do not.
All ring and pinion sets are not the same, most of our gears are manufactured in America and are shot-peened at the factory. They are designed for quiet operation and high torque. For those who road race, drag race or have very high hp engines we offer shot-peening (on the sets that are not pre shot-peened) and "REM" Super Finishing polishing to strengthen the gears and allow them to run cooler.

Hi all,
I was wondering who was shipping a car to VOI. I will be launching my new business there in the vendor area and figured if I could send some of my promotional products up with a car I could help with your transportation charges.
It would save me the worry about shipping and could help you with the expense.

Also, if anyone needs someone to drive a truck and trailer up to the event I know of someone who is available.

I am real excited to see many of you there and talk to you about my new adventure!

Dan Cragin

Hi Everyone,
Thanks for all of your support and well wishes with the closure of DC Performance. All of us appreciate your business over the years. I must admit that it was discouraging for me after being part of the Viper since it's inception. Our business model with 9 employees and 3 owners just could not ride out the storm, no new Vipers and a poor economy kind of put the nail in the coffin.

I looked at several options moving forward including taking my show to the dealers or working directly with SRT, but I kept coming back to what I love......taking care of you Viper owners and building amazing cars. I've worked hard on a new business model and certainly know what works and what does not. What I have come up with is a smaller, more focused and professional shop. The new operation will have a world class look and provide everything a Viper owner or racer might need, under one roof. One big plus will be a pickup and delivery service. I have much more to share, but I will wait for the launch.

My question to the So Cal Viper community is what do you want from a new Viper shop? And where would you like us to be? We are looking at locations now.

For those in need I can still help, just give me a call.

Thanks and take care,

Dan Cragin
310-597-6295

Hey Everyone,
We are headed out to Irwindale Thursday at 5:00 to dragrace a few Vipers. All are invited and Lyle Larson will be giving pointers. It should be great fun! Feel free to meet up with us. Dan Cragin 310-597-6295.

The Viper "Posi unit" has always been an area for improvement on all generation cars. The job of the posi is to apply power to both the rear wheels and to allow differences in wheel speed around corners. The better the posi the better the car grips and applies power to the wheels.

The most popular posi upgrades on the market are the "Quaife" and the "Superlock". Both these posi units apply power more evenly and precisely than the factory posi unit. These type of posi units keep the car going straight (instead of sideways) on hard acceleration and apply power more evenly around corners so you can accelerate harder out of turns.
Cars with higher than factory hp or cars used on the track often benefit most from this upgrade.

Well there is a new posi upgrade on the market for the 03-06 Viper. Its called a "Wavetrack" and has been used extensively in high performance European cars. Its an all gear drive posi like a Quaife, but has many advantages over a Quaife, especially in low traction conditions.

Here is the great news. Wavetrack has offered this upgrade for the first Viper customer at less than half the normal cost (about $1600). If anyone out there is interested. Please give me a call. Dan 310-841-6996

All of us at DC Performance want to thank you for your support over the last year.

Here is a little review of some cars we tested in 2011!

http://youtu.be/tjjWLtZZ0Hs

I have a Brembo brake kit with only 3000 street miles in perfect condition packaged in the original boxes. Everything is included except the parking brake option that can be ordered seperately.

If features 14 inch two peice rotors (drilled) and four piston calipers front (red) with braided steel lines and all mounting hardware.

Rears are 13.2 inch two peice rotors (drilled) with 4 piston calipers (red) with braided steel lines and mounting hardware.

Price new is $6000

Sale $2950

I have a set of take off Gen 2 Belanger headers with the turnouts and cats to hookup to any 3 inch cat back exhaust.

Perfect condition!

1500.00

Dan Cragin
310-841-6996

Job Opportunity


DC Performance is looking for a shop Forman-Production manager for our Los Angeles facility. With the focus of our company expanding beyond Viper and Hemi and into European we are looking for someone with skills to help us streamline our operation.

Preferred Job requirements:

Previous experience working with performance vehicles/ American and German

Technical skills / preferably shop management

Customer relation skills

Service writer experience

Enthusiasm for the car culture lifestyle

I am looking for someone who can work directly with our techs and myself, help expedite repairs, resolve production issues and perform quality control oversight.

