The Pontiac Solstice has been the rare ray of sunshine in General Motors' winter of discontent. The Wilmington, Delaware, plant is working three shifts and Saturdays keeping up with Kappa-car demand, now stretching beyond Pontiac and Saturn (Sky) to Opel (GT) and Daewoo (G2X). Andrew Aquilante drove a Solstice to a podium finish in its SCCA showroom stock debut, and slideways champion Rhys Millen is hanging tail in a Red Bull-sponsored Solstice drifter. Tuners, including GM's own Performance Division, are juicing Solstice engine bays with hot V-8s like it's a reincarnated 1932 Ford.
The best news is that the turbo edition, rumored from Kappa's birth and affirmed at this year's Los Angeles auto show, is ready to motor beyond Mazda's MX-5 to play in the performance-roadster league. Tested here first, the ripped 2007 Solstice GXP packs 260 hp and 260 lb-ft. The only powertrain carryover is cylinder count. Revised 2.0-liter block, head, crank, rod, and piston architecture is force-fed with direct-injected fuel and turbocharged-and-intercooled air.
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