DETROIT -- For about 25 years, the Dodge Viper stood at the pinnacle of the brand's lineup as a ridiculous V-10-powered muscle car fused with sleek sports car styling.

Now, the brand is planning to bring back something similar with a "hyper muscle car" called the Copperhead SRT. Stellantis NV executives briefly showed a mock-up of the car to investors and journalists during the automaker's long-term business plan presentations in Auburn Hills on Thursday.

No photos were allowed, and CEO Antonio Filosa bristled at the idea that the new vehicle was basically the new Viper after that car ended production in 2017: "It's a Copperhead, it's not a Viper successor," he said.

Still, executives acknowledged the two-door sports car would fill a "white space" for a brand that hasn't sold a true halo sports car for nearly a decade. The Copperhead emerged, music blaring, from a hazy garage inside the automaker's Auburn Hills design dome; North American brands chief Tim Kuniskis joked that the paint had dried out 15 minutes earlier.

The two-door sports car had a big wing, vents on the sides and a hood scoop. Executives didn't talk pricing, launch timing or just about any other specifics. But the unveiling was part of the automaker's larger five-year plan, meaning the Copperhead can be expected to go into production by 2030.

It's not the first time Dodge has used the Copperhead moniker. The brand showed off a Copperhead concept sports car at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in 1997, where it was portrayed as a smaller and cheaper version of the Viper.

Kuniskis acknowledged in a presentation Thursday that Dodge has "struggled through a very tough point in its product life cycle" in recent years with a limited number of models. But now Stellantis, with its new five-year plan, is set to keep the muscle car brand going and has targeted sales growth of 10% in 2030, to about 135,000 annual North American units.

Dodge also last week unveiled plans to make a four-door hot hatch called the GLH in the next couple of years, which executives said would cater to a younger audience. Kuniskis said it's a "true entry-level performance vehicle" and a "gateway into the Brotherhood of Muscle."

One of Kuniskis' key priorities leading the U.S. brands has been reviving the SRT division, which stands for Street and Racing Technology, and has long indicated the automaker's top-end, most high-performance offerings.

The goal with the Copperhead, Kuniskis said, is to develop a type of SRT vehicle irresistible to muscle car enthusiasts: "You don't ask what the price is, you don't ask what the fuel economy is, you don't ask what the incentives are. All you say is, 'Take my money, I must have that.'"

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