There is a European team that campaigned a V8 Viper by disabling 2 cylinders in the V10 block, and they did pretty good. The Vipers were dominate so the other manufacturers got the rules adjusted to slow them down and the team found loopholes to keep competing, and winning, with the Vipers.
Just seems like an avenue that was never really explored and I wonder what could have happened. Maybe they couldn't have competed with the LS, but it was an inline valve all aluminum monster that might have given it a run for the money.