A Closer Look at John O’Malley’s 2000 Dodge Viper ACR

The most eye-catching and the most controversial entry in the 2025 Roadkill Nights Direct Connection Grudge Match is the 2000 Dodge Viper ACR of John O’Malley and Boosted Motorsports. O’Malley started with an extremely rare American supercar, removed the trademark V10 engine and manual transmission, installed a Hurricane I6 with an automatic transmission and created one of the most popular cars of Roadkill Nights and the Woodward Dream Cruise.

While some of the competitors took advantage of the newly introduced outlaw rules by stripping every bit of weight out of the car and running a relatively stock engine, O’Malley went the other direction. He kept his rare Dodge Viper ACR as complete as possible, but the engine has been heavily modified to  make loads of power in the lightweight American supercar. In fact, he has done so much to the drivetrain that it is best to just share his list.

– Custom in-house-built turbo manifold made from schedule 40 stainless steel
– Custom in-house-built stainless steel 3/8 flanges to bolt to the cylinder head
– HPT 7175 Turbo
– Dual 44mm Granatelli Wastegates
– 3-inch aluminum intercooler piping
– Granatelli 3-inch floating clamps connect all the intercooler piping
– Front-mounted bar and plate intercooler
– Granatelli blowoff valve
– Holley in-tank twin fuel pumps
– Holley fuel pressure regulator
– All fittings and hoses are from Earls Plumbing
– Moroso oil accumulator was installed to compensate for the custom-built oil pan for additional ground clearance in the Viper
– Moroso remote oil filter again to accommodate the low ground clearance of the viper
– 4-inch hood exit exhaust made with stainless steel in-house and tig welded

The power from the modified Hurricane I6 engine is channeled through a Pure Transmissions Stage 2 ZF 8-speed, a custom driveshaft from Gulf Coast Driveshaft and Boosted Motorsports half shafts to 15-inch rear wheels wrapped in Mickey Thompson drag radials. Running the 15-inch wheels required a custom Boosted Motorsports 15-inch brake conversion and inside of the car, O’Malley added an AEM CD-5 digital dashboard and an AEM 12-position switch, allowing him to switch between power levels on the fly. Finally, the Boosted Motorsports custom power steering controller allows for various levels of steering assist from the electric power steering system.

John O’Malley’s sponsors for the Direct Connection Grudge Match include Holley Performance Parts, Earls Performance, HPT Turbos, Granatelli Motorsports, WhatEverItTakes Transmission, Gulf Coast Driveshaft, Moroso Performance, Mickey Thompson, Pure Transmissions and AEM.

Unfortunately for O’Malley, he drew Morgan Evans in the first round of the Direct Connection Grudge Match, so although the car looked and sounded great, he lost in the first round. However, he wasn’t done having fun with his Hurricane-powered Viper, as he cruised around Woodward Avenue during the week following Roadkill Nights, showing off the two-step and the flamethrowing ability of his turbocharged I6 engine. John O’Malley and the world’s first Hurricane-powered Dodge Viper were crowd favorites of the Woodward Dream Cruise.