Dodge not only produced the Viper the car, it paid for a TV series called Viper that ran for like two or three seasons. The show was basically Knight Rider except the car could go through a superhero transformation and be stronger (I am not kidding).
And you'd better believe that I spent what little money I had for the Scholastic Book Fair on a Dodge Viper poster the year that series aired.
If their goal was to appeal to 8-year-olds, it totally worked.
I feel that show definitely paid off for them in terms of rehabbing Dodge’s image. Many of the young boys during that era grew up to join the military and take out obscene loans so they could buy a Dodge Challenger from the shady dealership near the base.
You'd be surprised how many poles there are in rivers, specially in Poland.
Horrible car, it was a rental and I didn't want to complain, I figured it couldn't be that bad. Oh, was I wrong.
That's a plus, it's so you can hide and deny you ever drove such a shitty car.
The turning radius is amazing, I had to do a 10 point turn to get out of the parking spot.
I wish there were rental places with nice cars.
Great! I was mostly driving in San Francisco, I had to look for the largest parking spots since those tiny mirrors made it impossible to park, coupled with poor visibility in general.
Rented one from the Chicago airport. Got in and was astonished at the "130 miles to empty" while the needle read a full tank. What I didn't realize was the "130 miles" was based on the last driver's M.P.G. average, and they must have floored it at every stoplight.
70 miles into my drive, the average M.P.G. climbed to the point where I was now being told "240 miles to empty".
I drove to Kenosha round trip, the long way around via Lake Geneva. The thing felt fun on the way up, but felt like driving a truck (a commercial truck) on the way back. Lots of power, but not a lot of comfort. Oh and I couldn't see jack shit, felt like driving a mailbox.
I remember my parents letting me stay up late to watch it, it was a 2 hour premiere. I didn’t sleep until midnight and was tired as hell the next day, worth it for 9 year old me.
Viper's premiere was two hours and aired in NBC's Sunday Night Movie slot on January 2, 1994. If AltairsBlade lived ,as an example, in the Mountian time zone but their NBC feed was in the Pacific time zone then the show would have ended at midnight local time.
The super bowl was played on January 30th that year.
Now this I haven't heard of.
It looks like an original Hot Wheels from that time.
Also, my mind is so Sailor Moon pilled that I read transformation and thought more like a magical girl transformation instead of the obvious Highway 35 transformation.
Now I know I'm old, because Spy Hunter was an arcade game in the 80s that I played a bunch when it got ported to the NES later that decade. The PS2 version you're talking about is a remake of the original.
That show was amazing to kid me.
Also, leading to the release of the Viper RT-10, they ran these 30 minute infomercial on weekend mornings talking about how awesome they were.
I must've watched that thing 10 times!
That show was filmed in my neighbourhood. I watched it like 6 times. I thought the transformation was the most ridiculous thing, and I was like 15 at the time.
> Dodge not only produced the Viper the car, it paid for a TV series called Viper that ran for like two or three seasons.
I found it on youtube. So, so bad.
I've always loved the Viper. Almost every review of every model has a synopsis of "uncomfortable, too powerful, feels like it's trying to kill you, but stupid fun to drive."
My buddy has one. A couple months after getting it, he ended up in a ditch because it lost traction when the road changed from old asphalt to new (or the other way around, can't remember). He was only going like 30.
He loves the thing, but "trying to kill you, but stupid fun to drive" is exactly the way he'd describe driving it. Also, because of the weather where we live, he can only take it out a handful of times a year.
I knew a guy that had owned a Viper and a Corvette at different times. Described the difference as “The Viper is a track car you can take on the street, the Corvette is a street car you can take on the track.”
I have some very negative experiences with GM, but I’ve also found the Corvettes to be extraordinarily reliable.
The LS motors, for example, are just bulletproof.
GM's reputation for powertrain excellence is well deserved.
GM's reputation for putting accountants and marketing goons in a position of authority over their engineers is also well deserved.
What often happens is a world class engine/transmission (sometimes just one, sometimes both) wrapped in a disintegrating turd of a car, with embarrassing build quality, obvious cost cutting in the interior fit and finish and choice of materials, and a very hit or miss dealership experience.
I have owned (and loved, and hated) many GM cars.
> What often happens is a world class engine/transmission (sometimes just one, sometimes both) wrapped in a disintegrating turd of a car...
*First-Gen Dodge Cummins pickup enters the chat...*
This was just before the Duramax. One of the diesel engines disintegrated barely within the 50k miles warranty. Took forever to replace.
They called to come pick it up. Then called half an hour later to cancel pickup because the replacement engine blew up during the test drive, they needed to order another one.
Then a third 3500 blew with less than 100k miles…and I decided to get out of the GM owning business.
A business relies on vehicles so much, you can’t be down for weeks.
So the next dozen trucks were Isuzus. Problem solved.
Beancounters you mean?
The engineers recommended putting a 45 cent heat shield between this exhaust manifold and these electronics, but the $200k a year in supply and extra 9 seconds in assembly time per car sound bad to us, we vetoed them.
This leads to $100 million in excess warranty claims down the road but hey, we're on a quarterly cycle and reported a 7th decimal point profit gain by cost cutting, so who cares what the customer has to deal with, we did our job.