Please feel free to call me:

Dan Cragin
President
DC Performance Inc
310-841-6996
310-597-6295

All are welcome to test your car or just hang out. Free lunch and good conversation. The event starts at 9 am with coffee and doughnuts and we will test all day. Our featured mark is the LX Hemi but we would love to see some Vipers, street rods or whatever else you want to bring!

Feel free to call if you have any questions. 310-841-6996.

We have always been a company that has embraced tuning solutions and fixing problems that other shops have seemed to give up on. Our involvement with the Viper goes back to 1992 and since then we have been very involved in making these cars run right. Much before any calibration software was available we were creating tuning solutions for modified Vipers.

Many tuning companys new to SCT or related software for the 1996-2006 Dodges offer discount tunes and quick solutions for your car. I am not refering to any vendor or particular company, but be aware that we at DC Performance have learned from years of experience about what seems to work and what really does. Over time, most users see the limitation to the tunes they buy and understand that the more developed the tune, the best it performs under many conditions.

Here is a link to some information our calibration technician Chris Jensen, who developed this, has prepared to put this in perspective.

http://dcperformance.blogspot.com/2011/02/nobody-does-viper-speciality-tuning.html

This new product has been quite a development project for us lasting about a year. The results are spectacular and well proven.

Some history here. When the Generation 4 Viper came out there was quite a bit of buzz about it's new Sach's double disc clutch assembly. Lighter pedal, better engagement and more holding power were the design features of this new clutch. Dodge did a good job on this, but the product reflected a cost saving approach.

We at DC Performance, soon found there were some limitations to this clutch under hard use or high hp applications. With the introduction of our Generation 4 performance engine package and up to 700hp on demand, the clutch was soon becoming the weak link. At the first race of the ACRX series there was lots of smoke at the starting line, it was not tires but the clutches! It was then we knew that a better clutch was really needed for higher performance applications.

Quick to respond was our in house performance consultant Lyle Larson, when it comes to clutches and performance applications he knows the industry. He enlisted Mc Leod Industry's for a new product. In the past Mc Leod was the only company who could handle our clutch needs for 1000hp Vipers. The criteria was smooth engagement light pedal effort and extreme durability for the Generation 4 Viper.

Mc Leod produced the product, we tested and went through quite a learning curve. Our test vehicle was the new ACRX and we put 2 revisions of the new product through a torture test. The results were a spectacular modular clutch that is great for a street car or a race car.







MC Leod RXT Clutch for the 2008-2010 Dodge Viper

This new RXT Street Twin Clutch Assembly is the solution to extreme street car and race car horsepower. The RXT can handle up to 1000hp while still maintaining light pedal effort with no chatter. This modular assembly bolts directly to your stock flywheel, there is no need to purchase a new flywheel, which considerably lowers the cost of adapting to a high quality clutch assembly.

* Sprung Hub disc with excellent release quailities
* Lighter than stock pedal effort
* Premium ARP hardware
* Performance tested in ACRX

DC Performance introductory price: $1309.34

We have done some builds on the new SRT line, my favorite platform is the Jeep SRT 8. The AWD system allows for some awesome launches.

I would love to do a full build on one of these Jeeps that would include powertrain, driveline, brakes and suspension. It would be a supercar sleeper.

With a Vortech Supercharger the Jeep SRT 8 goes from mild to wild. Here is a short video of a build we did recently.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50BOupsEt6Q

I have contacted the transportation company for VOI about rates for shipping your vehicles. Several folks have requested a one way trip back from VOI.
If you are interested please call John Scharff at 314-703-8449 he has quoted a price of $490 for groups of five to six cars.

If you have any additional questions or need your vehicle prepared for the event, feel free to call us.

Dan Cragin
310-841-6996

Can I damage my engine if I track my car?

Over the years I have seen some Viper engine failures at the track and understand why many owners might have second thoughts about using their cars in a track environment.

First off, everyone should have a chance to see what the Dodge Viper can do on a road course in a controlled environment. With lots of torque and some of the widest performance tires available
in the market today you will never see the limits of your car on the street. Track time makes you a better driver and gives you new respect for your car.

