[carpoor]

Neat car! I have only seen one in person - the Power Tour in 2006. What transmission is in your car?

[muscle_collector]

wow!!! never heard of them. I see that being scarey fast and possibly hard to control even more so than a viper.

[camerjeff]

Originally Posted by carpoor

Neat car! I have only seen one in person - the Power Tour in 2006. What transmission is in your car?

It is the stock 5-speed manual that was put in the Solstice, same trans as in the Colorado PU's the Aisin AR transmission. 1st gear is a steep 3.75 hooked to the 3.93 rear axle its not very useful.

The car is really fun, I drove it to work yesterday as it was dry and almost 50F and almost sunny, even went topless for the 1st time on the way home. I took surface streets on the way home to get a better driving impression of it in traffic. The engine is running much better, I ran the last of the old gas out of it and filled it up with fresh unleaded premium, the spark knock under hard acceleration is now gone. It is handful on damp roads, I don't know how much that is due to the stock Goodyear tires on it, they were never the best for traction and are now 11 years old. They will be replaced this spring.
As for handling it seems much more controllable than a 1st series Viper, that is the only model I have driven before. The conversion supposedly only adds 120lbs to the car and they do uprate the shocks and springs, add larger front & rear sway bars, and add Poly suspension bushings and trans mount, and a short throw shifter.
According to the Maint records it only had the tires rotated & Oil changed in the past, so I think new belts, hoses and coolant are due this winter. I also have to see what air filter it has in it. The previous owner never even had the 2 recalls done to it. But the Broker took care of those before I bought it. The PO did take care of it cosmeticly though. I also think it has a lot in common with my Greyhound dogs, it only seems to be happy at idle or 1/2 throttle or above, the couple times I short shifted it into 2nd or 3rd the engine started to surge, but if I opened it up some it smoothed out. That may be gas or tune related but I won't know for sure until this spring.
I only had 1 person notice what it was, the driver of a RX8 went to pass me when the road opened up to 2 lanes, pulled beside me hit the brakes pulled back behind me and started taking pic's or video for a minute or 2 than passed me with a big grin and thumbs up. the road went back to 1 lane in a couple of blocks and I saw him turn off. My odd Pontiac's don't normally get that reaction!
Unfortunatly a couple of cars will have to go. Including my 69 Sprint Firebird, as I get older I just do not enjoy driving it as much with no A/C on hot summer days. I am glad the timing worked out, a few weeks earlier and I could not have afforded it, a few weeks later and I could not drive it home, that and it was at a off season price, and only 3 hours drive away.