I think that already, those american car makers are not doing rocket science with their philosophy; "theres no replacement for displacement". I think that just increasing displacement is kind of a way to cheat, or, to take the easy approach to making a car go fast. So the Viper is even more guilty of cheating with its idiotique V10.
Im the kinda of guy who is impressed with engineering like in the Lotus Elise. Imagine a Lotus Elise with 525hp, it would bring all these cars to school. Lotus could choose to do that, but I knows that horsepower and displacement is not the only factor that make a car go faster, but unfortunately most comsumers do not.