Having a race car is a way someone can be unique and express their love of cars, and one of the greatest things about drag racing over other forms of motorsports is the variety of cars in competition. There really are no rules as to what you can or can’t build into a race car in most sanctioning bodies. Every major and minor manufacturer has been represented in the decades since drag racing started, as everyone holds an allegiance to different auto manufacturers. And it’s for that reason why Bob Helms commissioned a very unique Outlaw 10.5 Dodge Viper to be built, and this car does some serious head-turning on and off the track.

The original concept of the Viper was to create a truly American sledgehammer of a sports car. When the first generation of the car was produced in 1992 it had few options, only came with a soft top, and did not even come with air conditioning. As the generations progressed the Viper was given a touch of luxury and options to go with the brute force power the V10 offered. The Viper made its racing mark on the twists and turns of road courses around the world, but they’ve seen their share of time on the dragstrip, as well. But nothing quite like this.

Helms decided his 2000 Viper GTS would make a wicked Outlaw 10.5 race car, so a chassis for the car was constructed by John Harrison at Specialty Metal Craft to run deep into the six-second zone. Kenny Duttweiler built the 533 cubic inch, V10 engine that uses a stock block with Darton Sleeves, Moldex crank, Striker Cylinder Heads, and is topped off with a custom Beck Mechanical Intake. Shoving all the air into the motor is a pair of 91mm Pro Mod turbos from Precision. The estimated 3,000 horsepower is controlled by MoTec engine management and goes through a Bruno two-speed automatic to a Mark Williams 9-inch rear end housing.

The use of the Viper body is unique enough in and of itself, but the fact there’s a V10 powerplant under the hood really just solidifies this as one of the most trick cars in the sport. The downside to all this power is that sometimes the track just can’t handle it. In this video from the Performance Driving Network, driver Steven Fereday had a brush with the wall when the Viper made a hard right turn on him while testing in Houston. The damage looks minimal and the car should be back out soon.