Originally Posted by shadowboy

There's a reason for the hefty price tag. Several, actually.

-All-aluminum chassis & suspension (the steering column support beam is the ONLY steel part of the chassis).
-Titanium Alloy connecting rods (first production vehicle to ever have them).
-carbon fiber reinforced engine block (for the 3.2L engine--this casting technique was required to be able to bore the engine out to 3.2L from the original 3.0L).

Not to mention it was one of the earliest production vehicles to use drive-by-wire technology (1997).

The car is a technological showpiece (taken in the context of its age).

It may not seem fast, but it had 270HP in 1991. That's more than a 911 and a corvette had back then (excepting the turbo & ZR1, respectively), the viper didn't even exist yet.