More cars that never were.....But we wish they'd been built!!

Automotive engineers often come up with way cool packages for existing models and often their killed by the bean-counters or inter-office politics, or just plain jealousy between engineering teams. Here's a few that I wish had come to pass. # 1. 1970 LS6 Camaro and Nova SS. Originally, the monster LS6 454 was slated to be an option on the Camaro and Nova. Since a 396 was already an option on these cars, it would have dropped right in. In fact, even though Chevelles had the domed "Cowl Induction" hood, production LS6's had a flat intake manifold that cost it 15 hp compared to the 1969 Corvette 427 4bbl manifold. This was to clear the low hoodline of the new-for-1970 Camaro. Ultimately the brass decided to only offer it in the Chevelle line. Which brings up...#2. 1970 LS7 Corvette. The reason the only 454 available in '70 Corvettes was the "station wagon" Q-jet equipped, hydraulic-cammed LS5 is Zora-Arkus Duntov, Cheif Corvette engineer, never put the LS6 on the option list, because he fully expected the much more radical LS7-( Basically all the vaunted L88 427 compnents on a 454 block- 12.25:1 compression instead of 11:1, and with "off-road: L88 427 cam in place of the relatively mild L78 396 cam that was in the LS6 ) to make production. It was killed at the last minute by the brass, which is why the LS6 wasn't available in the 'Vette until 1971.  # 3. 1973 SD-455 Pontiac  GTO, Grand Am and Gran Prix. Originally, the SD-455 was supposed to be an option on all the "A" bodies as well. It was even listed in early 1973 sales literature, but ultimately was only installed in the Firebird line.  # 4. 1974 400 Ventura GTO. When the decision was made to put the GTO on the "X" body ( read Nova ) line, the engineers wanted to take the Goat back to it's roots-a big engine in a light car that's a stripped-down badass. Since the 350 Pontiac was already an option, a 400 would have dropped right in. However, the Trans-Am was now the flagship, and a 400 powered Ventura that weighed 3,278 lbs would blow the doors off a 3,830 lb T/A even if it did have an SD-455. The brass couldn't have that, so the downsized Goat got a 350 that wheezed out maybe 200 hp. # 5. 1977 Hurst / Olds. Since the "A" bodies-Chevelle, Cutlass,LeMans, Monte Carlo, etc were slated to be down-sized for 1978, some Olds engineers and George Hurst decided to have a "Last Hurrah". The car was slated to be silver and black like the 1968 original, and have a 455 with a TH400 with a 2,500 rpm converter, and a 3.42 posi rear end as well as F41 suspension, swivel buckets, digital tach, and funcional ram air. When the 455 was dropped at the end of 1976, they actually built a prototype with a 403, but the brass killed that too. Shame.  Any of these cars would have been way cool. Mastermind.