A Bizarre-Yet-Awesome Viper Body Kit For Your Third-Generation Corvette Gives You the “BEST” Of Both Worlds

If You’ve Ever Considered Customizing Your Corvette To Look Like A Dodge Viper….You Aren’t Alone!

Okay, we admit it, we’re scratching our heads at this one a bit.  While we don’t completely hate the look of this custom-built Corvette-that-would-be-Viper mashup, we can’t quite wrap our heads around it (VetteViper?…no, ViperVette!) either.  On one hand, you’ve got a 1976 Chevrolet Corvette donor body (and let’s be honest friends, by 1976, the third-gen Corvettes were beginning to look a little dated anyway).  On the other, you’ve got a body kit that is not exactly a Viper (though it tries really hard to be) fused with a Corvette whose proportions don’t quite sell the look.  It’s interesting, and (if we’re being honest with ourselves) kind of awesome, yet it leaves us all feeling a little confused.  Why would anyone want to do this, let alone actually go thru with it?

Here’s the interesting part.  This 1976 Corvette isn’t meant to be seen as a first-generation Dodge Viper kit car/clone.  This car has a plethora of badges (both inside and out) that clearly distinguish it as a “Corvette” of sorts.  The front hood, for instance, has the fourth-generation Corvette’s hood emblem mounted front and center, while the front fenders are badged with the seventh-generation Corvette’s iconic “stingray” emblems, though each of these is topped with the word “Saber” is swept back lettering that looks like the “sporty” lettering decal kits you can buy at most discount auto stores.  Pop open the doors to this car, and you are greeted by an interior that is unmistakably 1970’s era Corvette, though the interior door skins now sport a Chevrolet bowtie badge which frames the “Saber” moniker again.

And while we’re looking at the ViperVette’s interior, we can’t help but wonder if this one-of-a-kind ViperVette interior was embellished as an afterthought.  The interior on this car is rough – and has not been restored – though there are now black and yellow seat covers (I think we’re talking either vinyl or the ever-popular Pleather) along with new door skins that straddle the top two-thirds of the door’s interior.  Gaudy is a word…and there are many others, but gaudy is about the nicest thing we can say about this particular enhancement.  As for the rest of the interior?  It’s bone-freaking stock, right down to the steering wheel, which still sports the third-generation Corvette moniker at its center.  The rest of the dashboard too looks untouched, leaving us to wonder why any effort was made to customize the seats and the doors when the rest of the interior was left stock?  Our guess is that the owner wanted to extend some of the car’s yellow to the interior, and the pleather enhancements were the quickest, cheapest way to get there.