The Dodge Viper spent its production years serving as one of the world’s leading supercars, offering performance levels that rivaled the most expensive exotics on the market. In addition to the monster power delivered by the V10 engine, every generation of the Viper offered world-class handling characteristics that allowed racers to set records on road course tracks around the world, but we generally don’t hear much about Vipers tearing up the drag strip. However, at the recent Legion of Demons event at Texas Motorplex, Rachel Dugas piloted her 2006 Dodge Viper SRT-10® deep into the 7-second range – setting the world record for the quickest and fastest Gen 3 Dodge Viper in the quarter-mile.
This 2006 Dodge Viper SRT-10 was a wedding gift to Rachel from her husband, Will, and they bought it fully built back in 2022. She stated that Will is “The Best”, and considering his role in this story, we wanted to include that. They have not had much time to get the car to the track since acquiring it, but on a previous run more than a year ago, Dugas ran her personal best of 7.82 at 189 miles per hour. At that point, the record for the quickest Gen 3 Viper was a 7.70 at 188, set by Lee Saunders, who previously owned the blue car shown here as well. While driving the car ahead of their trip to Texas Motorplex for the 2024 Legion of Demons event, Rachel joked that it would be fun to run a 7.66, as at that point, the car had 7,660 miles on the odometer. As it turns out, she went even quicker than 7.66, allowing her to claim the Gen 3 record by a comfortable margin.
To be exact, Rachel Dugas and her Dodge Viper SRT-10 ran a 7.49 at 186 miles per hour and that run was backed up by a 7.54 at 189 miles per hour. Both of her elapsed times beat the previous Gen 3 Viper quarter-mile record by a pretty significant amount and the higher trap speed on the 7.54 run allowed her to claim the title of not only the quickest, but also the fastest Gen 3 Dodge Viper in the quarter-mile. Matthew Gillette Photography was at the event when Dugas set the record and he caught it on video.
As you might have guessed, this Dodge Viper is far from stock. It features a twin turbocharged V10 engine from the extreme performance experts at Nth Moto, tuned to run on One Ethanol R to offer roughly 2,000 horsepower. That twin turbo V10 power is sent to the rear drag radial tires by means of a built TH400 automatic transmission, which is the biggest mechanical change from a stock Viper – as the Dodge supercar was only ever offered with a manual gearbox.
Making this record even more impressive is the fact that Rachel Dugas’ Dodge Viper SRT-10 is still street-legal and street-driven. She points out that this car has fully functional air conditioning and heat, a radio, power windows, the factory dash and gauges, so it is not gutted and built purely for racing. It can run a mid-7-second quarter-mile, but it retains the creature comforts that you want from a street-driven supercar.
For those wondering, this record-setting beast shown here is not the only Dodge Viper owned by the Dugas family. They have three other Vipers that were built by Nth Moto – a 2014 Viper TA, a 2001 Viper GTS Coupe known as the Juggernaut and a 2016 Viper ACR Extreme known as Colossus. In other words, Rachel and Will Dugas have many thousands worth of V10 horsepower in their garage, but this Viper is Rachel’s first insanely quick racecar. She explained that she grew up around racing on the track and on the street, but she has never been as serious about racing as she is now. Her first major racing event was a top speed event in their Nth Moto Viper ACR Extreme, where she hit 221.5 miles per hour in just a half-mile. This 2006 Viper is her first that is built for drag racing, so she is essentially getting her first real seat time on the drag strip in a 7-second supercar, but in setting records already, she is showing the skill of a veteran racer.
“I definitely want to thank my husband, the whole Nth Moto crew and One Ethanol for all the help and support,” said Dugas. “I couldn’t do this without them. “
Seeing as how Rachel Dugas has had very little seat time in this Dodge Viper SRT-10, and relatively little seat time on the drag strip in general, we could see her running even faster times in the future – resetting her own world record.