Game on for Playstation Viper at Goodwood

Luxemburg-based company Art & Revs is in the middle of a complete nut-and-bolt restoration of a very special Chrysler Viper GTS-R. If you come to the Goodwood Festival of Speed in June, you will see the famous ‘Playstation’ Chrysler Viper GTS-R that raced in Le Mans in 2002 roar again.

“This is chassis C41,” Art & Revs owner Florent Moulin explains. “It was a spare chassis for the Oreca factory team in the 2000 ALMS season. In 2001, Oreca rented it out to Larbre Competition, who saw Goueslard, Dumez and Sébastien Bourdais drive it to second place in the Spa 24 Hours.”

Third in class

“For 2002, the French motorsport federation FFSA used it at Le Mans to have three talented French drivers run it: Jean-Philippe Belloc, Jonathan Cochet and Benoît Treluyer, who of course would go on to win Le Mans three times with Audi. Oreca ran the car and Sony Playstation sponsored it. It would finish 14^th overall and third in class, despite its age,” Moulin says.

Hard life

As with many of the Vipers, C41 was sold to first Mirabeau Competition and then Sport Garage. It raced in the French GT championship right up until 2007. “It lived a hard life. We want to bring it back to how it raced at Le Mans in 2002, and that gave us several issues,” Moulin explains.

“First of all, it had been changed over the years, so we needed to source a lot of parts that were correct for the 2002 Le Mans spec. What we could not find, we remade. On top of that, this was a very tired car. So we decided on doing a complete nut and bolt restoration. For us, this is a showcase of what we can do for other Vipers as well. Many of these cars were used intensively and they deserve a proper restoration.”

The car will be ready for its first public outing in July. It will participate in the Goodwood Festival of Speed, held from June 23^rd until June 26^th.
More here.