The seller didn’t include loads of information in this eBay listing, but it’s a 1-of-110 2009 Pontiac Solstice GXP coupe with a manual transmission and black finish and only 19,534 miles. What else do we really need to know?
If you’re a Pontiac enthusiast, or a big fan of the Solstice, you probably already know how exclusive this coupe is. To put it in perspective for those who don’t, it’s sort of like GM’s version of the Mazda Miata, but with more power. Under the hood is a 2.0L turbocharged Ecotec four-cylinder motor with an output of 265 horsepower.
The seller claims that this particular coupe was covered and stored in the garage, and that it includes a soft top with a value of $1,000. The seller is t the second owner, and they have owned it since it had only 100 miles on it. It’s safe to say that this is the car to get if you were looking for a limited production Solstice GXP coupe. At the highest bid $19,906, this rare bird didn’t sell.
Comments
Aaaand… its gone. And for only 20k!
=(
Perfect for a 2JZ.
There have only been a few 2JZ conversions. Frankly the LNF is good for up to 500 horsepower… and the Kappa team made sure they could at least hack in a Corvette LS3, even if it voided GM protocol and specifications. That’s why so many V8’s exist.
One GM engineer actually reprogrammed a CTS-V ECM and not only put in an LSA, but got the entire 2nd Gen CTS dashboard functional inside it.
I have nothing against the LNF, a guy in my area had one done up but then swapped the 2JZ in. Made it look easy, I guess they were able to use the factory transmission. It’s pushing 600+ hp. I’m a V8 guy but I’m kinda in a weird 2JZ faze now. Plus LS3s in my are are big bucks.
F Toyota.
Mallet offers a turn key LS or LT engine in these that is sorted out to factory levels. It is more power than the car can put down and light.
Even the LNF can much more than the 600 HP with no massive changes. At 400 HP you need rods and pistons and around 600 HP a crank but the block and heads can go to 1,000 easy. Lingenfelter used a stock head to 1500 with no issues before it cracked in his pro stock truck.
So 500-600 in a LNF is not hard to do and very streetable. The V8 can deliver more than the car could ever really use.
F Toyota? Why, the car could car less what engine is in it. I think he swapped it for like 6K then sold the GM long block. 2JZ isn’t even close to tapped out at 600hp.
I care as I do not mix brands, It is my pet peeve like it or not. Also you are not going to get any more out of the car 600 HP+ anyways be it a LS or 2JZ unless you make some major changes to the car.
Bigger numbers mean little if you can put it to the ground anyways.
I could put an Allison V12 in it to but what is the point?
Well it works well that’s all I know, I wouldn’t race him I know that.
General Motors was desperate back when the Solstice was proposed and it’s unlikely that GM would even consider allowing anyone to build a sporty 2-seat coupe on a shorten Alpha platform capable of using every engine from the 275 hp LTG 2.0L DOHC-4v 4-cyl turbo to the 640 hp LT4 supercharged 6.2L V8 unless it’s a request possibly from Cadillac to build a new flagship.
The Solstice and Sky did not exist out of “desperation” – they existed for several factors. The Wimington plan was going to be idled, at great cost for GM… but there were other more profitable cars that could have gone there (including a GM-Fiat Premium Buick).
But at the end of the day, it existed because Bob Lutz wanted a sequel for the Opel GT, and Rick Wagoner wanted a baby Corvette. Ahem, Mark?
Actually there was an air of desperation here. Lutz intent was to save Pontiac but he had no budget to do it. When he arrived Pontiac was a dead man walking and GM had no money to fix it.
Bob wanted to get RWD back into the division that claimed to be the Performance division but out side the GTP GP there was nothing.
The GTO was his attempt to replace the FIrebird with no budget. It was done at such a low cost because he had nothing to spend. That is why the styling remained old and we did not get hood scoops till the second year.
The Solstice was to have done like the Fiero and generate dealer traffic and attention to Pontiac to help Bob buy time to try to get other products into the dealers like the G8 and other ideas he had.
The real issue was he just flat ran out of time. Things were bad at Pontiac for years and they had been just hanging on. The Fiero, Grand Am and TA saved them in the 80’s from the fate Olds had. Pontiac really was the one on the bubble in 82.
Pontiac did try to do with the Kappa what they needed to do with the Fiero and better sort the car out and share it. It had many off the shelf parts from a GP, Envoy, CTS etc. But it suffered from no trunk and others issues on space because of the compromised budget.
The Buick was never in the cards. They were lucky to get what they did. I had a long talk with Fred Simmons of Pontiac back at this time and also sat with Scott Settlmire of GM to discuss some of the things going on and they spoke frankly on the issues back then that never were made public,
Even if Pontiac had not died I expect the Solstice would have dies soon anyways. GM did not have the money to bring a 2nd gen in as they had greater needs in volume models. Also most 2 seat cars get 5-10 year runs and that is about it. Even some great names like RX7 and others did not live on. The Vette and Miata are two of the rare acceptations for long lives in the 2 seat field. A GM marketing manager pointed this out. They have limited audiences and at lower cost lower volumes are hard to make money.
Sports cars a a whole are generally expensive not because of what they are but because how few they sell. They are generally never profit centers so they rank low on the needs list because of this.
And there was also a Buick version we looked at. Was not premium enough for Buick.
I’m not sure a Buick Kappa ever really got off the ground. I’m sure there were sketches, and maybe a clay or two. You might be thinking of the Buick Velite, which was actually a Zeta platform car… the only Zeta convertible.
The official Kappa concepts were the Chevy Nomad, Saturn Curve (2+2 sedan, later cancelled in favor of the Sky/Opel GT), Torana TT36 (which was a modified Kappa), and the Saab Aero-X (which GM never officially confirmed as Kappa, but was designed to be built at Wilmington, and was an AWD Kappa)… Along with the original Solstice, of course.
I worked st Buick them. Product manager. Not my program though. It was a full size clay model. All 3 were in for lutz approval.
Ahem, anyone that has a photo of said aforementioned clay model can submit it *anonymously* to:
https://christopherprice.net/contact-me
🙂