Dodge Viper supercar being killed off -- again

The Dodge Viper supercar, loved by enthusiasts and collectors, will die again next year. But it's going out in style.

Fiat Chrysler Automobiles said Tuesday it is offering five limited-edition models to commemorate the final year of production and celebrate its 25th anniversary. Each model will be inspired by historic Vipers from the past and produced in very small numbers.

“The Dodge Viper has had a great run and, 25 years after it was first introduced, it leaves the super car world reaching for the records it continues to set,” Tim Kuniskis, Fiat Chrysler's head of passenger cars and the Dodge brand, said in a statement.

The Viper, with its exaggerated, curvy styling and reputation for being difficult to control on the road, has always been much bigger than its small sales volumes. The car exemplifies the bold spirit of the Auburn Hills automaker and is coveted by street racing enthusiasts and car collectors alike.

The car, which debuted in 1992, was discontinued in 2010 in the midst of the Great Recession and the automaker's Chapter 11 bankruptcy, causing the plant where it is built to be idled.

But the Viper rose from its grave just three years later in a project spearheaded by FCA head of design Ralph Gilles.

"The history of Viper runs deep. The private equity guys tried to snuff it out, but it's like the weed that keeps growing back," Gilles said at the New York International Auto Show in 2012 as he took a swipe at Chrysler's previous owner, Cerberus Capital Management. "It was done in the darkest hour you could imagine...I threw this project to the designers to keep them motivated."

FCA also overhauled its 400,000-square-foot Conner Avenue Assembly plant just south of 8 Mile Road on Detroit's northeast side. Workers there custom assemble the car in a plant that is unlike any other operated by the automaker.

Unfortunately, sales of the Viper failed to meet even modest expectations of about 1,500 units per year. Fiat Chrysler dropped the price in 2014 by $15,000 and introduced a new custom ordering Web site in 2015. Customers can use the Web site to buy a Viper in any color, wheel, interior and aerodynamic kit combination they want.

Both moves failed to boost sales. FCA US sold 676 Dodge SRT Vipers in 2015, down 11% from the 760 sold the prior year.

Tuesday's announcement was not a surprise. The UAW's new four-year contract with the automaker that was ratified last fall lacked any product plans for the Conner Avenue plant.

The company did not say today exactly when production will end or say how many Vipers it hopes to produce this year.

In January, FCA CEO Sergio Marchionne said, “Every economic analysis that we’ve carried about keeping that vehicle in its current architectural state alive don’t add up."

However, Marchionne hinted that the automaker, which also owns Italian brands Alfa Romeo and Maserati, has access to other architectures that could be used to develop a car just as dynamic as the Viper.

So what is on tap for the rest of this year?

Starting Friday, customers can begin ordering special edition Vipers. They include:

•Viper 1:28 Edition ACR. This version pays tribute to the current production car single lap record of 1:28.65 set by champion driver Randy Pobst in a 2016 Dodge Viper ACR at the historic Laguna Seca Raceway in Monterey, Calif., in October 2015. Production will be limited to 28 cars.

•Viper GTS-R Commemorative Edition ACR. This Viper is designed to pay tribute to one of the most distinguishable and iconic Viper paint schemes of all time – the white and blue combination of the 1998 Viper GTS-R GT2 Championship Edition. Production will be limited to 100 cars.

•Viper VoooDoo II Edition ACR. Modeled after the original 2010 Viper VooDoo, this version (yes, VoooDoo is correct) features a black exterior and a graphite metallic ACR driver’s stripe. Production will be limited to 31 cars.

•Viper Snakeskin Edition GTC. This Viper features a new Snakeskin Green exterior with a custom snakeskin-patterned SRT stripe. Production will be limited to 25 cars.

•Dodge Dealer Edition ACR. This version is only available through Dodge’s highest sales volume Viper dealers, Tomball Dodge of Tomball, Texas, and Roanoke Dodge of Roanoke, Ill.