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A V8 swap into an S chassis isn’t a new concept. I remember sitting in high school, talking about cars with a friend when he brought up how his father was swapping a Chevy 350 small block into an S13. At the time (10 years ago), this was an intense concept to me, but at the same time it wasn’t. The car was planned to be built for drag racing. The owner wanted the confidence to know that the engine would not blow up when put under high amounts of stress, so he went with something that he knew. On the professional level for V8 engines, specifically the offerings from Chevrolet and Ford, some of the budget woes are removed. Sure, this isn’t the case for every driver on the pro level, but this is an area where sponsorships can be beneficial. Just looking at Chevy and Ford though, it can be argued that both manufacturers have been building some form of performance engine for the better part of fifty years. If direct from manufacturer performance is a little light on what
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is needed, there are countless shops that can provide additional performance to a V8 engine package in the United States. Some of the shops, such as Matt Powers’ sponsor Katech, have a rich history of their own. Katech’s résumé includes supplying engines to Pratt & Miller for the C6.R, every
LMP Challenge class car, and a few other high profile contributions to racing. With this level of pedigree in a competitor’s car, everyone else in the field steps up their efforts to have or build an engine that can perform similarly or better. Of course, this doesn’t entirely mean that everyone will run a V8. That would be silly. There are numerous