Corvette Power for Sporty Solstice

Motoring Channel Staff - 24/11/2005

The tuning market for GM vehicles has just become a little larger with the release of the Solstice, a sporty 2-seat roadster.

Looking every bit the sports car, General Motors current status in America isn't the best it's ever been however. It has a 26 per cent market share, which is a huge amount of sales per year considering the size of the annual US auto market.

In 1962 however, before the Japanese became a force to be reckoned with, it had a 51 per cent market share.

General Motors North American operation has recently announced that it may close plants and sack up to 30,000 workers after posting a loss of $4 billion in US currency.

But despite its current woes the world's biggest automaker is still capable of manufacturing high quality vehicles. The Solstice is one such vehicle, a small 2-seater convertible that appears to have met with success in North America.

The car is powered by a fuel efficient 2.4-litre 4-cylinder engine driving the large 18-inch rear wheels and features four-wheel Bilstein independent suspension and a 50:50 weight distribution for confident MX-5/Miata-like handling.

But of more interest than the stock standard 132kW (177hp) model is the recently modified Mallett V8 Solstice, which features an 8-cylinder engine of more than double the capacity of the original 2.4-litre mill.

For $US18,000 on top of the cost of the original car, you can have all the horsepower of the Corvette slammed into the Pontiac Solstice, as Mallett explains.

The conversion gets you a number of heavy-duty upgrades, including a 400hp (298kW) LS2 V8 built by GM, which has a 6.0-litre capacity, dwarfing the original 2.4-litre engine. The engine develops 298kW @ 6000rpm and 542Nm @ 4400rpm.

Other upgrades that form part of the Mallett V8 conversion include an LS2 clutch, pressure plate, and flywheel, plus modified suspension (custom lowered shocks, new springs and control arm bushings) and a new muffler system from Corsa.

Mallett explains that its cars have been engineered as a complete package, with extensive track and street testing to assure that this car handles better than stock on road and track. The cars are complete from front to back using Genuine and Official Licensed products of GM with the stock OEM catalytic converters in place to assure state emission compliances.

Mallett Cars backs the compact (but immensely powerful) roadster with its own 2 year warranty, and has indicated that it will convert just 100 cars to ensure its desirability.

The company hasn't released 0-100km/h or top speed specs, but with V8 power the new Solstice is expected to be real rocket, and for those with even bigger bank accounts there's even a $US42,000 upgrade that includes a Vortech supercharger, and work is already underway on a turbocharged Mallett V8 Solstice.