In another installment I will give some more specifics about the track and how to properly check and prepare your car. For this discussion I would like to give you some understanding of why engine lubrication related failures have happened to some folks and what you can do to prevent this.

The Viper has gone through 4 generations of change from 1992-2010. Although the car has changed dramatically it's basic design has remained the same. A big displacement pushrod engine, six speeds and race inspired suspension. The Viper excels in its simple, old school race design, but in it falls behind most exotic cars in engine lubrication. Without getting technical here is how it works.

The engine we love is what we call a "wet sump" engine, common to most all passenger cars and trucks. The sump is where the engine stores it's oil supply, in our cars it's the oil pan that sits below the engine. Oil is used to lubricate the engine and cool it.
The Viper has a large oil capacity from 9-11 quarts depending on the year model. This lubrication system is simple and compact; the oil is drawn from the oil pan by the oil pump and is supplied to the load bearing components in the engine.

Many exotic cars like the Ford GT, ZR 1 Corvette, Ferrari etc.
Use a "dry sump" engine. This engine keeps its oil supply separate from the engine in a tank located above the crankcase of the engine. Oil is pumped directly from the tank to the load bearing components of the engine and scavanged back to the oil tank by a separate suction pump. The reason this is done is to keep the oil cooler, to reduce losses of power from the crankshaft contacting the oil and to keep the oil supply from moving around during high cornering and accelerating G Forces. In a "wet sump engine" like the Viper the oil in the sump (oil pan) can move away from the oil pickup in the pan under hard cornering and acceleration and under certain situations starve the engine from lubrication. Now understand, this can only happen in very extreme conditions and there are ways to prevent it.

When I first started taking Vipers to the race track back in 1993-1995, we never had any lubrication related problems. We heard that high G loads and lower than full oil levels could cause oil starvation on the track, but never saw this happen. We ran slicks and modified our engines and had no issues. The Gen 1 Vipers had a big oil pan, shrouded oil pickup and the oil stayed where it needed to be.

When the Gen 2 Viper came out we started to see some issues. Turn 9 at Willow Springs flat out in a GTS with a pro-driver a piston rod let go. The changes to the new Viper made it faster than ever, but the diet Dodge put the Viper on reduced the oil capacity and size of the oil pickup in the pan, that combined with more power, lighter and better suspension and new sticky Michelin tires, the increased G-Loads achieved forced the oil right out of the pan. A market opened up for modified oil pans that used baffles to keep the oil around the oil pickup and in 1999 The Viper received a deeper oil pan and increased oil capacity. The hard-core racers went to dry sump systems.

While the Gen 3 Viper was just coming out I had the opportunity to be involved in a new car, the Viper Competition Coupe. Tommy Archer had done all the initial testing of the Car and it was fast. I was puzzled to find that the oil pan was very simple with very little to keep the oil in place. There were no oiling issues during Tommy's testing. Before the release of the new Comp Coupe several novice club racers were allowed to test this new car.
After a few laps several drivers came in with complaints of loss of oil pressure in the corners. The final diagnosis was that Tommy was such a smooth driver he never upset the oil in the pan, but the novice drivers high-speed turn in technique did. Immediately a new oil pan and "swing oil pickup" were designed to correct this.
This became a "must do" for all the serious Gen 3 club racers as well.

In 2005 I had the opportunity to be the crew chief on a new type of racing for Mopar "Drifting".  We campaigned a Viper race car with an exceptional driver, Samuel Hubinette. We used the latest swinging oil pan and a special lubricant. After a few sessions we lost an engine- oil starvation. The extreme sliding forces of drifting just disturbed the oil too much. We did not have a budget for a dry sump, so we asked the advice of a top Dodge engineer. Just overfill it with oil! We placed 2nd overall that year.

With the advent of the Gen 4 Viper the best of the wet sump systems was created, utilizing a swing oil pump pickup special pan and oiling system, these types of failures have almost been eliminated.

For all you novice drivers, these lubrication issues should never arise if you keep your engine full of oil, use stock tires and do not drive over 8/10ths. For those of you that are competitive or run racing tires, modified oil pans are mandatory.  You should also slightly overfill you oil level.

Hope this helps,

Dan Cragin