G. David Felt
Staff Writer Alternative Energy - CheersandGears.com

Chrysler who had donated 93 early production Vipers has ordered all the Auto Mechanic Schools to crush them within 2 weeks as they became a multi million dollar liability after a couple of students took them for Joy rides and crashed. No student from the washington state mechanical program was invloved in accidents, these happened at other schools out of state.

A Washington State Community College has a 1992 PreProduction Viper VIN #4 that Jay Leno tried to buy. This Viper was the proto type for a hard top before they came out into production.

King 5 news of washington did a great story on this along with interviewing the mechanic program.

http://www.king5.com/news/cities/olympia/Olympia-college-told-to-destroy-rare-Dodge-Viper--248667111.html

All I can say is it is a Sad Day when they crush these cars. Why if they are donated is chrysler responsible? I feel these cars need to be saved. The history here is too great.

I imagine they are still "owned by Chrysler" because they never had a title or certificate of origin, as they were not street legal. In other words, the lawyers are not legally recognizing the donation as a transfer of ownership. But how this is different from some of the Corvettes at the National Corvette Museum (such as the preproduction '83 Corvette), I don't know.

Lawyers ruin everything for everybody.

If GM can figure this out with the pre-production auto's and keep alive history, then Dodge/Chrysler/Fiat needs to get their act together.