zzdcar
Home
/
Reviews
/
Culture
/
Here's How To Solve The Iran Nuclear Situation With Dodge Vipers
Here's How To Solve The Iran Nuclear Situation With Dodge Vipers-July 2024
2024-02-19 EST 22:12:15

Image for article titled Here's How To Solve The Iran Nuclear Situation With Dodge Vipers

Okay, how I got here is pretty convoluted, so I’m asking you to just stick with me. I was doing some research on the oldest automotive platforms still in production, which led me to Iran Khodro, the Middle East’s biggest vehicle manufacturer, and the Peugeot 405s they build that date back to 1987. Now, couple this with the recent news that with the United States, throw in the concept of the Dodge Viper and inline-3 engines, and I think you can see where this is going. No? Let me explain.

Okay, let’s start with this whole nuclear deal. Essentially, the U.S. doesn’t want Iran to have nuclear weapons, for a number of complicated geopolitical reasons that are beyond the scope of this article. Let’s just leave it that America doesn’t want Iran to have nukes.

Iran seems like maybe they want to develop nukes. In 2015, the United States and a number of other nations entered an agreement with Iran whereby they’d

The Trump administration pulled America out of the deal, and Iran resumed development work on nuclear weapons.

Now they’re saying they’re willing to come back to the table to talk, but it’s likely the terms will be different, and Iran and U.S. relations are still frosty enough that everything has to be handled with European intermediaries.

Okay, so, where do the cars come in?

Simple. Everyone is tense and pissy and the stakes are high. It’s no fun. Something has to happen to warm everyone up a bit, take the tension down some. It’s been a tough couple years for the whole globe, and everyone is on edge.

So what can be done to sweeten the pot a bit for the Iranians, without giving up anything of real value on the American side? Well, to figure this out, let’s look at what cars Iranians have access to:

Image for article titled Here's How To Solve The Iran Nuclear Situation With Dodge Vipers

Look at that tedious lineup of cars! No wonder they want to build weapons capable of blowing everything up—they’re just bored. There’s not a single actual fun car in that mix, nothing with a real unhinged sense of visceral joy.

Our Editor-In-Cheap Rory picked up on this right away, noting in our Slack channel:

Image for article titled Here's How To Solve The Iran Nuclear Situation With Dodge Vipers

Sure, those old Peugeots are kind of cool from a nerdy American’s perspective, but what Iran seems to really need are car options that let people blow off some steam. As Rory said, likely fueled by his many morning Manhattans, zoomers and honk-honks.

Thankfully, making that sort of car is one of the things America does best.

I’m not talking about just trying to export and sell Iranians Mustangs or Challengers or Camaros—this needs to be something they can have some sort of ownership of, some sort of partnership between America and Iran, a joint car project that, as we know, is really effective at bringing people together.

So here’s what I propose: Stellantis, the new owners of Peugeot, are in a good position to reach out to Iran Khodro, since building Peugeots under license was how the company got their start.

Stellantis also owns the Mopar brands, including Dodge. Dodge must have the stuff to make first-gen Vipers sitting and rusting in some warehouse somewhere, right?

Well, how about this: Stellantis enters into an agreement with Iran Khodro to build new first-gen Dodge Vipers in Iran. The Viper is perhaps the most visceral, raw, hedonistic, expression of motoring fun, which will provide the release that the Iranian car-buying population needs, whether they know it or not. And it’s quintessentially American, which will foster positive feelings about America.

The original Viper used a V10 engine, but if we’re not comfortable with Iran having nukes, there’s no way we’re comfortable with giving them the raw, feral power of that Dodge V10.

But we can’t just shove some boring V6 or something in there—it has to be close to the V10, at least in some ways. And that’s where inline-3 engines come in.

You see, we can source modern inline-3 engines from Ford () or GM (who uses a turbo-3 in the Chevy Trailblazer and Buick Envoy) or, hell, even both, and we’ll take three of those I3s per viper, connect them to a common crank, end-to-end, and get the first mass-market inline-nine engine ever.