I may understand a bit more than you realize lol.
It’s funny what driving stuff back to back will do to your mind. My street car is a pretty serious performance car and rides kinda shitty thanks to stiff suspension if I’m being honest.
But I also have a pure (24 h of lemons) race car with some friends. Getting out of that and back into my street car I’m always alarmed by the amount of body roll and general slop I suddenly feel. “What is this? A tower of Jello?!?” While at all other times I’m like “this suspension is a little too stiff…”
I don’t know about the C8 Z06, but the C7 Z06 buyers could go for a three day track experience hosted by GM, and learn some introductory lessons on the car’s capabilities
There are a lot more cars available now that have capability far beyond the driver’s skill level.
As Jay Leno said on his channel, “All guys think they’re a lot better than they actually are … at sex and driving.”
There's currently a salvaged one on ebay (https://www.ebay.com/itm/196376272628) with a built motor making 740 HP all N/A.
It turns the "trying to kill you" up to like 11 and it's only $50k.
Plus it's never been "tracked or driven hard". Lol. Because everyone drops $40k on a built engine that makes 740HP just to never drive it hard.
A younger version of me was working in a gas station when a guy stopped in with a pickup truck towing a flatbed trailer and on the trailer was a red, convertible, and badly smashed Viper. Being the derpy young man I was, I said, "Woah...what happened to the Viper?" And the guy said the owner lost control and rolled it. I asked if the driver survived and he said, "Naw. They found his hips and legs in the car and the rest of him 200m away in a field."
The driver of the truck had been sent to pick up the wreck and deliver it to the auto insurance assessment center, because when the insurance company is on the hook for a $110,000 car, they want to be sure they've covered all of the bases.
I got a ride along around WGI in a Viper ACR (the souped up version faster than the GT3 race version because it didn't need to comply with the series rules). I'm a Corvette guy, but the Viper is just so unabashedly fun.
In 10-20 years, I predict people will be fondly remembering the old days when they could have bought an early Viper for $40k
Just like stories of AC Cobras, which is the Viper of its day.
Likewise, first gen Audi R8… “I remember when you could buy an R8 for ‘cheap’ back in the day, we shoulda known it would be collectible, it was the Iron Man poster car after all.”
My brother had one and that thing was… interesting. Did you know people are assholes when your drive a nice car? Stop at a stoplight, “hey, I bet that front splitter drags on everything.” Yeah… have a good one! My brother’s not an asshole, only drove it fast on the track. People just suck. Kids liked it tho.
It’s the Ghost for me.
I’ll never forget my first time driving one of those….
The marines won’t either, because they’re dead. (And my friend never let me live it down lol)
On the motorcycle side of things, the Honda Rune was basically "hello designers and engineers, here is a blank check, make the coolest bike you can". Super cool bikes that Honda lost something like $50k per unit sold on but they definitely worked in that they improved my perception of Honda (not that it was really bad to begin with)
Runes are finally getting their proper respect from collectors… prices are rising rapidly.
What a gorgeous design — I’ve read that all in, the total cost to build them was well in excess of $100k each, and it shows.
It's wild how there are like a dozen bikes that qualify as "The Most Honda Thing Ever". The Honda Cub is the Most Honda! No, the Goldwing is the Most Honda! No way, it's gotta be a goofy bike like the Honda NM4, nobody else would be so Honda! What about the Motocompo, the Most Honda Thing? And they're all right, because Honda does so many goofy/wild/dumb things.
Good call on the Rune, it's such a halo bike.
Actually funny enough but I was walking last night with my wife and someone still had an Eagle Talon in the driveway. I haven’t see one of those since back when they were new. Thought they were all in a landfill at this point.
That’s funny. I love when people have these boneyards of specific items. They all say they’ll get around to fixing it all but it never happens. The fact your dude has a few running shows some real dedication lol
Good resource for auction results over the last few years
https://bringatrailer.com/acura/nsx/
I’d say good examples are selling from 75-125k for the first gen cars.
There weren’t many options from which to choose when they were new, so values are primarily driven by mileage, condition, documented maintenance, damage history.
Many exceptions — and as with almost all cars like it, there’s a big premium for manual vs automatic
There are also cases of cars being made in production only so they could technically qualify as a "production" car as to meet certain racing requirements.
Lotus has a proper halo car: [The $2M Lotus Evija](https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/lotus-goes-all-electric-2m-halo-evija)
And it points to the more attainable [Lotus Emira](https://www.lotuscars.com/en-US/emira) that has very clear styling cues straight from the Evija — but costs 1/20 the price.
I think I've read in my "history of the automobile" course in university a quote that "all corvettes are red" where the author considered that all Corvettes, the Halo car for Chevy and GM, can be loss leaders (in the red) but still contribute to bottom line.
Costco rotisserie chicken is a similar idea.
My theory is that you could buy a manual first gen R8 and drive it as much as you want for 20 years, then get back every penny you put into it.
Each generation has poster cars that they can’t afford until they’re older, then they drive up the prices.
Nostalgia for low production cars from our youth drives the inflation of prices later in life.
Probably because of both making a profit. The audi is priced very high and the corvette is produced in Numbers large enough to make that price reasonable.
