99 viper cobra

[mabingman]

Does anyone know what the transom and stringers are made of on a 99 Cobra Viper? did they still use wood encapsulated in fiberglass or did they go to all fiberglass? Buddy of mine is looking at buying one.

Thanks and tight lines!

[hookahawg]

As far as I know, yes, wood encapsulated in fiberglass, unless it's a Coosa, but I believe that was only an option starting in 2000. I had a 1999 201S, and would still have it if it didn't get totaled in a road accident last fall.
I now have a 2000 201D, transom as solid as a rock. Before buying a boat, my transom checks consist of me, 240lbs, climbing onto cavitation plate and bear hugging the cowling while bouncing up and down. No flex in transom and trailer bouncing on tongue jack is a good sign... After 10 years with my 1999 (12 inch J/P) and many, many nasty days on the St. Lawrence river system with up to 8 foot rollers....couple non-structural spider cracks vis a vis the transom tuffner on the top motor mounting bolts....but otherwise no flex in transom. Worth mentioning; when I first purchased the boat I also removed the plate/motor and resin sealed the I.D. of the mounting holes followed by a generous application of 3M 4200 before reinstalling engine. I love my Cobra!

[tgifish]

There's a 99% probability that the transom, stringers & deck are wood encapsulated fiberglass. However, according to what I've read on here, Viper may have built a few 201's between '98 & '02 with coosa composite although the Coosa 201 didn't go into production until '02 & the Coosa 216 in '01. One detail that I've noticed about Coosas is that the engine rigging hose enters on top of the cap rail not at the side of the splash-well like regular Cobras. You can see this in the photos in the owner's gallery.