Big, Godly Power
Plenty of Dodge products are getting Hellcat engines these days, but the Viper’s V10 only showed up in one other production vehicle: the 2004-2006 Ram SRT-10. The engine, developed by Dodge’s Performance Vehicle Operations division, was a 510-horsepower 8.3-liter V10 that pushed 5,130 pounds of grille, girth, and garishness through the air up to a top speed of 154 mph.
It’s a truck with a Viper engine. But the Viper gets a little touchy when anyone brings up trucks and truck engines. Dodge started selling an 8-liter V10 truck in 1993, around the time it launched the Viper… which also had an 8-liter V10. The Viper’s V10 had a mountain range of torque and a sour exhaust note, like a truck, and people actually called it “truckish.” However, the Viper’s V10 had an aluminum block and heads – it was the first production car to have an aluminum V10 – and its design would influence the cast-iron V10 Dodge truck engines, not the other way around. When the Ram SRT-10 debuted, its engine was essentially lifted from the 3rd-gen Viper. Its “compression ratio, firing order, rod length, block height, and block length” were all unchanged from the second-gen Viper engine, according to one Viper fan site. It’s a Viper engine, period.
With the heart of a Viper, this truck lived, breathed, and performed like a Viper. The Bible encourages you to consider your heart in the same way:
“For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” (Ephesians 3:14-17)
Read this passage again, listening to the Spirit’s discernment “in your inner being.” This passage is not only a complete image of the role of the tri-unity of God, but also the full unity God desires with each member of his “whole family.” From his abundant generosity – his “glorious riches” – he longs to strengthen you with power. Big, Godly power. “Power” is used three times in Paul’s full prayer for the Ephesians (vs. 14-21). However, another word is used just as often: love.
Love is the character of God. Love is God’s essence, and perhaps even a summary of his purpose, if such a thing can be summarized. With all the power in and above the Universe, God can do whatever he wants, and he chooses to love.
These two attributes together describe the heart that lives within you. Through the Spirit of God, you have the power of God. Through faith in the redemptive work of Jesus, you have the living, active, working love of Jesus. Later in this passage, Paul urges the Ephesians to direct that power to fully understand this love and let it fill them “to the measure of all the fullness of God.”
God doesn’t desire power for the sake of power or unity for the sake of unity, but in continual symbiosis they work toward his great goal: love. He has planted this heart of love in his people, his agents, to see that love multiply again and again, and inspire new hearts to be changed, empowered, and filled with more love.
While it was initially offered only with a Tremec T-56 6-speed manual, the Ram SRT-10 later had the very un-Viper option of an automatic (and an extra set of doors). That’s heresy to some folks, but on the bright side, more accessibility allowed more people to feel the tremors from the Viper’s thunderous heart. Put your kids in the backseat and suddenly it’s a family bonding experience – unity, power, and love.
John V16 is the intersection of God and cars. Please support our work and donate a V16-powered 1940 Cadillac Series 90 Sixteen to John V16. Or share this article with a friend.