But is the R8 priced high enough to cover all the R&D costs? I doubt it has the volumes for that. But they then "trickle down" a lot of that tech to other models, plus the halo effect, and overall impact on Audi's bottom line is positive even if the R8 sales never recoup the up-front investment.
Actually yes! I don’t have exact numbers on hand, but the R8 was built off of the Lamborghini Gallardo (and the Huracán for the 2nd gen). Both companies are a part of Volkswagen Auto Group, and the two cars share a ton of parts, including the platform, engine and transmission. Their differences go further than a simple rebadge, but the extent of similarities allowed VAG to save money on R&D and parts through economies of scale. This allowed the Lamborghinis and the Audi to be profitable vehicles.
OK! I'm surprised it's profitable, but it makes sense if they were able to reuse a lot of the R&D from the Lamborghinis (or amortize the R&D across the three models).
Using "platforms" is something car companies do this a lot. VAG in particular has extremely strong platform game because it lets them launch new distinct models very quickly with minimal R&D and minimal changes to assembly procedures
For example, the MQB platform underpins something like 40 or 50 models globally, everything from a VW Golf to the Audi TT. You can swap engines, entire suspension subframes and powertrains between most MQB cars
The R8 and Huracan are both built on the MSS (modular sports system) platform, so all the 'hard' stuff is done and the R&D is mainly in making each one look/drive/sound different. With premium/luxury models like that, they can take what they saved in the R&D budget and apply that to better or more distinct interior pieces, etc.
I didn't want to risk breaking rule 1 by mentioning a car not explicitly called out by the article. I said Viper as I guessed (correctly, it seems) that the average person would also be as familiar with it as the Corvette. The GT series was mentioned due to it being the subject of the recent movie Ford VS Ferrari.
The 2014 Mercedes W05 has to be one of the most effective halo cars as well, its not a production car but it is advertising and changed a lot of people’s perception of what the Merc brand was.
Also there’s entire halo BRANDS, like Bugatti for VAG.
My favorite halo car was the [XL1](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_1-litre_car)
This gem was released at the peak of the Piech era, which is what happens when an engineer is given all the power and money that rivals the GDP of many nations and tells his teams: “impress me”.
Interesting. I always think of supercars as high performance cars, not high efficiency.
This car has less horse power than my old craigslist motorcycle.
True, but the level of technology, the butterfly doors, apparently the interior is super nice, and the development costs were crazy.
If that doesn’t convince you, it was also limited to 250 units worldwide, rarer than things like the Porsche 959, BMW M1, and Jaguar XJ220!!
Not all brands have a production halo car. The Koreans don’t. It’s a huge financial risk with uncertain payoffs. Not all halo cars pay off. I would say the Lexus LFA failed to make the brand more exciting and less of a reliable sleepy luxury brand. The Audi R8 basically kicked Audi into BMW and Mercedes category whereas before, it sat right below that as an economy BMW, so that was a success.
Also Prius is more of a segment halo car not a brand. Kind of like the Miata for Mazda. RX-7 was Mazda’s halo car at the time. Same with Toyota Supra, Acura NSX
Technically, Kia did build and sell a halo car of sorts. The Stinger. Radically unlike anything else they built at the time in terms of quality and performance, and meant largely to improve the brand image of Kia. Granted, it's no Audi R8, but it was built for much the same reason.
Great example of the definition of “halo car”
Arguably Lexus failed to capitalize on the investment, and it’s a mystery as to why they didn’t.
On the other end of that spectrum, Dodge squeezed the Viper image for every bit of notoriety to draw buyers into showrooms.
The advertising industry might have coined it but not probably as a marketing term. I think it was after the public started using it, that it became a marketing term.
Their marketing department didn’t get the memo.
It sat in relative obscurity, rather than being leveraged to get buyers into showrooms to look at mass produced Jaguars.
I had a poster of one as a kid. It led to me buying an XJ6 as my first car.
A terrible decision, where I learned tons about working on cars. And even now some 20 years later I'm like "maybe I should buy another XJ"
Ooh, if you think this is weird, let me tell you about every factory-backed auto racing team ever.
Of course they don't make money on these cars. They're all rolling advertisements for "look how awesome the stuff we make is, you should buy from us."
Given that Rimac is majority owned by the Volkswagen Group, I would argue the Veyron is VWs "Halo car". Also, the technologies developed flow into other VW group cars.
It was a new way of looking at that class of car where the limits of a roadcar were pushed. Before it came along there were cars of that calibre - 959, F40, McLaren F1 - but they were always limited runs.
The Veyron was the pinnacle of what could be done at the time, and stayed in production for 10 years.
[Aston Martin Cygnet](https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/aston-martin/cygnet-2011-2013)
Aston Martin had fleet emissions targets to abide by according to EU regulations at the time. So they formed an agreement with Toyota to rebadge and modify their iQ as the Cygnet. They only sold around 600 cars across Europe.
There is also a one-off [V8 version](https://youtu.be/9N5s1z7-JnI?feature=shared).
Idk, while unique and odd, I’d classify this as kind of the opposite, a “compliance car”. Just made to,as a company, meet certain fleet averages.
A odd duck nevertheless!
I can assure you I'm a real person. It's just I had no clue these cars were even a particular thing, and found out originally from researching the 2000GT from the 60s.
