You might be surprised to find out that Grundy customer Wayne Rauh left his first experience in a Dodge Viper feeling scared of the powerful vehicle— especially considering that, today, he and his wife D’Ann are highly-recognized within the collector car industry for owning a collection of 35 Vipers. The couple resides in East Texas, and throughout the last four years, they have built up what has become the largest privately-owned collection of Dodge Vipers in the world.

Wayne says that he first noticed the Dodge Viper, while on a trip to Las Vegas, in 1992.

“I fell in love with it,” says Wayne.  “But, I never thought about buying one until later.”

And, then his first ride in a Viper came years down the road.

“It kind of scared me,” says Wayne. “I left saying  ‘I don’t need one.’”

“But, I eventually got to looking at them again,” he says.

“He kept looking at Vipers in magazines,” remarks D’Ann. “But, he couldn’t make up his mind.”

But, by 2006, he found his first Viper – a 2006 Dodge Viper, painted white with blue stripes.

“Blue is my favorite color,” notes Wayne. (D’Ann says that just about every one of Wayne’s cars has blue on it somewhere.)

“The day after I bought [my Viper], D’Ann noticed one that she liked,” says Wayne.  “So I called the very next day and bought it for her.”

And, that was the beginning of the couple’s collection of Dodge Vipers— which, as mentioned before, is now the largest in the world.

“You don’t do that on purpose,” says D’Ann, in regard to the size of their Viper collection.  “But, right now I think I have four more coming.”

Wayne enters the conversation:

“I want to correct her,” he says.  “She has more than that. She has like eight new ones ordered.”

While she has been a car-lover all of her life, D’Ann jumped into car-collecting about 14 years ago; her first collector car was a Trans Am.  Today, she has her Viper collection, along with a variety of other cars including Prowlers and Corvettes.  Wayne says that he caught the car-collecting bug somewhere along the way, and now he has a collection of his own, as well.

D’Ann says that she has lost count of all the cars they own between the two of them; however, she knows that she has one more Viper than Wayne has.

She boasts: “He’ll never get ahead of me!”

Hmm. Do we sense a competition between the pair?

“No, there is no competition,” says D’Ann, very matter-of-factly.  “I’ll always be ahead of him.”

“And, I don’t care to catch up with her,” chimes in Wayne. “Happy wife, happy life.”

And, D’Ann will note that she is very happy with her collection of cars. She explains that each car that they add to the collection is very special; most of the cars are low production vehicles.

Wayne adds that most Vipers, in general, are low production vehicles.

“The most they build are five a day,” he explains.  “Only a little over 26,000 cars have been made since 1992. They will build 370 cars in 2010; 688 were built in 2009.”

“There aren’t a whole lot around,” he continues.  “That’s one thing I like about them. You don’t see them every day.”

D’Ann remarks that one of the coolest opportunities she has had with buying a rare Viper is one that is still in the works. A while back, the Rauh’s Viper dealer, John Gastman out of Roanoke, Ill., gave D’Ann the e-mail address of the Viper plant manager, so she could make a request for the last Viper. After some time passed, and she still had not heard a response, D’Ann assumed that owning that car was not in her cards—she thought maybe an executive at Chrysler would receive it.

Yet, it was one of those executives who made the final call.  John Gastman brought the Rauhs to the birthday party for Ralph Gilles, the CEO of Dodge. When D’Ann had a chance to wish Mr. Gilles a “Happy Birthday,” she also saw the moment as a perfect opportunity to ask about getting her hands on that last Viper.

When she asked, Ralph didn’t hesitate to give her “the okay.” – The last Viper was hers.

D’Ann says that she thought maybe the deal was on the hush, and just between her and Mr. Gilles; however, an hour after making the deal, Ralph got on the microphone and made the announcement that Mrs. D’Ann Rauh would receive the last VIN of the last Viper ever made.

She has been given the opportunity to help with the design and choose the colors of the vehicle. D’Ann says that she hopes to have the car sometime in August 2010; the plant is scheduled to complete it by August 15.

The cool news does not stop there, either. Most recently, the couple received a call from Chrysler, asking if they were interested in purchasing a limited edition Viper race car; Chrysler plans on producing about 30 of these rare vehicles; they will be unpainted with roll cages and no VIN. Wayne says that still have not made a decision as to whether they will add a Viper race car to their collection, but he makes a note that there is a good chance, as it is something different.

“But, we haven’t made the final decision yet,” says Wayne.

Well, what a decision to have to make.

The Rauhs are constantly presented with awesome opportunities to purchase limited edition Vipers… and, they take many of them. Now, we can see what D’Ann meant when she noted that their collection didn’t intentionally become so big.

So... out of all the different Vipers the couple owns, we wonder if there is a favorite.

“No,” says D’Ann. “I don’t have a favorite. It’s just like with children… you can’t have one favorite. “

“And, I’m the opposite,” says Wayne. “My first car is still my favorite. I don’t hardly drive it, but it still makes me smile the most. “

D’Ann adds that while she can’t say it’s her “favorite,” the Viper that was used in the Spiderman movie will always be extra special to her.  There are only two of these vehicles in existence, and the irreplaceable Bob Soroka paint job makes it all the more valuable and exceptional to D’Ann.

She adds that the Spiderman Viper only makes rare appearances at parades and car shows; the car is not one that is driven regularly. 

One occasion of taking the Spiderman car to a show stands out as one of the most memorable times, for the couple. On a whim, the Rauhs decided to have the car make an appearance at a little show at a Dairy Queen; the event was held to benefit a child.

Neither D’Ann nor Wayne knew about the cause of the show, when they first decided to take out the Viper after passing the show on the road; yet, when they pulled up in the Spiderman vehicle, everyone—including the young boy— was thrilled. D’Ann says that the Spiderman car made the boy’s day; he picked the winner of the show, and not to our surprise, he picked the Spiderman Viper.

In addition to several small outdoor shows, like that one, Wayne and D’Ann attend two benefit shows in Texas, each year. They also attend events put on by the Viper Club of America, as they are members of the Midsouth Region chapter of the VCA.

Story by: Becky McLaughlin, Gazette Editor

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