I’ve always wondered how automakers name their new models. Some companies and brands, like Cadillac until recently, seem content to slap random letters and numbers on their vehicles and call it a day, because that’s how the Germans do it. Others, like the team that named the new Chevrolet Blazer, seemingly just pick a historical name out of a hat. I recently had a chance to chat with two of the men behind the original Dodge Viper and given my interest in the topic, our conversation turned to how the Chrysler team named the Viper.
Tom Gale, who led the design team, and Chris Theodore, who led powertrain, both agree that when the as-yet-unnamed Dodge roadster was in its infancy in the late ’80s, the team knew it wanted a snake-inspired name to honor the Shelby Cobra that so clearly served as its inspiration. Then came a fateful trip to Europe where Gale planned to meet with Giorgetto Giugiaro, the famed Italian designer behind the Ferrari 250 GT, Maserati Marek, DeLorean DMC-12, and MkI Volkswagen Golf, among many other vehicles.
Chrysler, at the time, was working with Giugiaro’s Italdesign on the Eagle Premier, which the design house had styled. And, well, we’ll let Gale tell it from here:
“We had dinner one night, and I said to Giorgetto, we’re looking for a name for a Cobra-like car that we’re doing and asked, ‘What’s a snake name in Italian?’ And he says, ‘Vipera.’ And I said, ‘Shit. Thanks,’ Didn’t need to say much more.
“The next week we had a meeting with [Chrysler president Bob] Lutz and [engineering vice president] Francois [Castaing] and I said, ‘You know Giugiaro said [a snake] name in Italian was Vipera,’ None of us had thought of Viper at that point, and right there, that’s when we had our ‘a-ha!’ moment.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
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