UPDATE: 2026/08/06 07:30 EST BY DAN CLOUGHER
Now Is The Perfect Time For Dodge To Finally Make The Copperhead
We look at why now is the perfect time for Dodge’s all-new sports car to be moving toward production.
The 1990s were the undisputed Golden Age of radical concept cars. Cyberpunk sci-fi styling and impossible tech ruled the auto shows, producing wild legends like the quad-turbo Ford GT90 and the glass-canopy BMW Nazca C2.
But as the decade drew to a close, automakers began playing it safe. Dodge, however, refused to tone it down. Instead, they built the Copperhead—an unconventional, futuristic roadster with a laser-focused dual mission: give buyers who couldn’t afford a Viper a stunning, head-turning sports car, and prove that “budget” didn’t have to mean boring.
A Baby Viper With Its Own Edge
1997 Dodge Copperhead concept painted in red with red and black interiorMarspeed (YouTube)
By 1997, the Dodge Viper had fully held America’s sports car enthusiasts in its grip for about five years. While it was an exceedingly desirable model, the Viper lay out of reach for many hopeful buyers due to a high starting price, roughly $66,000. Many prospective Viper buyers without deep pockets were defecting to other American brands, like Chevrolet and Ford, where folks would instead buy Corvettes or Mustangs to satisfy their need for speed.
The mid-1990s saw a resurgence in interest in sports cars. The Corvette had graduated from a tired, old muscle car-sports car hybrid and began to show its set of lean, track-focused muscles with the introduction of the C5 generation in 1997. Other sports cars from around the world, like the Nissan 300ZX, Toyota Supra, and upscale Jaguar XK8 were all beginning to shed their former selves and come into a much more refined and sporty future. In other words, the stage was set for more sporty models in the late 1990s, and Dodge saw a possible opportunity.
1997 Dodge Copperhead concept painted in red with red and black interiorMarspeed (YouTube)
The Dodge Copperhead’s first public appearance took place at the 1997 Detroit Auto Show. Initially, due to this surge of public interest, Dodge set a tentative mass-production start date of 2000, three years after the Copperhead’s first public appearance. Its low starting price was also a promise, as the $30k pricetag undercut the 1997 Chevrolet Corvette’s by over $7,000, albeit the Copperhead wouldn’t come with a good ol’ American V8. While at its debut, public opinion was reportedly extremely positive, with many auto show-goers inquiring about the starting price and when the Copperhead would be available for purchase.
The Copperhead Wasn’t Packing A Proper Punch
1997 Dodge Copperhead concept painted in red with red and black interiorYT: Marspeed
Despite the Copperhead’s puffy, snake-like looks and muscular haunches, its powerplant was a rather small 2.7-liter naturally-aspirated V6 belonging to Chrysler’s LH engine family, which is now widely known as one of the worst engines ever made. The LH motor itself can trace its roots back to 1998, and the Copperhead acted as one of its first testbeds. However, while a 2.7-liter V6 sounds boring as heck, the Copperhead’s iteration received a dual-overhead camshaft configuration, along with an all-aluminum construction.
1997 Dodge Copperhead concept painted in red with red and black interiorYT: Marspeed
The Copperhead’s chassis is loosely based on the Dodge Viper’s, although it had been extensively modified to suit a lighter-weight car with much less power. The transmission featured within the Copperhead is a specially made five-speed manual boasting a close gear ratio. In order to keep things as lively as possible, the Copperhead sports rear-wheel drive. Due to its less-than-aerodynamic shape, the Copperhead’s drag coefficient measures in at 0.364, which is much greater than the C5 Corvette’s 0.29.
The 30-Year-Old Copperhead Was Never Meant To Be
1997 Dodge Copperhead concept painted in red with red and black interiorMarspeed (YouTube)
Despite the large amount of public interest garnered at its unveiling in Detroit, the Dodge Copperhead never made it into production. Shortly after its North American International Auto Show reveal, Dodge announced they’d be mass-producing the Copperhead by the year 2000. Preliminary production studies and other research began to be carried out, as well. However, by 1999, the Copperhead’s production was halted, and any plans of building the model were shelved indefinitely.
There were a couple of reasons for the reversal, but the main driving force behind the decision was Chrysler’s merger with Mercedes-Benz. Because of this merger, Chrysler suddenly found itself in partial possession of an open-topped sports car, the Mercedes-Benz SLK-Class. The SLK-Class would soon end up as the basis for the Chrysler Crossfire, a two-door sports car that was offered as both a hard and soft top, and even offered a high-performance model called the SRT6.
The Crossfire was an okay-ish sports car, and the SRT6 model is a particularly good used buy if you’re in the market for something interesting. But it happened to be launched in the same era as the Honda S2000, Nissan 350Z, BMW Z3, and the default Porsche Boxster. Let’s just say that you’d have to walk by an awful lot of good cars before you got to a Crossfire.
As a result, the Crossfire didn’t do too much to cement Dodge’s position as a sports car maker, and it never made another attempt until nearly 30 years after taking the decision to kill the original Copperhead.
The Return Of The Copperhead, Now With An SRT Badge
Dodge SRT Copperhead ConcealedStellantis
The return of the Dodge Copperhead nameplate – this time wearing a high-performance SRT badge – finally delivers on a 30-year-old promise, but it does so with a dramatically modern formula. The original 1997 concept was envisioned as a raw, analog “Baby Viper” – a lightweight, rear-wheel-drive roadster powered by a naturally aspirated 2.7-liter V6 making an approachable 220 horsepower. It was designed to offer budget-friendly open-air thrills without the Viper’s terrifying price tag or lethal power.
The modern Copperhead SRT, however, trades nostalgia for absolute track dominance. Ditching the original’s modest V6 and purist manual setup, the resurrection leans heavily into modern performance technology.
We don’t know exactly what engine it will use, but Stellantis has several worth using, depending on how big Dodge wants the Copperhead range to be. The Hurricane 4 and Hurricane 6 are stunning engines, but since Stellantis is back to putting V8s in all the things, it would be dumb not to bless this new halo car with a naturally aspirated or supercharged V8.
Now Is The Perfect Time For Dodge To Finally Make The Copperhead
2020 – 2025 Toyota GR Supra front 3/4 angle in blue while drivingToyota
Sports cars will always have a place in the auto industry, but they certainly are not as popular as they used to be. Automakers have been responding to dwindling interest and changing buying behaviors, dropping nameplates like the Supra, Boxster, Z4, and others in recent years. These aren’t flash-in-the-pan models either, but well-established nameplates, that have sadly bitten the dust after decades in the ring.
While the market might not be as significant as it once was, the disappearance of these models will undoubtedly leave a gap, and perhaps Dodge can exploit that with a well-priced, performance-focused Copperhead. It would take some serious convincing for buyers to walk past options from Toyota, Porsche, Audi, and BMW, but now that those choices no longer exist, the all-new Dodge might all of a sudden be thrusted to the front of buyer’s wish-lists.
Sources: Dodge, Stellantis, Supercars, Mercedes-Benz
