There are often times as a Speedhunter where you find yourself in a situation that you previously never could have imagined. This was almost certainly one of them.
It was around sunset, out in the desert on the outskirts of Dubai. It was hot, but not unbearable courtesy of the relatively mild spring weather.
I had just finished shooting Dan Price’s R32 GT-R, while our friends from ILB Drivers Club, Adam and James, were wrapping up some rolling shots with this 2017 Dodge Viper SRT for an upcoming video series they’re working on.
The Viper had been omnipresent both before and throughout this trip. It was the car that called out to me from MADE 2019, and in its new Khyzyl Saleem-designed livery for the 2020 show, stood out even more.
With light fading, there were just a few minutes left to grab some statics of the car as it sat after its video shoot. You can actually see the light fading throughout the photo set, with the sun having already dropped below the horizon before we started. Luckily, I had caught some random snaps of it throughout the day in brighter conditions.
Ordinarily, we would avoid shooting a car in the same location so shortly after another shoot, and especially with less than ideal light. But this was one of those times where I thought ‘f*ck it, it has to be worth a shot.’
As mentioned in my previous event coverage, I don’t get exposed to a lot of US builds, so this was another reason in the ‘might as well’ column. The 8.4-litre V10 Viper is pretty much the antithesis to the current European sports car recipe, and it’s all the better for it.
You might think it’s on air, but it’s not. It’s static on coilovers, without the convenience of any sort of lift system. That takes commitment, for sure. The wheels are Vossen ML-R1s, measuring 19×11-inches at the front and a barely believable 20×13-inches in the rear.
“That’s about it really,” its owner Jonboy told me after the shoot, almost as if a static Viper sat on the floor with a race car-inspired livery and monstrous sized wheels could pass as being subtle. If anything, I think these modifications bring the Viper up to the same standard as the rest of the car, because a Viper should never be subtle.
While I’m fully aware that this is a feature light on substance, sometimes, it doesn’t need to be any more than what it actually is. After all, it’s not everyday you get to shoot a Dodge Viper after sunset in an Arabian desert.
Paddy McGrath
Instagram: pmcgphotos
Twitter: pmcgphotos
paddy@speedhunters.com