Early in the decade the Viper GTS-R dominated GT racing around the world and the car in the Bonhams sale played a key part in the success. This car’s record speaks for itself:five FIA GT wins; eight second places; two thirds; and five pole positions. Prepared by French race car builder Oreca and run by Team Carsport Holland, it was one of the fastest FIA GT cars in 2000-02, and is acknowledged today as one of the most potent racing Vipers.
The Viper, developed in secret at a Chrysler skunk works in the late 1980s, was very much the latterday Cobra, an image reinforced when Carroll Shelby drove a pre-production pace car at the '91 Indianapolis 500. Factory GTS-R race versions followed the road car in 1996, one of them coming home 10th overall on its debut at Le Mans that year. Fifty seven GTS-Rs were built in total, including this one from the year 2000. Some were put together by Chrysler, others by Reynard and some like the car in the sale by Oreca in France.
Team Carsport Holland owner, Dutch motor sport legend Toine Hezemans, wanted a long list of mods on the car, go-faster tweaks that included a Swiss-built V10 with reprofiled cams, a sequential gearbox, modified suspension, new bonnet vents and aerodynamic changes like a repositioned rear wing and new front splitter modelled on that of the Mercedes GT1 car.