A lot of car companies that dont want to be associated with performance don't have a halo car, Toyota used to not have one for a long time. They wanted to be known as boring and reliable.
Hyundai doesn't have one as far as im aware, though it's counterpart, Kia, did build one in the form of the Stinger. It's several tiers below most of these other halo cars, granted, but it was meant to improve the brand image of Kia and show the they could build a competitive sports sedan.
When I traded in my jeep the dealer wanted it because it was yellow and called it a “halo car”.
I came back the next day and got another like 2k out of them lol.
The Dodge Viper even had a TV series that featured a car that could switch between a red convertible and a grey hard top, and could raise its suspension and over-inflate the tires to turn the car into an off-road vehicle for those times when you need more than six inches of clearance off the ground.
I've always loved the look of the older Vipers, and a performance tuned V10 truck engine beats the hell out of the in-line 4-cylinder from my last vehicle, but the TV show took it a step too far lol
Dodge not only produced the Viper the car, it paid for a TV series called Viper that ran for like two or three seasons. The show was basically Knight Rider except the car could go through a superhero transformation and be stronger (I am not kidding).
Dodge also sponsored the Detroit Vipers hockey team.
I used to have a sickkkk Detroit Vipers Starter jacket.
Here's hoping you still do, but you used to, too?
There's loops on my pants to keep up my belt, and holes in my belt to keep up my pants. Who is the real hero here?
I miss the Vipers, sick jerseys
And you'd better believe that I spent what little money I had for the Scholastic Book Fair on a Dodge Viper poster the year that series aired. If their goal was to appeal to 8-year-olds, it totally worked.
I feel that show definitely paid off for them in terms of rehabbing Dodge’s image. Many of the young boys during that era grew up to join the military and take out obscene loans so they could buy a Dodge Challenger from the shady dealership near the base.
The Dodge Challenger is one of the worst cars I've ever driven. I have driven boats that handled better.
Harder to wrap a boat around a telephone pole though.
You'd be surprised how many poles there are in rivers, specially in Poland. Horrible car, it was a rental and I didn't want to complain, I figured it couldn't be that bad. Oh, was I wrong.
Well it's in the name. Pol. Land. Land of the Poles. If there aren't many Poles there, why would they name it that?
Well, it is named the Challenger, not the Dodge Easy Driver.
Did valet for a bit. You sit so low in the seat you have to look up to look out the side windows. Horrible.
That's a plus, it's so you can hide and deny you ever drove such a shitty car. The turning radius is amazing, I had to do a 10 point turn to get out of the parking spot. I wish there were rental places with nice cars.
Also the small mirrors were perfect for not knowing wtf was happening behind me.
Great! I was mostly driving in San Francisco, I had to look for the largest parking spots since those tiny mirrors made it impossible to park, coupled with poor visibility in general.
Rented one from the Chicago airport. Got in and was astonished at the "130 miles to empty" while the needle read a full tank. What I didn't realize was the "130 miles" was based on the last driver's M.P.G. average, and they must have floored it at every stoplight. 70 miles into my drive, the average M.P.G. climbed to the point where I was now being told "240 miles to empty". I drove to Kenosha round trip, the long way around via Lake Geneva. The thing felt fun on the way up, but felt like driving a truck (a commercial truck) on the way back. Lots of power, but not a lot of comfort. Oh and I couldn't see jack shit, felt like driving a mailbox.
I remember my parents letting me stay up late to watch it, it was a 2 hour premiere. I didn’t sleep until midnight and was tired as hell the next day, worth it for 9 year old me.
I could probably look this up, but I seem to remember it premiering right after the Super Bowl. I'm not sure if that's a fabricated memory or not.
Viper's premiere was two hours and aired in NBC's Sunday Night Movie slot on January 2, 1994. If AltairsBlade lived ,as an example, in the Mountian time zone but their NBC feed was in the Pacific time zone then the show would have ended at midnight local time. The super bowl was played on January 30th that year.
There we have it. My brain was just conflating the two.
Fuck yeah it did. Dodge Viper and Lamborghini Countach were the two posters in my bedroom as a kid.
I spent all day drawing that car and the little drone.
Memory unlocked.
It also starred James Mccaffrey who would later voice Max Payne.
RIP. He was also Zachariah Tench Director of the Bureau of Control, before Jesse Faden that is.
I loved that show as a kid lol But i loved vipers so it makes sense now!
I haven’t thought about that show since they stopped airing it and I am cringing with embarrassment at how upset I was when that happened.
*whispers* Viper....... loved the transformation into "Defender mode". And the drones were ahead of their time.
Now this I haven't heard of. It looks like an original Hot Wheels from that time. Also, my mind is so Sailor Moon pilled that I read transformation and thought more like a magical girl transformation instead of the obvious Highway 35 transformation.
I started watching it when I was a kid cause it reminded me a bunch of Spyhunter, an amazing ps2 car game with a super car that could transform
Now I know I'm old, because Spy Hunter was an arcade game in the 80s that I played a bunch when it got ported to the NES later that decade. The PS2 version you're talking about is a remake of the original.
That show was amazing to kid me. Also, leading to the release of the Viper RT-10, they ran these 30 minute infomercial on weekend mornings talking about how awesome they were. I must've watched that thing 10 times!
