In 1995 (at a AMC car show in St Louis) I met, and split a hotel room with a Chrysler Engineer who was on "Team Prowler". He wound up being responsible for the cowl design, and I think the rear quarter area as well.
We stayed up until 2:00 AM discussing the Prowler, and I tried my best to make a point of how important a V8 was to the project.
He finally admitted, it would be nice, but there just wasn't enough room for a V8. I told him, that it would take any independent car customizer about a week to transplant Chryslers V6 with a V8.
Again he agreed but said Chrysler wouldn't hear of it, and I guess as they say, The rest is history.
It's a way cool car, and performs well, especially the later model ones.
Yet I was able to pull a bright yellow one thru 1st. and 2nd. with my XF (on Woodward a couple years ago) before the guy shut it down.
Still, you got to hand it to Chrysler for having the guts to build something that radical.