The house that built Vipers for 22 years no longer makes V10-powered monsters, but it will live on. Fiat Chrysler is turning the Conner Avenue plant into a museum.
The Conner Avenue Assembly plant in Detroit opened in 1966. The building was originally used by Champion to manufacture spark plugs, before being purchased by Chrysler in 1995. The plant was shuttered in 2017 along with the end of Viper production.
Now, the 37,000 m2 plant will be turned into a museum, housing classic cars from the Chrysler collection. The cars will go back as far as the 1902 Rambler. There will also be a large meeting space that can be used for events. Fiat Chrysler says that the site should be open for internal groups by the second quarter of this year, but that it could also open its doors to the public in the future.
It's the first time that the nearly 400 historic and concept cars have been stored in the same place. Previously, they have been scattered among multiple locations. But of that massive collection, only around 85 will be on exhibit at one time.
When Chrysler employees began cleanup of the old factory, they began finding Viper and Prowler memorabilia. Some of it will go into the Chrysler collection, but there isn't room for everything. So to help clean house, Chrysler will be having a memorabilia auction. More than 1,800 items of Viper history, from signs to art and apparel, even signed Viper parts, will be sold to benefit the United Way.
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