It’s been almost two years since Dodge built a Viper. Production of the last-gen car—which was nearly the last in the “final” sense of the word—ceased in summer of 2010, but it’s again time to give thanks to the gods of internal-combustion barbarism: The new Viper is debuting at the New York auto show. But it’s no longer called a Dodge; now it’s just the SRT Viper. Since the beginning, the Viper’s big, bad V-10 has received just as much attention as the car itself. The good news: It’s still big and bad. The only-bad-in-this-day-of-the-650-hp,-200-mph-Mustang-GT500 news: You’re going to wish it made at least 10 more horsepower; the total is 640 at 6150 rpm and 600 lb-ft of torque at 4950. (The engine revs to 6400 rpm.) Both figures are increases of 40. A number of small changes help the 8.4-liter engine both hit those higher figures and drop a few pounds. The trick cam-in-cam variable valve-timing system remains, although the profile of the intake lobes was reworked. Engineers credit this with about 10 of the additional horses. A new composite intake manifold with longer runners replaces the old aluminum piece, dropping seven pounds from the top of the engine and ratcheting power up another 10 horses or so and pumping torque up about 20 lb-ft. An aluminum flywheel cuts 11 pounds, helping revs build faster, and sodium-filled exhaust valves help keep engine temps down as well as saving a pound. In total, the engine is 25 pounds lighter now than its predecessor.