The Chrysler-owned carmaker didn’t create the Viper by benchmarking the attainable Chevrolet Corvette, copying the ergonomic Honda NSX or Americanizing one of the designs from Ferrari.

Instead, the firm’s home-brewed supercar brought together racing expertise from Carroll Shelby, design from Tom Gale, engines from Ram trucks and engineering wizardry from Lamborghini. The end result was a raw, all-American high-performance dragster that showed no mercy for those who couldn’t handle it.

Join us for a look at how it was born and why it died.