what if the Enterprise lost her saucer section between TMP and TWOK?

[captain_obvious]

the excelsiors transwarp drive (bear in mind thats on the 23rd centurary warp scailing) would probably run at the same speed as 1701-D going at warp 5 in the 24th centurary which would mean it would have run ok if Scotty hadnt sabotaged it, and it would only be .1 of a arp factor faster than the big E's max warp speed in the 23rd centurary.

I thought it was canon that the Excelsior would have gone *boom* if she' hadn't been sabotaged.  Where I heard it I can't remember..
Damn it, this is going to bug me for hours!

[majormagna]

No, that's a common fanon explanation. I'm still convinced the 'transwarp' drive on the USS Excelsior was the forerunner to the TNG warp drive; which, as we see in TNG: Relics, is substantially different to the TMP era (or even The Lost Era) Warp Drives. Enough-so to cause concern with Mr. Scott regarding the Dilithium Crystals.

[captain_obvious]

No, that's a common fanon explanation. I'm still convinced the 'transwarp' drive on the USS Excelsior was the forerunner to the TNG warp drive; which, as we see in TNG: Relics, is substantially different to the TMP era (or even The Lost Era) Warp Drives. Enough-so to cause concern with Mr. Scott regarding the Dilithium Crystals.

What about worf adoptive father? He was always banging on about the "old excelsior class" and how different the engines on the D were. 
Wait, never mind.  They did rip the old engine out of the excelsior and fit a "standard" warp drive in there didn't they? Maybe that's why :/

[Killallewoks]

No, that's a common fanon explanation. I'm still convinced the 'transwarp' drive on the USS Excelsior was the forerunner to the TNG warp drive; which, as we see in TNG: Relics, is substantially different to the TMP era (or even The Lost Era) Warp Drives. Enough-so to cause concern with Mr. Scott regarding the Dilithium Crystals.

You know that would make more sense, computers would have been far more advanced so the regualtion of the power flow and wot not would have meant the engines wouldv'e worked and some other advances. I like to think that the engines on an Ambassador class are the pinnacle of TMP warp technology, effiecient warp coils and powerful warp core. Then the Galaxy project turned all of that on its head and re wrote the books.

[ACES_HIGH]

What about worf adoptive father? He was always banging on about the "old excelsior class" and how different the engines on the D were. 
Wait, never mind.  They did rip the old engine out of the excelsior and fit a "standard" warp drive in there didn't they? Maybe that's why :/

again, that's fanon, the fate of the "great experiment" has never been explained in canon or even soft canon to my knowledge.  I prefer the theory Majormagna brought up.  If the drive was such a failure it wouldn't have made it to large scale prototype testing, Starfleet's engineers can't be that inept.