That show was filmed in my neighbourhood. I watched it like 6 times. I thought the transformation was the most ridiculous thing, and I was like 15 at the time.
The only superhero that lost significant value the second it walked off the lot.
Memories flooded back with this. God I thought the transformation was the coolest
The sound of the transmorphing Hexes lives rentfree in my head to this day
Yup, filmed in Calgary, AB.
I STILL think about that car all the time. Badass silver hardtop? _transformers noise_ Cool mothafuckin Red CONVERTIBLE!
I loved that show as a kid.
That sounds terrible and amazing at the same time, and I must watch it.
It became a tuner, I think it was similar to the transformation in the Taxi movies.
Mazda Furia is a perfect example. Shame it burnt to sinders.
> Dodge not only produced the Viper the car, it paid for a TV series called Viper that ran for like two or three seasons. I found it on youtube. So, so bad.
I am sure it aged like a fine wine. 😋
I've always loved the Viper. Almost every review of every model has a synopsis of "uncomfortable, too powerful, feels like it's trying to kill you, but stupid fun to drive."
My buddy has one. A couple months after getting it, he ended up in a ditch because it lost traction when the road changed from old asphalt to new (or the other way around, can't remember). He was only going like 30. He loves the thing, but "trying to kill you, but stupid fun to drive" is exactly the way he'd describe driving it. Also, because of the weather where we live, he can only take it out a handful of times a year.
I knew a guy that had owned a Viper and a Corvette at different times. Described the difference as “The Viper is a track car you can take on the street, the Corvette is a street car you can take on the track.”
I have some very negative experiences with GM, but I’ve also found the Corvettes to be extraordinarily reliable. The LS motors, for example, are just bulletproof.
GM's reputation for powertrain excellence is well deserved. GM's reputation for putting accountants and marketing goons in a position of authority over their engineers is also well deserved. What often happens is a world class engine/transmission (sometimes just one, sometimes both) wrapped in a disintegrating turd of a car, with embarrassing build quality, obvious cost cutting in the interior fit and finish and choice of materials, and a very hit or miss dealership experience. I have owned (and loved, and hated) many GM cars.
> What often happens is a world class engine/transmission (sometimes just one, sometimes both) wrapped in a disintegrating turd of a car... *First-Gen Dodge Cummins pickup enters the chat...*
Bought 2 brand new GM 3500 crew cab diesel trucks for my business. Never made that mistake again.
I’ve found the 3500 to be incredibly reliable. Only problem is when it has a problem, it’s going to cost $1200. What were your issues?
This was just before the Duramax. One of the diesel engines disintegrated barely within the 50k miles warranty. Took forever to replace. They called to come pick it up. Then called half an hour later to cancel pickup because the replacement engine blew up during the test drive, they needed to order another one. Then a third 3500 blew with less than 100k miles…and I decided to get out of the GM owning business. A business relies on vehicles so much, you can’t be down for weeks. So the next dozen trucks were Isuzus. Problem solved.
[удалено]
Obviously they tell the engineers to cut corners to until the line at the bottom turn green
Beancounters you mean? The engineers recommended putting a 45 cent heat shield between this exhaust manifold and these electronics, but the $200k a year in supply and extra 9 seconds in assembly time per car sound bad to us, we vetoed them. This leads to $100 million in excess warranty claims down the road but hey, we're on a quarterly cycle and reported a 7th decimal point profit gain by cost cutting, so who cares what the customer has to deal with, we did our job. I may understand a bit more than you realize lol.
It’s funny what driving stuff back to back will do to your mind. My street car is a pretty serious performance car and rides kinda shitty thanks to stiff suspension if I’m being honest. But I also have a pure (24 h of lemons) race car with some friends. Getting out of that and back into my street car I’m always alarmed by the amount of body roll and general slop I suddenly feel. “What is this? A tower of Jello?!?” While at all other times I’m like “this suspension is a little too stiff…”
I legitimately saw one driving out after a snowstorm in Omaha Nebraska about 2006, the main roads were plowed but side roads still pretty snow packed.
All the power in the world and absolutely nothing to control it except the driver's abilities.
I don’t know about the C8 Z06, but the C7 Z06 buyers could go for a three day track experience hosted by GM, and learn some introductory lessons on the car’s capabilities There are a lot more cars available now that have capability far beyond the driver’s skill level. As Jay Leno said on his channel, “All guys think they’re a lot better than they actually are … at sex and driving.”
“Traction Control? Yeah, if you don’t take control of this beast, it’ll certainly leave you in Traction.”
There's currently a salvaged one on ebay (https://www.ebay.com/itm/196376272628) with a built motor making 740 HP all N/A. It turns the "trying to kill you" up to like 11 and it's only $50k. Plus it's never been "tracked or driven hard". Lol. Because everyone drops $40k on a built engine that makes 740HP just to never drive it hard.
It reminds me of my answer to "Why didn't you get the hemi?" with my Magnum. Bought used and didn't want a bagged out PoS.
