The Harrop air-to-liquid intercooler...
The Harrop air-to-liquid intercooler reservoir is barely visible, but does a very effective job of keeping inlet air temperatures under control.
Brian wheeled the Solstice onto Telegraph Road, heading north to the Jeffries Freeway, better known as Route 96. Merging into the eastbound lane, I could tell that the throttle was hypersensitive, certainly understandable with the huge reserve of torque. A quick stab of the accelerator and the Solstice whizzed past the century mark in just a few seconds. It was exhilarating, but what came next was so much better.
We exited at the first available off-ramp and turned around. Brian took a left onto the westbound on-ramp and stood on it. The rush of acceleration was like nothing I have ever experienced-this car was even quicker than the Daytona Prototype Riley Pontiac I rode in a few years ago. By the time we merged back onto Route 96, we were accelerating at a rate normally reserved for departing aircraft.
Conclusion
Looking back on it, the experience was a very loud blur. The scenery flashed past me so fast I could barely comprehend it. The sound was beyond deafening, and that sensation of being pinned back in a seat that hard was something I hadn't anticipated. As explosively as it began, the sensation was over. I regained my composure, Brian settled back to a normal freeway speed and we returned to the shop. I laughed nervously, like I had just robbed a bank and actually got away with it.
Without a doubt, though, the Thomson Automotive supercharged LSX Solstice is an easy 9-second car, if, of course, it was fitted with a rollcage and the suspension was dialed in, slicks were added, and the gearing was optimized. Who knows, with the original cam back in it, it could probably dip into the eights. The thing, is, that's not what this car is all about.
"Putting a rollcage in this car would ruin it," Brian says. "The Solstice isn't very roomy to begin with, and adding a cage would make it even more cramped. You'd also lose the open-air feeling. I didn't want this to be a race car," he explained. "This car was built to showcase what we could do with the LSX engine. I love that I can take this car out and know that nothing on the street is going to be quicker." He added, "I love hitting the on-ramps with this thing!"
Brian believes that the Pontiac Solstice will soon become the V-8 Vega of the 21st century. "When these cars start hitting the used car market, hot-rodders will be buying them and swapping in V-8s," he explains. "Most people don't realize there's room to fit a V-8 in the engine compartment. That wasn't accidental."
Even though the decades-long rivalry between Chevy and Pontiac has prevented the Solstice from being the Corvette pounder it could have been from the factory, Brian Thomson has shown there's no reason why the little two-seaters can't find their true calling after some massaging.