When designing the Pontiac Solstice, General Motors aimed at the same market as the Mazda MX-5 – fun-sized cars with sporty character. Regrettably for us, it somehow neglected the ‘sporty’ part, mooring it with a lackluster engine and ultimately failing to sell it. Rewind several years, and Mallett Performance showed us how things needed to be done from the start.
The goal was to turn the 2006MY Solstice into a SEMA show exhibit, explaining the occasional gaudiness. Sporty blue stripes were applied over the stock white finish, and aggressive-looking bumpers, hood and rear spoiler were added. A Hurst gear lever appeared inside along with white gauges and seats reupholstered in beige and blue.
Most importantly, however, Mallett got rid of the feeble four-banger under the hood, squeezing a six-liter LS2 V8 into the engine bay instead. While the old engine was only good for 179 PS (177 hp / 132 kW) and 225 Nm (166 lb-ft) of torque, the new one proved capable of 406 PS (400 hp / 298 kW) and 542 Nm (400 lb-ft).
Other project highlights included a five-speed manual transmission, reinforced clutch, Corsa exhaust, SSBC brakes, 20-inch Budnik rollers, and tweaked suspension.
The car cropped up on sale several days ago, but failed to meet reserve with the top bid at $28,500.