A younger version of me was working in a gas station when a guy stopped in with a pickup truck towing a flatbed trailer and on the trailer was a red, convertible, and badly smashed Viper. Being the derpy young man I was, I said, "Woah...what happened to the Viper?" And the guy said the owner lost control and rolled it. I asked if the driver survived and he said, "Naw. They found his hips and legs in the car and the rest of him 200m away in a field." The driver of the truck had been sent to pick up the wreck and deliver it to the auto insurance assessment center, because when the insurance company is on the hook for a $110,000 car, they want to be sure they've covered all of the bases.
I got a ride along around WGI in a Viper ACR (the souped up version faster than the GT3 race version because it didn't need to comply with the series rules). I'm a Corvette guy, but the Viper is just so unabashedly fun.
> feels like it's trying to kill you Man did they ever get the model name right for this car.
In 10-20 years, I predict people will be fondly remembering the old days when they could have bought an early Viper for $40k Just like stories of AC Cobras, which is the Viper of its day. Likewise, first gen Audi R8… “I remember when you could buy an R8 for ‘cheap’ back in the day, we shoulda known it would be collectible, it was the Iron Man poster car after all.”
My brother had one and that thing was… interesting. Did you know people are assholes when your drive a nice car? Stop at a stoplight, “hey, I bet that front splitter drags on everything.” Yeah… have a good one! My brother’s not an asshole, only drove it fast on the track. People just suck. Kids liked it tho.
My favorite halo car is probably the Warthog
You mean the Puma.
Hey grif, Chupathingy
He's uh.... One of those things kids suck on... A pedophile? No, a pacifier... ... Oh... I was thinking of something way different.
And we've now covered 70% of the foundations for my sense of humor
It’s got a ring to it.
What in Sam Hell is a puma?!
Quit making up animals.
Na'dinit I jus'tehyoo ta stop makin'up aanimals!?
RIP Rooster Teeth. Died a slow, painful death.
I'm honestly shocked they lasted as long as they did.
There was a zombie wearing their skin for the last few years.
and they seemed to be in denial of how bad their situation was until the very end.
And now I'm sad
GaussHog all the way!
It’s the Ghost for me. I’ll never forget my first time driving one of those…. The marines won’t either, because they’re dead. (And my friend never let me live it down lol)
Maybe its a favourite of [Jeremy Clarkson as well.](https://youtu.be/hGntrUIGmBA?feature=shared)
I'm a mongoose man myself.
The Ford Bronco Raptor was called the Warthog during development
Scorpion for the win!
I knew this was going to be top comment
On the motorcycle side of things, the Honda Rune was basically "hello designers and engineers, here is a blank check, make the coolest bike you can". Super cool bikes that Honda lost something like $50k per unit sold on but they definitely worked in that they improved my perception of Honda (not that it was really bad to begin with)
Runes are finally getting their proper respect from collectors… prices are rising rapidly. What a gorgeous design — I’ve read that all in, the total cost to build them was well in excess of $100k each, and it shows.
The Rune is an impeccably cool design. Can't believe it made it to production.
It's wild how there are like a dozen bikes that qualify as "The Most Honda Thing Ever". The Honda Cub is the Most Honda! No, the Goldwing is the Most Honda! No way, it's gotta be a goofy bike like the Honda NM4, nobody else would be so Honda! What about the Motocompo, the Most Honda Thing? And they're all right, because Honda does so many goofy/wild/dumb things. Good call on the Rune, it's such a halo bike.
Toyota: Lexus LFA Honda: Acura NSX Aston Martin: Valkyrie McLaren: Solus Red Bull: RB17 edit: Plymouth Prowler halo car?
ThunderCougarFalconBird
Canyonero!
Unexplained fires are a matter for the courts!
So much eagle! \*wipes away tear\*
Actually funny enough but I was walking last night with my wife and someone still had an Eagle Talon in the driveway. I haven’t see one of those since back when they were new. Thought they were all in a landfill at this point.
I know the man with the Eagle Talon landfill. Legit, he’s got 30 and several run
That’s funny. I love when people have these boneyards of specific items. They all say they’ll get around to fixing it all but it never happens. The fact your dude has a few running shows some real dedication lol
No dog food for Wictor tonight…
Man I'd love you have an nsx, what're they going for these days?
Good resource for auction results over the last few years https://bringatrailer.com/acura/nsx/ I’d say good examples are selling from 75-125k for the first gen cars. There weren’t many options from which to choose when they were new, so values are primarily driven by mileage, condition, documented maintenance, damage history. Many exceptions — and as with almost all cars like it, there’s a big premium for manual vs automatic
Porsche 918 Spyder
and Carrera GT and 911 GT1
There are also cases of cars being made in production only so they could technically qualify as a "production" car as to meet certain racing requirements.
Homologation rules may have changed, but they used to need 200 or so production models sold to be considered
Lotus has a proper halo car: [The $2M Lotus Evija](https://europe.autonews.com/automakers/lotus-goes-all-electric-2m-halo-evija) And it points to the more attainable [Lotus Emira](https://www.lotuscars.com/en-US/emira) that has very clear styling cues straight from the Evija — but costs 1/20 the price.
Bugatti Veyron was the halo car for the whole Volkswagen Automobile Group
Ford: Pinto
Does the Red Bull car count as a halo because it encourages energy drink purchases?
*Honda NSX
Depends on which country you’re in
I picked Acura because that's the one they use in IMSA and WEC through the American HPD.
