THIS summer's Silverstone Classic, being held from July 29-31, will be home to a huge number of enthusiastic car clubs all celebrating significant model or marque milestones with displays and glittering track parades.

And for the first time this year's highlights will include an unprecedented gathering of mighty Dodge Vipers, one of America's most iconic muscle cars.

Originally conceived by Chrysler in the late 1980s to be a modern day Cobra, the venomous Viper RT/10 Roadster first went on sale in January 1992.

While the finish of the dramatically styled two-door roadster was pretty spartan (there were no windows or exterior door handles), it came with a Lamborghini-inspired 8.0-litre V10 engine and thus walloping 160mph-plus performance. A true US classic was born.

Four years later came a slightly more powerful and refined second generation Viper plus a GTS coupe version for road and track.

Also in 1996, the United Kingdom Viper Club was formed and will be celebrating its 20thanniversary with a record-breaking display at the 2016 Silverstone Classic.

Adrian Swift, president of the UK Viper Club, said: "We have at least 16 Vipers coming from Europe to join us at Silverstone and expect to have more than 30 Vipers in Saturday's track parade. It will be the largest number of Vipers that has ever been gathered together at one spot in the UK."

Other marques which will be featured at this year's event include Morgan, which is marking the 80th anniversary of the iconic 4/4 and Nissan which will be celebrating the Silver Jubilee of the diminutively retro-styled Figaro convertible.