Copperhead?

[RobHook]

I remember a rumor some time before the original Viper was released that the engine was going to use copper heads. They were going to call the engine the copperhead V10. Any truth to that or just someone's play on the snake theme?

Pure Copper is over three times heavier than the aluminum alloy used in most auto parts and 20% heavier even than carbon steel so those heads would have been HEAVY. And I imagine the eloctrolysis would have been awful.

Still..."The Dodge Viper with the Copperhead V10" does sound pretty cool.

--Rob

 

[Bill B]

I think they just meant the valve covers. Kinda like a testarosa. There will not be a Dodge copperhead because ZZ Top owns the name.

 

[CAS]

The Copperhead was a Dodge concept car back in, I think, 1997 or '98. It ran a hopped up Intrepid V-6 and was just simply a rendering of a low-buck Viper sibling.

I've never heard of CU heads thing.

 

[RobHook]

Now that you mention it, I do remember the Copperhead concept car. My son even has the Matchbox version. This was about 1989 though after I'd seen the concept car at the auto show but before production had started. It was also rumored that the first few production cars had a V8 because the V10 was having balance problems. Obviously, that one wasn't true. Wasn't one of the show cars a V8?

I'd never heard of CU heads either but it seemed like a neat idea.