Was it the same car?

After season 1 durning the change in cast and moving from NBC to syndication was the Viper from seasons 2-3 suppose to be the same viper protype from the first season? I'm talking within context of the story, obviously they used the same car for filming but there seems to be three cars in the 'viper universe' the one from season 1, the one in seasons 2-3 that gets blown up, then the new viper gts coupe in season 4 when joe astor returns to the series. Some sorces say that season 2/3 car was the orginal viper and some say that it was a new car. If thats the case then what happended to the orginal viper protype and why would they bother making the new blue coupe if they already had the orginal proptype after the other one was destroyed? Help clarify this viper fans