Project Solstice: '07 GXP build

More pictures!

chiodos wrote: More pictures!

Will post more once I get the tires mounted up and test fit on the car. I'm going to need some spacers on the back so that the wheels clear the lower a-arms.

Dang, that's a lot of wheel. I don't know much about the Solstice (other than its general desirability) - can they swallow a lot of rubber without much modification?

Acme Lab Rat wrote: Dang, that's a lot of wheel. I don't know much about the Solstice (other than its general desirability) - can they swallow a lot of rubber without much modification?

You can fit up to a 275/35-18 with no real issues if you have 18x9.5 wheels with the appropriate offset. The front wheel wells have tons of room, but the back is a tighter fit due to the shape of the upper a-arm. These 18x11 wheels are specifically for autocross and will have 295/30 A6s on them for now, but moving up to 315/30 next year. They will stick out, but that's OK.

Here's a pic (not my car) of the same size wheel with 315/30 A6s:

OK, sorry it took so long but here are some additional pics. The wheels came with a set of 26mm hub-centric spacers for the rear so that the wheels would clear the upper a-arm (to deep and the trailing leg of the UAA contacts the wheel). I found that 26mm was a good bit more than was needed and was able to go down to 22mm and still have a comfortable amount of clearance.

After finally running an event with these wheels/tires, all I can say is that the grip is HUGE! So much better than with those tires mounted on stock 18x8 width wheels.

Here's what they look like with the 295/30 Hoosiers mounted:

Here's the wheels/tires mounted up with the spacer at the original thickness

And lastly, how it looks all mounted up and ready to go with the 22mm spacers in the rear

Holy beefcake tires Batman! Looks great. Always had a softspot for these beasts.

What is the P/N of the Vectra brake resevoir? I would like to pick one up for my Solstice as well.

automobiliben wrote: What is the P/N of the Vectra brake resevoir? I would like to pick one up for my Solstice as well.

Sorry for not replying sooner...either thread notifications don't work or I don't have them set up correctly :(

Anyway, the part number for the Vectra M/C reservoir is 32067070-1. You can find them on eBay from several different UK breakers, but the one I got the part from was Derby Vauxhall Spares.

Good luck!

Good news / bad news today. Good news is that the weather is absolutely beautiful in the great PNW and conditions couldn't be better for the first SCCA auto-x of the season. Bad news is that the battery in the GXP appears to have totally taken dump and I didn't discover this until getting everything prepped this morning to drive to the venue. Crap. I guess I can't complain too much since the battery is original to the car and is nearly 10 years old at this point.

What to do now? Replace the heavy-ass stock battery with a lightweight unit of course!

Thanks to Amazon I have a Battery Tender BTL35A480C LiFePO4 battery on the way (480CCA, 3.75lbs). I added the Battery Tender Green Lithium Junior charger to the order, so I'll be able to keep the battery topped up between event weekends. This should get me going again as well as drop 30+ pounds from the car.

Getting to the battery on this beast is not a simple affair...you have to remove the pax-side fender to get the stock battery out. I have the stocker out and will need to fab up a new mount for the smaller battery, but that should be a pretty simple job.

More to come next week!

New battery is in...!

I went back and forth a few times about whether to mount if upright or flat, and as soon as I had decided to mount it flat I discovered that the brass terminal posts I had picked up to use with the battery wouldn't fit that way. Upright it is.

First things first, since it comes only 70% charged I let it top off connected to the charger.

Plenty of room to spare on the mounting platform

I used a length of 1/8" thick aluminum angle as a side brace to keep if blocked in. There is a lip on the back side of the tray that serves to hold the other side. There also happened to be available holes that were perfect for some lengths of 5/16" threaded rod and that were just the right distance apart to use for hold-downs. Serendipity! I put a flanged nut on the ends of the threaded rod, pushed them up through the holes and then used long threaded standoff nuts to secure them to the tray. An 8" length of Simpson Strong-Tie strap with holes drilled in the right spot and secured by wing nuts keeps the battery from floating away.

Everything bolted down, buttoned up, and connected.

Started up on the first try!

What a terrible location for access, but I suppose it centralizes mass.

New (to me) tires! Picked up a lightly-used set of 315/30-18s today. Looking forward to even moar grip

Nice action shot from this past weekend...