928 Motor Swap/Getting Off Topic/Still Interesting

[Alex Kowalski]

One question, and please if you'd like to answer email me directly:  in addition to the motor, wasn't one of the problems with the 928 chassis the aluminum construction (before Audi learned from that) which makes them gradually flex themselves to pieces the older they are?  If you put a 500 horsepower engine into that chassis, what can you expect from it in the long term?

Second, I'll turn the question on its head.  I own a 1968 Corvette Convertible and if the situation was reversed I too would be a little nauseous of putting a German engine in it, no matter how 'good' it was.  And the '68 Corvette is no paragon of American operations-research or engineering excellence, either, but I would still not like to see the transplant, no matter how unique it was or how fast it went.  I know the LT-1 is a good engine for all the reasons Renegade says it is; there's not much question about that -- it's relatively inexpensive, it makes big horsepower, the parts are everywhere, and it is about as refined as an OHC V8 is going to get.  Great job, Chevrolet.  And it does a very good job as such.  But the Renegade people are not trying to maintain the originality of the car -- they're trying to give the owner of the car a chance to make it newly original -- a custom car, a special, a one-off.  They do a very good job at that, but there's a big difference between the two.  And really there shouldn't be much conflict, when you think about it.