Yah the "heart and soul..." I know, I know. In this case though it still holds some vestige of what a Z is: A performance machine.
If it were a bastardized Z with a 3' wide body then the purist could come in and argue about the "essence of being" a z, and I'd support em'. Just because the motors not a VG doesn't mean that it is no longer a Z in this case. I could see if it were a full tube chassis car with a fiberglass body. Is a 240sx (s13/s14) no longer a 240 if a VG30 is put into it? One could say "Well its still a Nissan motor..." so the basis is the same. The VG is a "newer" motor so one could say the small block is old and "archaic" that is fine, just because some thing is old, does not mean it is no longer effective. Time has been kind to the small block, and the performance market relies on technology just as much as we do in the Z community. While that motor is not immediately associated with the Z32, it is a part of the Z on a greater level. It is breed from the aspiration to be the best. Here there is a merger of two seemingly different worlds that are in reality closer than they appear. The motor may be different but the pursuit is still the same. In this case the end result is not so far out that the car looses what it is. The motor is just one part of what makes the Z great, as big a part that may be. Then again I tend to read to deep into things...
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08:41:30 09/25/05