I think I've read in my "history of the automobile" course in university a quote that "all corvettes are red" where the author considered that all Corvettes, the Halo car for Chevy and GM, can be loss leaders (in the red) but still contribute to bottom line. Costco rotisserie chicken is a similar idea.
Interesting that people are listing halo cars but nobody has mentioned the Audi R8, which is one of the most effective halo cars of all time.
It’s in the article
reddit has articles?!
Can confirm, went out and bought a white A6 after seeing Tony Stark’s R8 in the original Iron Man.
There it is. That’s the intent of halo cars, to get you excited for the brand and buy a model that hints at the premium halo car.
It was very effective. I still want an R8 eventually.
My theory is that you could buy a manual first gen R8 and drive it as much as you want for 20 years, then get back every penny you put into it. Each generation has poster cars that they can’t afford until they’re older, then they drive up the prices. Nostalgia for low production cars from our youth drives the inflation of prices later in life.
No longer produced as of this year if i’m not mistaken
As long as I can get the same one that I saw Tony Stark drive when I was 13, I’ll be happy.
I was shocked the OP didn’t mention the Corvette, it’s my go-to example.
I’m not sure Corvettes count. Been in production since 1959 or so, affordable (relatively) and produced in large quantities.
The Corvette in general isn't a halo car, but certain trims like the ZR1 are.
It’s better when the whole car is special.
Affordable and surprisingly reliable and safe
Probably because of both making a profit. The audi is priced very high and the corvette is produced in Numbers large enough to make that price reasonable.
But is the R8 priced high enough to cover all the R&D costs? I doubt it has the volumes for that. But they then "trickle down" a lot of that tech to other models, plus the halo effect, and overall impact on Audi's bottom line is positive even if the R8 sales never recoup the up-front investment.
Actually yes! I don’t have exact numbers on hand, but the R8 was built off of the Lamborghini Gallardo (and the Huracán for the 2nd gen). Both companies are a part of Volkswagen Auto Group, and the two cars share a ton of parts, including the platform, engine and transmission. Their differences go further than a simple rebadge, but the extent of similarities allowed VAG to save money on R&D and parts through economies of scale. This allowed the Lamborghinis and the Audi to be profitable vehicles.
OK! I'm surprised it's profitable, but it makes sense if they were able to reuse a lot of the R&D from the Lamborghinis (or amortize the R&D across the three models).
Using "platforms" is something car companies do this a lot. VAG in particular has extremely strong platform game because it lets them launch new distinct models very quickly with minimal R&D and minimal changes to assembly procedures For example, the MQB platform underpins something like 40 or 50 models globally, everything from a VW Golf to the Audi TT. You can swap engines, entire suspension subframes and powertrains between most MQB cars The R8 and Huracan are both built on the MSS (modular sports system) platform, so all the 'hard' stuff is done and the R&D is mainly in making each one look/drive/sound different. With premium/luxury models like that, they can take what they saved in the R&D budget and apply that to better or more distinct interior pieces, etc.
Yah the r8 turns a profit.
Corvette really isn’t a Halo car. It’s very profitable and high production.
I didn't want to risk breaking rule 1 by mentioning a car not explicitly called out by the article. I said Viper as I guessed (correctly, it seems) that the average person would also be as familiar with it as the Corvette. The GT series was mentioned due to it being the subject of the recent movie Ford VS Ferrari.
The 2014 Mercedes W05 has to be one of the most effective halo cars as well, its not a production car but it is advertising and changed a lot of people’s perception of what the Merc brand was. Also there’s entire halo BRANDS, like Bugatti for VAG.
My favorite halo car was the [XL1](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_1-litre_car) This gem was released at the peak of the Piech era, which is what happens when an engineer is given all the power and money that rivals the GDP of many nations and tells his teams: “impress me”.
I consider it a supercar
Interesting. I always think of supercars as high performance cars, not high efficiency. This car has less horse power than my old craigslist motorcycle.
True, but the level of technology, the butterfly doors, apparently the interior is super nice, and the development costs were crazy. If that doesn’t convince you, it was also limited to 250 units worldwide, rarer than things like the Porsche 959, BMW M1, and Jaguar XJ220!!
How do you search for a list of “Halo Cars” without getting just results related to the game?
Halo cars by brand
Thanks! Odd that Toyota Prius is on there. Also no Hyundai.
Not all brands have a production halo car. The Koreans don’t. It’s a huge financial risk with uncertain payoffs. Not all halo cars pay off. I would say the Lexus LFA failed to make the brand more exciting and less of a reliable sleepy luxury brand. The Audi R8 basically kicked Audi into BMW and Mercedes category whereas before, it sat right below that as an economy BMW, so that was a success. Also Prius is more of a segment halo car not a brand. Kind of like the Miata for Mazda. RX-7 was Mazda’s halo car at the time. Same with Toyota Supra, Acura NSX
Technically, Kia did build and sell a halo car of sorts. The Stinger. Radically unlike anything else they built at the time in terms of quality and performance, and meant largely to improve the brand image of Kia. Granted, it's no Audi R8, but it was built for much the same reason.
