If you've been sucked into Forza 2 lately as I have, then I'm sure you've encountered or been passed by a Lingenfelter 427 Corvette.  I was fortunate enough to not only take an extensive plant tour of their facility in Decatur Indiana, but get a great interview concerning their involvement in Forza 2.  Check it out!

(Also hosted on XboxAddict.com)

Lingenfelter Q&A, with Lingenfelter Sales Representative Kevin Jeffery

What can you tell me about Lingenfelter, more specifically about the late John Lingenfelter and a little of his background?
"Sure, this year is Lingenfelter's 26th anniversary John Lingenfelter had originally started in a small two to three bay garage, focusing on crate engines and it's what made his reputation. As John got into racing he was always known for horsepower, ran several different classes, dragsters, and pro-stock trucks. He got into the NHRA and had Summit as a sponsor, and built really nice campaign. After they got rid of the pro stock truck John got into the imports and the Chevy Cavalier. He did a 4-cylinder cavalier with 1400 horsepower and a single turbo. At the time it was Garrett's largest turbo available."

Why would a company like Lingenfelter be in Decatur Indiana?
"John was originally from Pennsylvania, moved to Decatur Indiana as an engineer for International Harvester in Fort Wayne. And that's the time John really got into turbo chargers on some of the semi's. He always had an interest in that, so it became something he grew a passion for outside of International Harvester and started living his dream. He was determined and nothing held him back, he made it happen."

In the plant tour you gave us today it was clearly evident how Lingenfelter goes above and beyond for it's customers. For those who weren't there, what were a couple of those things?
"The overall quality and craftsmanship, the attention to detail, and it's drive ability goes a long way for us. Other people out there can make a car with equal horsepower, but not the driveabiltiy. Our guys are meticulous in every detail, and they have to be. Our client el demand that type of service and our staff delivers just that. These are nice vehicles, they aren't doing just your average brake job, they take pride in what they do and treat every car as if it's their own."

Quite a few Lingenfelter cars have been featured in various media outlets such as Car and Driver. Any others?
"Car and Driver, Motor Trend, Auto Week and many others. We really try to focus on the bigger stories and articles. We always have something going on, but a good article with a great review can't be better for this company as far as advertising. We have a great word-of-mouth reputation as well, and the forums online have been very good for us. The forums can be good for us and sometimes not so good for us. It doesn't matter if you're Lingenfelter or Joe Down the Street, you'll always have critics. But where we set ourselves apart is taking care of anyone with a warranty issue, should one come up.

Forums can be dangerous territory for sure. The 2002 Lingenfelter Corvette 427 is featured in Forza 2. What other models are you known to work with?
"Mainly LS Series GM Rear-wheel V8 applications. That covers obviously the whole Corvette line, Camaro, Trans-Am, GTO, Cadallac CTS-V, any truck offered with a V8, the Escallade, Denalli's and so on. The trucks have been a great fill-in for the Camaro which isn't in production any more."

How has the import scene affected Lingnfelter's?
"Not much. The Corvette crowd is a huge, passionate crowd. Typically even on the foreign customers, a lot of times they will ask us to find a car for them and we'll put them in touch with a dealer for purchase."

How much money does the average person put into upgrades at Lingenfelter?
"Typically our upgrade packages range from about 8K to 250K. With our standard packages those run about 45K. The overall average is more realistically 25K. If someone can't afford the turbo package it's very common for them to select other options such as wheels, brakes, and other upgrades."


What are a few upgrades or modifications that are easily overlooked, but prove to be essential in maximum performance?
"Before the purchase we will make sure that all bases are covered, by a sales standpoint. We'll detail what all is possible, for what price, to make sure that the customer is fully aware of how they can maximize the performance of their car. We cover every option to make sure nothing gets missed."

Where does Lingenfelter perform its testing of vehicles for benchmarking purposes?
"We feature our own Dyno's in house for not only the engine itself but the chassis Dyno as well. It measures the power applied to the ground."

What is the highest amount of horsepower you've seen in a car from Lingenfelter?
"The car that we have now, we haven't released an official number yet, but I can tell you it's in the ballpark of 1500 horses at the crank. Another thing, it's hard to measure. When you get to that point in can become slightly inaccurate at the Dyno at the higher end. As far as Torque is concerned, at that HP range we're talking 1300 to 1400."

Is this street legal?
"Absolutely."

Does Lingenfelter feature any corporate partnerships in upgrades and tuning?
"No not really. All of our work is done in-house. It's nearly all exclusive. Of course there's hackers out there that can read our programming. It seems like there's someone out there who can hack anything..."

But then you're getting into the final touches and the customer service than Lingenfelter is known for, that someone else is going without.
"Exactly. We've got engineers in house who fine tune everything for each individual car. So each job is treated differently in that respect."

You had mentioned before that you were involved in the ASA and NHRA. Any others?
"Nothing anymore. The ASA had bankrupted. They contacted us once they got going overseas again, but since then we had built a small run of engines. From a racing league standpoint, no involvement really."

Lingenfelter is now represented in a completely new market to them, videogames. Specifically, Forza Motorsport 2 on the Xbox 360. What does this mean to a company like yours?
"This is huge for us. To see that they've done this in all types of games in this generation is huge, as this is becoming more and more mainstream than where it was in the past. I'm confident this will become a huge influence in the future. And maybe even some now. Most people don't call in and say they saw our car in a game and now they want one, but it broadens the awareness of the brand and even the upgrades available on our models. We're excited to be a part of this now and in the future."

Thanks for your time Kevin!
"Anytime."

You can see more of Lingenfelter's work at Lingenfelter.com.