UPDATE: SRT boss Ralph Gilles has come out and stated that during his interview with Wards Auto, he said the Viper’s chassis was capable of spawning a convertible but confirmed nothing. Gilles revealed the latest details via a tweet, which has been reproduced below.

“Interesting discussion about viper convertibles since I admitted that the chassis is more than capable. Nothing is confirmed!”

During a recent interview, SRT boss Ralph Gilles confirmed that a convertible version of the latest SRT Viper was coming but said it could be several years away from launch still.

This is in stark contrast to previous generations where the car would debut as a convertible and be joined by a coupe later on.

The switch with the latest version was so the car could qualify straight away for motorsport events, such as the American Le Mans Series. The car will also be competing in the GTE Pro class in this year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Speaking with Wards Auto, Gilles said there was no rush to launch a new Viper convertible.

He explained that most customers were happy to own either bodystyle, and those only interested in the drop-top were willing to wait. For previous generations, about 40 percent of sales were convertibles.

The latest Viper was engineered from the start to be a convertible, with the cars already featuring all the necessary structural pieces to support a roofless body. However, that doesn’t mean we’ll be seeing the new Viper convertible anytime soon.

Gilles said he hoped to launch the convertible within a few years, which means he may be waiting until a planned facelift of the car, due in 2015, is introduced.

Perhaps the reason SRT isn’t in any rush is that the Viper’s initial batch of 800 cars for the 2013 model year is already sold out. And most of these--80 percent, in fact--have been the upscale GTS model, which lists at just over $120k.

For more on the SRT Viper, click here for our first drive of the all-new 2013 model.

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