{"id":86696,"date":"2025-04-02T13:37:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T17:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dodgegarage.com\/news-api\/?p=86696"},"modified":"2025-04-02T11:58:27","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T15:58:27","slug":"roy-sjoberg-the-father-of-the-viper-has-died-but-his-fire-still-roars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/showcase\/2025\/04\/roy-sjoberg-the-father-of-the-viper-has-died-but-his-fire-still-roars.html","title":{"rendered":"Roy Sjoberg, the Father of the Viper, Has Died &#8211; But His Fire Still Roars"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Roy Sjoberg, the man who lit the fuse on the Dodge Viper and never looked back, has passed away. But legends like him don\u2019t just fade &#8211; they leave burnouts on history. Known as the <em>Father of the Viper<\/em>, Sjoberg was the spark behind one of the most unhinged American performance cars ever built. At a time when safety systems were softening cars and regulations were clipping wings, he did the unthinkable &#8211; he built a bare-knuckled, V10-powered street brawler that spit in the face of convention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As Chief Engineer, Sjoberg didn\u2019t follow rules &#8211; he rewrote them. He handpicked a renegade crew of engineers known as <em>Team Viper<\/em>, gave them 36 months and told them to build a car that scared Ferraris. The result? The 1992 Dodge Viper RT\/10: no roof, no airbags, no traction control &#8211; just horsepower and heart. It wasn\u2019t just a car; it was a statement. And it was pure Roy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sjoberg\u2019s legacy isn\u2019t just in the Viper\u2019s aluminum block or its thunderous exhaust note &#8211; it\u2019s in the way it made drivers feel: alive, wide-eyed and just a little bit unhinged. He didn\u2019t build a car. He built a movement. And now, the man who gave the Viper its venom takes his place among the greats.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Rest in power, Roy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Roy Sjoberg, the man who lit the fuse on the Dodge Viper and never looked back, has passed away. But legends like him don\u2019t just fade &#8211; they leave burnouts on history. Known as the Father of the Viper, Sjoberg was the spark behind one of the most unhinged American performance cars ever built. At a time when safety systems were softening cars and regulations were clipping wings, he did the unthinkable &#8211; he built a bare-knuckled, V10-powered street brawler that spit in the face of convention. As Chief Engineer, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":86698,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[638],"tags":[509],"class_list":["post-86696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-showcase","tag-viper"],"acf":[],"custom_fields":{"post_thumbnail_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/FatherofViper_Feature.jpg","social_image":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/FatherofViper_Social.jpg","icon_selection":"article","external_link":"","featured_article":[],"upload_background_image":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=86696"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86730,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/86696\/revisions\/86730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/86698"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=86696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=86696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.api.dodgegarage.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=86696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}