[LittleHoov]

First thing that popped into my head is that the 3.5 isnt a Northstar engine, it is derived from that line yes, but is not considered a Northstar engine perse. It was derived from the 4.0 V8 in the Aurora, which in turn was derived from the Northstar line. So its kind of a kissing cousin. If GM wanted it to be considered a N* engine, you can bet they wouldve added badging and decals like they did to everything else. It was supposed to be the first in a line of "Premium V6" engines. Which was never successful for several reasons. One would obviously be a lack of sales, two would be a combination of price/performance of manufacturing. The Shortstar was more expensive to produce, with minimal power gains over the existing 3.8 engine. A 3rd reason would be driveability. The 3.8 has a much lower,torquier powerband up to 4k rpms or so, the area in which the vast majority of drivers spend there throttle time. As we know, up until somewhere in that range the 3.5 can seem somewhat underwhelming, and thats in a car that weighs only around 3500 pounds. There was talk of putting the 3.5 into the new line of cars coming out such as the 00+ Bonneville which tips the scales at over 4k pounds. An extra 5-600 pounds isnt going to improve the feeling the car has no performance.

I think the next thing you have to consider is displacement versus power, and also how well does it propel the car its in. The 3.5 puts out enough power to squelch its competition which consisted of high performance vehicles like the Toyota Camry (sarcasm), but lets face it, its a high 15 second car at most, thats decent for a fun to drive factor, but not quite "quick" in most peoples books.

If you want to compare it to other V6 engines, how about the Nissan VQ35? The same displacement but with 265 hp and 255 lb ft of torque. In a car the weighs about the same as ours. Gearing aside, its not uncommon at all for a bone stock Maxima to break into the 14s, and for the Altima SE-R to break WELL into the 14s, what most start to consider "quick". I dont know if it requires premium gas or not, but I would be more inclined to call that a performance engine than a 3.5.

I will agree that the 3.5 is a well designed and well built engine, extremely reliable as far as the engine itself goes. Its built solid with high quality internals like powder-coated pistons, etc. But its hp vs displacement numbers arent exactly impressive. I also dont see many Intrigues and Auroras blazing down the track and making people go "wow, i didnt expect that".

It may sound a lot like im bashing my own engine, which im really not, I just realize what it is, I know it has a ton of potential, but with no aftermarket readily available, Im not willing to spend thousands of dollars on custom parts to maybe creep into the 14s. That would be impressive yes, but in my book, ill just go spend less, get a car that already runs 14s, then buy some parts to make it even quicker.