[1]When you’re one of the most recognized individuals from the SRT brand, people gather around to hear what you have to say. When you show up at a major Chrysler car show with the latest from your company’s fleet of insanely-powered musclecars [2] and do a smokey burnout for the crowd [3], people cheer you on.
[4]Ralph Gilles [5] is that guy from Chrysler who wowed the crowd at Chryslers at Carlisle last year with the Sublime Challenger SRT Hellcat. The former head of SRT is the man that SRT fans grew fond of because he wasn’t just some guy in charge, he became friends with the multitude of Mopar fanatics [6] that jumped on the SRT bandwagon. When many Mopar fans think Hellcat [7], they also think of Gilles.
Gilles was instrumental in bringing back the fifth generation Viper under the SRT brand [8], and it debuted at the New York Auto Show as a completely new car for 2013. A year later, when the Hellcat was hyped throughout 2014 [9], the man who could be seen at many SRT and Mopar events across the country was none other than Gilles himself. He was in the headlines defending the SRT Viper [10], and if you recall the Corvette vs. Viper Laguna Seca battle [11] led to the creation of the Viper TA [12] to take the Vette guys down.
[13]Now heading global design operations [14] for Fiat Chrysler (FCA), Gilles is no longer in the now defunct SRT limelight since SRT was rolled back into Dodge [15] with Tim Kuniskis at the helm. However, that hasn’t deterred his multitude of fans from asking if the rock star himself will be at nearly any event that draws in Mopar enthusiasts.
Ralph Gilles’ 2002 Viper RT/10 Up For Sale
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For those wanting to continue to surf the Gilles wave, you can own a part of Gilles’ car collection as his 2002 Dodge Viper RT/10 convertible is up for sale. He’s selling his pampered Viper for $52,995 with just 3,474 miles showing up on the odometer. The reason for the sale is to make room for some new toys, and based on an Instagram post of his, there’s a new Viper ACR that has been ordered, so we approve of this sale.
[21]The Viper in question is listed on Detroit’s Platinum Motorcars website [22], with five dozen pictures of this immaculate icon. The car has such low mileage it doesn’t seem to have been driven very much; we’ve all seen what Gilles likes to do in his spare time [23] so there’s not telling if it was “driven only on Sundays”. However, you can see for yourself that it’s barely broken in and is in great condition inside and out, looking just as good as it did the day it rolled off the line.
Gilles may be that guy who beats the hell out of his company cars, but his own personal cars are well cared for. Gilles said they picked the car up less than a year ago and that he is the second owner of this beauty. Would you drop a chunk of change on a car owned by the former CEO and president of the company’s performance division? If so, here’s your chance to buy a Viper with a good story behind it.