Lucky 14: Workers at Dodge Viper plant win Powerball jackpot

Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, Chrysler, Dodge, Earnings/Financials

Dodge Viper assembly line workers in Detroit – Click above for high-res image gallery

It’s not every day that someone actually wins the lottery, but that day has come for nineteen American factory workers. And it’s come in a big way as two lottery clubs have claimed multi-million-dollar jackpots in the Powerball and Mega Millions drawings, scoring a jaw-dropping $96.6 million and $36 million respectively.

What does this have to do with cars, you ask? This is an automotive news site, after all, so we’ll tell you: the “Lucky 13 Plus One” lottery club that won the nearly $100M Powerball jackpot is comprised of workers at the Chrysler‘s Jefferson North Assembly plant in Detroit that reports claim builds the Dodge Viper. (The Viper’s actually built at Connor Avenue, while Jefferson builds Jeeps, so clearly something’s amiss here, but we digress.) The Mega Millions jackpot, meanwhile, will be split between five factory workers in Kalamazoo whose names and employer remain unpublished.

As for the winning Viper crew, might we suggest either buying the rights to the car you build to either ensure its survival or farm them out to Devon Motorworks. Or maybe buying back the Mercedes SLS program and turning it back into the next-gen Viper. Of course, there is a certain group of automotive journalists who’d be happy to help you invest, so be in touch, won’t you?

Gallery: Dodge Viper ACR-X Begins Production