Want to feel a bit of the knuckle-whitening forces endured by driver Chris Winkler yesterday as he careened around a few of the sharp turns of the hallowed Laguna Seca racetrack? At left you can watch the new record-breaking Viper from a riveting in-car perspective.

Dodge President & CEO Ralph Gilles admits that with such a powerful car, they kind of came in expecting to break the record. Perhaps no one can speak to the significance of the moment better than driver Chris Winkler, who, after some well-deserved accolades, this morning returns to his day job as an SRT engineer.

“It’s an incredible honor,” Winkler says. “I’m glad that they didn’t just hire a professional, and went to one of the guys who actually developed the car. Ralph and all the guys at SRT — I’m just thankful that they gave me the opportunity.”

And as one of the engineers who helped build this beast, perhaps there’s no one better qualified to speak to all of the modifications the crew had to make to take a street-legal Viper ACR and bring it up to record-breaking snuff.

“We took it off the assembly line, put it in a transporter, and brought it to Laguna Seca — basically, very little,” he admits. “We dropped the ride height, we turned the knobs to their suggested setting, and that was it. The car is fantastic. And there’s still more in it for sure.”