OVERVIEW Salacious looks and awe-inspiring power - a world class supercar PROS In-your-face looks and sound. Awe-inspiring performance CONS Tight cabin - but it's truly hard to find a con here VALUE FOR MONEY Very good WHAT TO CHANGE? Not much!

LOS ANGELES, Calif. — The Dodge Viper has left an indelible mark on the automotive landscape since its introduction in 1992. It boils down to its combination of salacious looks and awe-inspiring power. Now in its fifth-generation, the once rude-and-crude has been transformed into a world-class supercar — this is the best Viper to date.

What has not changed is the overt, in-your-face looks. This thing brings traffic to a standstill — it is a combination of said looks and the noise the side pipes elicit when the tachometer swings through 2,300 rpm. The monstrous V10 sounds unlike anything else on the road. Crank the engine to life and it ignites a sinister burble that builds up to a raucous crescendo as the revs rise. It is, as a young man in a parking lot opined, NASTY!

2015 Dodge Viper GTS Graeme Fletcher , Driving

2015 Dodge Viper GTS Graeme Fletcher , Driving

2015 Dodge Viper GTS Graeme Fletcher , Driving

2015 Dodge Viper GTS Graeme Fletcher , Driving

2015 Dodge Viper GTS Graeme Fletcher , Driving

2015 Dodge Viper GTS Graeme Fletcher , Driving

2015 Dodge Viper GTS Graeme Fletcher , Driving

The all-aluminum 8.4L V10 now pushes an astounding 645 horsepower (up five from last year) and 600 pound-feet of torque, which is more than any other naturally aspirated sports car. Combine that with a short-shift, six-speed manual gearbox and you have a street-legal missile with a blistering turn of speed. How fast you ask? The Viper runs from rest to 100 kilometres an hour in 3.4 seconds and it turns the quarter-mile drag in 11.2 seconds. Oh yes, it also has a top speed of 332 km/h. As I said, awe-inspiring performance.

Also read: The 8 best naturally aspirated engines of all time

Besides its sky-high performance figures, I found two things particularly impressive. First is the fact it gets from rest to 160 km/h and back to rest in a tick under 12 seconds. Second, where this car differs from the other Vipers I have tested is that the powertrain is so flexible it never leaves the driver wanting regardless of the gear selected. Running the twisty canyon roads north of Malibu required just two shifts. Slow corners were attacked in second gear; the rest in third gear — I saw 180 km/h in third before being forced to lift!

Power without grace would count for nothing. Here the Viper, especially the GTS, has been improved enormously. There’s a large under-hood X-brace — it ties all the suspension pickup points to the firewall, which brings much better stiffness (50 per cent better torsionally). This, the GTS’s 50/50 front-to-rear weight distribution, limited slip rear differential and adaptive Bilstein DampTronic Select shock absorbers combine to keep things shiny side up without making the ride harsh.

2015 Dodge Viper GTS Graeme Fletcher , Driving

Cargo space in the 2015 Dodge Viper GTS is ... tiny, to say the least, but no one buys a Viper to hold luggage. Graeme Fletcher , Driving

2015 Dodge Viper GTS Graeme Fletcher , Driving

With the suspension in the street setting, the Viper does a credible impression of a luxury car, as only large sharp bumps filter back to the riders. The rest is absorbed surprisingly well. The track setting is, well, pretty darned firm — enough that the car gets skittish if the road ripples mid-corner. It is best left for hooning around a smooth racetrack. No nits to pick with the steering. It is perfectly weighted and the turn-in is rewardingly crisp.

A big part of the Viper’s cornering ability boils down to its big, fat tires — P295/30ZR18s up front and P355/30ZR19 pinning the tail to the road. They deliver so much grip I was unwilling to push them to the point of breaking away. Mercifully, the traction/stability control system does a very good job at curbing any wayward tendency. The GTS model gets a number of stability settings. Even when fully on there is enough latitude built in to let the tail wag just a little before clamping down on things. Sport and Track back off the control progressively. Now, if you’re foolish enough, it can be turned off. It is a brave man who trusts his ability when there is 600 lb.-ft. of torque waiting to point the car in the opposite direction the instant the driver suffers a momentary lapse of attention.

2015 Dodge Viper GTS Graeme Fletcher , Driving

2015 Dodge Viper GTS Graeme Fletcher , Driving

2015 Dodge Viper GTS Graeme Fletcher , Driving

Finally, there’s a full-on set of Brembo brakes to bring things to a graceful halt. The two-piece front rotors are clamped down on by a very significant set of calipers. The good news is that even after having been worked to the max on the canyon twisties, they still brought the car to a halt in an alarmingly smart order — around 30 metres from 100 km/h.

While the cabin is tight and one needs to be careful climbing out — the side sills get very hot because of the side pipes hiding beneath — it is a chic place to spend driving time. The leather seating provides plenty of support, the instrumentation is clean and uncluttered, and there is a full-on infotainment system. The latter is worthy of mention simply because the UConnect system is the easiest on the market to use. Aside from the phone, media, back-up camera and navigation functions, it also houses the SRT apps. This shows everything from engine power to the g-forces at play. The only nit is it takes what seems like an eternity to load.

Two final thoughts on the cabin: The Harman Kardon audio system has no fewer than 18 speakers — a waste, given the music that the engine pipes into the cabin. Second, Viper’s storage falls under the “take a toothbrush and buy the toothpaste at the destination” category — 416 litres sounds like a lot, but the space is shallow.

The Viper was, at first, a rather uncouth knuckle-dragger that took a lot of driving skill to keep it pointed in the intended direction — the trailing throttle oversteer was epic in its proportion! Well, it has morphed into a serious rocket that devours both a twisty road and technical track with equal measures of poise. It tools around town like a kitten until the inner tiger is unleashed. The turn of speed and the manner in which the Viper devours a corner is truly mind-numbing!