Oh Copperhead, Where Art Thou?

It was such a great idea. A small, two seat roadster, a min-Viper, a car light enough to get V8 performance out of a V6... any wonder it went nowhere?

The Dodge Copperhead debuted in 1997 as a concept for a sports car that Dodge could slot in not only beneath the Viper, but under the contemporary Corvette as well. It's V6 would have been taken directly from the LH sedan, and mated to a five speed gearbox, would have endowed the little roadster with performance on par with GM muscle cars of the day, while the all independent suspension would have guaranteed that, come the twisty end of the road, the Copperhead could scurry away from all but the fastest US competition. the light weight and 3.5 liter engine would also have made the Copperhead a comparatively stingy car compared to the F-bodies and Fox IV platforms of the day, a virtue little heeded in the petrol rich 90s.

Thing is, it's still a good idea, and still a competitive formula. On paper it may lose something to the current Mustang and resurgent Camaro, not to mention Dodge's own resurrected Challenger. But ten years on the Copperhead is more a muscle car of the future than ever, and still an idea that needs money behind it. Dodge itself until recently had faith in the idea, look no further than the Demon, and the Razor. This is what America, and the world need to build right now, not a cache of ill-timed, nostalgic bloat-barges. Give us the Copperhead, and Chrysluberus may yet pull it out. Give us real sports cars, at a fair price, that get real mileage, and we'll come back to the showrooms.

Well, I won't, I'll just wait until they're in the Auto-Trader for ten grand...