Viewing Reminder! “Ultimate Factories – Dodge Viper” airs Thursday at 10 PM EST
02/16/2011
Tomorrow night at 10:00 PM, Eastern Time, the National Geographic Channel will air the second of two Ultimate Factory episodes featuring Dodge products.
This time, the show takes us on a tour of the Conner Avenue plant in Detroit where the Dodge Viper was hand-built from 1992 until July 2010. We get to see the Viper come together from initial engine assembly to Tamara Theoi hand-checking seams and making final adjustments to the finished car. We get to hear from some of the engineers and workers who produced Chrysler’s hottest street car. Dodge CEO Ralph Gilles provides a number of comments throughout the show.
As you listen, you’ll hear the pride the workers take in creating Detroit’s only individually crafted automobile.
“You won’t see no robots here,” says Greg Rinehart, Engine Line Leader. “We’ve never had any, and I don’t think you’ll ever see ‘em. This is truly a hand-built car.”
In addition to seeing the car being built, you’ll enjoy lots of footage of Vipers in action on the track.
The ending is bittersweet: the factory is quiet, the race track is deserted, the Viper is no more.
“It was very emotional for me,” says Gilles says of the announcement the Viper program was being terminated. “I remember my lips quivering. I remember my whole body trembling and thinking ‘Wow! I hope it’s not the end but if it is, we’re going to make the best of it.”
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