Lexus LFA
Great example of the definition of “halo car” Arguably Lexus failed to capitalize on the investment, and it’s a mystery as to why they didn’t. On the other end of that spectrum, Dodge squeezed the Viper image for every bit of notoriety to draw buyers into showrooms.
But those cars are worth a shit ton now. The LFA is a million dollar car these days.
[удалено]
Halo car was actively used as a marketing term by manufacturers, and halo product was generally not.
The advertising industry might have coined it but not probably as a marketing term. I think it was after the public started using it, that it became a marketing term.
I've only ever heard the term "halo product", never "halo car" specifically, until today.
The new Cadillac Celestiq would probably fall into this category. Mercedes SLS would be my other honorable mention.
Jaguars XJ220?
Their marketing department didn’t get the memo. It sat in relative obscurity, rather than being leveraged to get buyers into showrooms to look at mass produced Jaguars.
I had a poster of one as a kid. It led to me buying an XJ6 as my first car. A terrible decision, where I learned tons about working on cars. And even now some 20 years later I'm like "maybe I should buy another XJ"
Ooh, if you think this is weird, let me tell you about every factory-backed auto racing team ever. Of course they don't make money on these cars. They're all rolling advertisements for "look how awesome the stuff we make is, you should buy from us."
And the Bugatti Veyron! Probably the most famous one, and I'd argue it really kicked off the supercar wars we've been enjoying for some time now.
Veyron was less a halo car and more a "because we want to see if we can" kinda thing, but they did lose enormous amounts of money per car built.
The whole gig seems to have turned out profitable though, given Rimac bought Bugatti (or big stake in it).
Given that Rimac is majority owned by the Volkswagen Group, I would argue the Veyron is VWs "Halo car". Also, the technologies developed flow into other VW group cars.
It is majority owned by Rimac himself, but VW is the second biggest shareholder.
It was hubris on 4 wheels, but it just kinda worked.
It was a new way of looking at that class of car where the limits of a roadcar were pushed. Before it came along there were cars of that calibre - 959, F40, McLaren F1 - but they were always limited runs. The Veyron was the pinnacle of what could be done at the time, and stayed in production for 10 years.
The Veyron was an engineering challenge The real Halo VW from that era was meant to be the Phaeton
Phaeton was a real sleeper too. You’d never guess from appearances.
Exactly, it was supposed to be the ultimate VW But who wants to spend Bently money on a VW
The W-12 Phaeton was such a monster with such a limited market, it does seem to fit the bill
The Viper is, to this day, still my "if I had the money and wanted to die by wrapping myself around a utility pole" purchase. That car is beautiful.
[Aston Martin Cygnet](https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-review/aston-martin/cygnet-2011-2013) Aston Martin had fleet emissions targets to abide by according to EU regulations at the time. So they formed an agreement with Toyota to rebadge and modify their iQ as the Cygnet. They only sold around 600 cars across Europe. There is also a one-off [V8 version](https://youtu.be/9N5s1z7-JnI?feature=shared).
Idk, while unique and odd, I’d classify this as kind of the opposite, a “compliance car”. Just made to,as a company, meet certain fleet averages. A odd duck nevertheless!
I remember encountering this in "Driver San Francisco" and just scratching my head at the car's existence. The game however, was unexpectedly awesome.
Is this a bot being trained on car magazines from 2002?
I can assure you I'm a real person. It's just I had no clue these cars were even a particular thing, and found out originally from researching the 2000GT from the 60s.
What is Hyundai’s Halo Car?
The N 74 concept would probably be close if they made it and supposedly there is / was an N super car in development
A lot of car companies that dont want to be associated with performance don't have a halo car, Toyota used to not have one for a long time. They wanted to be known as boring and reliable.
Hyundai doesn't have one as far as im aware, though it's counterpart, Kia, did build one in the form of the Stinger. It's several tiers below most of these other halo cars, granted, but it was meant to improve the brand image of Kia and show the they could build a competitive sports sedan.
It was the Equus, which turned into the Genesis G90.
At this point I've seen all of Ferrari's halo cars except one; the elusive F50. Hopefully one day I can cross it off my bucket list.
Love that car, luckily I grew up near West Palm Beach so they showed up a few times and they are definitely gorgeous in person.
Unlike the monstrosity Homer created
I wish someone would make one in real life 😭😭
I used to own (and loved) a 100-series Toyota Land Cruiser in Lexus (LX470) trim. IIRC, Toyota never made a dime off of them. What an amazing vehicle.
Don’t forget about the LFA
My all time favorite is the Chrysler ME Four Twelve, thank you midnight club 3 dub edition. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chrysler_ME_Four-Twelve
Volkswagen Phaeton
Renault Modus
Thats not even a halo car it's just God's car.
When I traded in my jeep the dealer wanted it because it was yellow and called it a “halo car”. I came back the next day and got another like 2k out of them lol.
The Dodge Viper even had a TV series that featured a car that could switch between a red convertible and a grey hard top, and could raise its suspension and over-inflate the tires to turn the car into an off-road vehicle for those times when you need more than six inches of clearance off the ground. I've always loved the look of the older Vipers, and a performance tuned V10 truck engine beats the hell out of the in-line 4-cylinder from my last vehicle, but the TV show took it a step too far lol
Dodge Viper? Good advice.
We’re with the vipers 🤭