Last year, FCA sold 630 Vipers, down 8.7 percent vs. 2015.

Dodge Viper axed, but will not go gently

Celebrating 25 years of its soon-to-be discontinued all-American bruiser, Dodge will build five different special editions of the SRT Viper. With the sports car approaching its …

Conner is FCA’s smallest assembly plant in North America, where the automaker has built the Viper — with interruptions — for over 25 years.

Production will end in August because the two-seater cannot meet new safety regulations which go into effect Sept. 1. FCA has been celebrating the Viper’s sunsetting production for more than a year.

Over the years, workers at Conner Avenue, many of whom transferred in from other FCA plants in the metro Detroit region, suffered frequent layoffs as Viper sales waxed and waned, but they chose to remain at the plant because of its special nature first within Chrysler and later within FCA. The plant operated as a bespoke car assembly facility in terms of the hand-assembly and painting process each Viper underwent.