The famous Laguna Seca raceway seems to have a new champion. The former king of the track, the Devon GTX seems to have met his match. The subtly revised 2010 Dodge Viper ACR, that will make its world debut next month at the Los Angeles Auto Show, driven by SRT vehicle dynamics engineer, Chris Winkler, has beaten the previous lap record of 1 minute 35.117 seconds held by the Devon GTX. According to the unofficial trackside clocks, the new Dodge Viper ACR managed a lap time of 1 minute 33.944 seconds while the official lap time recorded by Monotech in vehicle data recorder was of 1 minute 33.915 seconds.

Chris Winkler, the man who drove the Dodge Viper ACR and SRT Vehicle Dynamics Engineer, has stated that ``It was definitely exciting but a somewhat uneventful lap overall from behind the steering wheel``. He continued by saying that ``The Dodge Viper ACR has amazing power and handles like a dream, so following my first practice here last month, I came away pretty confident that we would be able to set a new record``.

The 2010 Dodge Viper ACR receives a series of upgrades, including a new short throw shifter, a redesigned rear wing to further optimize aerodynamics and improve rear yaw downforce as well as a shorter fifth gear ratio that changes from 0.74 to 0.80 for improved high speed acceleration and higher straightway speed. According to dodge, this improvements result in an increased top speed by 4mph to a total of 184 mph or 296 km/h. For those of you who do not know, the Dodge Viper ACR hardcore version was introduced for the first time in 2008. Also, the Dodge Viper is in its final year of production.

Around 500 units of the Dodge Viper will be produced in 2010. According to Ralph Gilles, President and CEO of Dodge Brand and Senior Vice President, Product Design Office of Chrysler Group LLC, Dodge is going to release a number of special edition models of the Dodge Viper, including a Laguna Seca edition to commemorate the record lap, in the last year of production of the famous sports car.

The 2010 Dodge Viper ACR gets its power from an 8.4 liter V10 engine capable of developing 560 lb-ft of torque and 600 horsepower. Thanks to the powerful engine, the 2010 Dodge Viper ACR is able to go from 0 mph to 100 mph and back to 0 mph in 11 seconds. A quarter mile run is done by the 2010 Dodge Viper ACR in about 11.5 seconds while accelerating from 0 to 60 mph takes under four seconds.

You can watch the Dodge Viper ACR breaking the Laguna Seca record here

You can watch a presentation of the 2010 Dodge Viper ACR here