Image for article titled Here's How To Solve The Iran Nuclear Situation With Dodge Vipers

That long Viper hood can certainly handle the length of three I3s, and there’s something wonderfully bonkers about an I9 engine. It’s one less than the original V10, so American Viper purists will still have bragging rights, but the new Iranio-American Viper with the I9 will be a potent force, too.

There’s no sensitive technology transfer here: body and frame from an early ‘90s car with a ganged-up set of econobox engines all put together to make one gleefully cathartic whole.

Plus, the first-gen Viper was known for being a pretty basic car—the first gen ones didn’t even have side windows or exterior door handles—there’s no reason Iran Khodro couldn’t produce these just fine.

There are economic benefits for American companies and Iran Khodro—they can even export these Vipers if they want! I bet they’d be big in China!

Iranian consumers would finally have an exciting, soul-stirring new car option, the U.S. and Iran would have a seemingly frivolous but culturally valuable joint project, and as soon as the companies from both sides are involved in this venture, who’s really going to be interested in nuclear weapons or any kind of war at all, anyway?

If you go in halves on a project car with a friend, you’re not likely to stand to gain by setting their house on fire, right? This just makes sense.

New first-gen Vipers with inline-nine engines are the foreign policy tool America never knew it needed so badly.

Man, sometimes it feels really good to be doing the things it takes to change the world for the better. You’re welcome, world.

Comments
Welcome to zzdcar comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
Culture
Ohioan Survives Pushing A 2016 Dodge Challenger To 180 MPH On Michigan Roads
Ohioan Survives Pushing A 2016 Dodge Challenger To 180 MPH On Michigan Roads
The Michigan vs. Ohio rivalry is about more than just college football. Residents. of the two states have always had a mutual distaste for each other, so when an Ohio driver disrespected some traffic laws by pushing their 2016 to the limit, they naturally headed north of the border...
Jul 28, 2026
Because We're All Driving Less Due To The Pandemic It's Affecting Beer And Soda Production, Somehow
Because We're All Driving Less Due To The Pandemic It's Affecting Beer And Soda Production, Somehow
Just in case you don’t believe that everything is somehow deeply and profoundly connected, listen to this: because we’re all stuck indoors and driving less, there’s been less refinement of oil into gasoline, which means there’s less production of ethanol, which is an gasoline in America, which means that...
Jul 28, 2026
We Deserve Better Than The Leaked BMW 2 Series Coupe
We Deserve Better Than The Leaked BMW 2 Series Coupe
Supposedly leaked pictures of what could only be the upcoming next-gen unfortunately looks like it’s been attacked with an axe and beaten until swollen. We love to hate the —a car that’s perfectly fine to drive but not so easy to look at, and its front-wheel drive completely flies...
Jul 28, 2026
Unable To Reconcile Two Global Crises At Once, GM Postpones Hummer EV Launch
Unable To Reconcile Two Global Crises At Once, GM Postpones Hummer EV Launch
Look, we’re all just coping with this thing at the moment, or trying to, day by day. Get off our backs! Also GM’s, which is now delaying the launch of the meant to revive and simultaneously turn around the anti-eco brand. I was here for the EV Hummer, in...
Jul 28, 2026
Honda Dealership Mechanic Fired Because Her Coworkers Watched Her Adult Videos At Work
Honda Dealership Mechanic Fired Because Her Coworkers Watched Her Adult Videos At Work
This story is pretty frustrating to hear about, especially if you believe that whomever you happen to work for does not get directorial control over your whole life. This is t a former mechanic at Don Ayres Honda in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and also someone who made amateur adult...
Jul 28, 2026
Tesla Turns A Q1 Profit On The Back Of Regulatory Credit Sales
Tesla Turns A Q1 Profit On The Back Of Regulatory Credit Sales
With an international pandemic raging at the tail end of Q1, everything in the automotive sector was doom and gloom. Sales were down across the board from nearly every automaker in nearly every market. bucked that trend, however, not only delivering more cars in Q1 2020 than it had...
Jul 28, 2026
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.zzdcar.com All Rights Reserved