[Hugh R]

Interesting question. I owned what many people call an "Exotic" for 35 years, an Aston Martin DB4 which I posted about my engine and trannie rebuild here. They made IIRC 1,150 DB4 of the coupe, cab Zagato and a few other one-offs total. While a stunning car, it couldn't hold its oil pressure, the main bearing clearances were 1.25 to 1.50 tho clearance cold and grew to 4 times that hot. So oil pressure would go from 100 psi cold to around 40 psi at best when really hot. So you couldn't run it on the highway hot all day like you could a Porsche of the same era. Great touring car. Handled like a British lorrie (pickup truck). Big difference in build detail, you could pull up the rear seat and see in pencil the serial # of the car. A door from DB4/438L ("L" for left hand drive) was different in dimensions by 1/4" to 1/1/2" from DB4/ 530L that a friend of mine had. Instead of sheet metal screws to hold the door panels in, like my 84 Targa, it had 10-32 nuts braised into the metal so you used corresponding machine screws to attach the door panels.

I absolutely miss the car, but it made no financial sense to keep it, it represented a huge portion of my net worth. I sold it to the Prime Minister of Kuwait for stupid money just before the big fall of the stock market in October, 2008.

Oh, back on topic, no. I don't consider a Viper an "exotic".