1994
“Well, the Swift isn’t… It’s not quite what the people want. Sure, the sedan and the wagon didn’t do too badly, but the sweepback was easily the worst of the lot.” Andrea said.
“Sounds like the perfect time, then. Let’s put the Sport back into Sport Utility Vehicle.” Luke replied. “Take the Swift Sport’s V10, plop it into the '92 Stampede chassis.”
While the gas mileage sucked, and Sinistra’s second generation of the AWD transaxle still wasn’t great, the Stampede did have a bit of a nasty surprise for people thinking it was just some mundane pile of junk, in the form of that 460 horsepower V10.
The V10 was completed late in 1988, and was constructed by taking a Sinistra 5.2 liter V8, cutting it in half, and adding in a pair of cylinders from the Sinistra 3.9 liter V6’s creation. The most powerful of Sinistra’s L-Series engines, this V10 didn’t last real long in the company lineup, mostly due to the cast-iron construction.
As for the drivetrain, the Stampede runs 60% of the power to the front wheels, due to the design being built around Sinistra’s longitudinal transaxle. In the end, the Stampede V10 was a brutal solution to flagging sales of Sinistra’s station wagons.