Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Hands-on Viper assembly line [OZ style]

Dodge Viper

Mark Hinchliffe

The Dodge Viper will be left-hand drive and won't make it to Australia.

These days, most manufacturing plants use hundreds of state-of-the-art robots to assemble vehicles.

But one Detroit plant is producing hand-built performance vehicles.

The Conner Avenue Assembly Plant will hand-build the 2008 Dodge Viper SRT10 and new 8.4-litre SRT V10 engine using 26 work stations on a 214m assembly line.

Chrysler Australia says the Viper is only available in left-hand drive and will not be coming here.

Each vehicle will be hand assembled by 48 workers, remaining stationary for up to 49 minutes per work area while the workers make adjustments.

The process is normally performed only on race cars and eliminates traditional repair stations as the workers verify all work on all parts.

An alignment machine sets caster and camber at normal ride height and at the upward and downward travel of suspension; while most factories set caster and camber in the normal ride-height position only.

The V10 engine is built next to the vehicle on a 24-station circular line by nine workers; who assemble and certify each engine before it is installed in the chassis.

Each Dodge Viper is tested in place on the assembly line using special rollers.

At this stage, the vehicle is a rolling chassis without its body panels.

During this roll test, it is driven through all six speeds of the transmission, up to 145km/h to verify vehicle function.

The Dodge Viper was introduced as a concept car at the 1989 North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

Its V10 engine produces 450kW of power and 760 Nm of torque, propelling the car to 100km/h in less than four seconds.

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