We’ve seen a few different peaks and valleys in the collector car market over the last few years, and it’s getting harder and harder to predict where the next great sports car value is going to come from. As a for instance, the 996 chassis Porsche 911 has been in decline for a while (the non-special models like the Carrera 4S and Turbo) but you know those will begin ticking up some time soon. I thought the early Vipers were going to be on the rise, and they may still be in the future – but for now, $40K for a claimed no-issues 1996 Dodge Viper RT/10 like this one here on Facebook Marketplace indicates you can still get into one of America’s best muscle cars for relatively short money.

Not only that, this cheap Viper isn’t one of the “typical” red or black examples; it’s white with blue stripes and color-matched factory wheels. The biggest ding against this particular car is the mileage, which is on the high side at 75,000. Mileage is one of the biggest value killers when it comes to collectible cars, as the owners who cherish limited production models like these and pay top dollar tend to want their specimens to have under 20,000 miles. Right off the bat, you eliminate more than half the pool of Viper buyers because of the mileage; however, for the rest of us who want to actually drive our cars, this RT/10 is very appealing.

Not only that, if you’re going to buy a borderline supercar, you’d be hard-pressed to find a car that’s cheaper to run than the original Viper. This is a very basic recipe when it comes to ingredients, and all these years later, the RT/10 has proven to be a fairly durable vehicle mechanically-speaking. Note, I am not talking about the construction which had plenty of issues when it was new. But do you really care? There’s still an 8.0L V10 under the hood that produces 415 horsepower and 488 lb.-ft. of torque channeled through a 6-speed manual transmission to the rear wheels.

The Viper will always be an iconic car, but especially in the first-generation form. When it was introduced, it was almost as if the world was daring Chrysler Corp. to build it. And ever since, it seems like Dodge hasn’t stopped building ridiculously high-performance cars with no regard to whether the outside world thinks it should. This particular Viper looks like a great way to blow $40,000 and I suspect you won’t lose money in the long run, as even with the higher mileage, I suspect prices will begin to turn upwards for even driver-grade examples like this one.