Hey, how about that big talk about turbo emplacement beating motor displacement? Whoa, easy there pardner, the red on your neck is glowing. As we were about to say, with the motor and fuel ready for massive amounts of boost, GM Racing called on Precision Turbo for a specially built GT25 fan. Bolted up to a Hahn manifold, in-house custom intercooler piping, intake manifold and GM throttle body, boost pressure from the ball-bearing turbo is regulated via a HKS wastegate and relieved through an Innovative blow-off valve. A Weldon fuel pump fed to a custom GM Racing fuel rail and 160 lb/hr injectors are in charge of spraying the boost-friendly E85 ethanol to the combustion chamber, while an MSD ignition and sparkplug wires hooked up to NGK sparkplugs light the mixture. A FAST ECU and Innovative boost controller manage fuel and boost while cooling duties for extended track runs are handled by an air-to-water intercooler and C&R Racing radiator.
Think it's still missing some of the "wow" factor making it Formula D championship-worthy? For you naysayers, a full line of Sparco gear in the cabin including Pro 2000 seats, 215 steering wheel, and shift knob along with Stack gauges, custom dash and aluminum work from Roush should push you over the edge. If not, the House of Kolor's Magic Blue Pearl and Mean Yellow, applied by The Paint Shop, laced with graphics designed by RMR, Kristina Biane and Modern Image should. That and the dry-carbon 3D2-GT wing from Rotora makes the Solstice look like a winner standing still.
As of press time, Rhys has yet to debut the Solstice on the Formula D proving grounds. "The car is competitive and we've already proven in testing that it's quicker than the GTO, but it's taking a lot more for me to drive it that quick and I need the car to be fail-safe for me personally. I want to bring this car out and have it just run circles around any other car." Judging from the development, specs, and Rhys' mad skills, it looks like the Solstice will do more than just that-it ought to drift, charge, howl, and literally smoke the competition.
So how much does this Ecotec motor actually make? Ahh, now you're onto something. Surprisingly, the turbocharged four is putting out horsepower and torque figures on par with the V-8. Feel free to close any gaping jaws before we describe how. Built by GM Racing, the Ecotec motor in Rhys' Solstice is similar to those found in six-second drag cars. Starting with the head, GM Racing ported the runners for enhanced flow and stuffed it with their camshafts and sprockets, Ferrea valves, PSI valve springs, and Trick titanium retainers. On the bottom end, GM Racing mated slightly-bigger-than-stock JE pistons and Manley rods, connecting them to a crankshaft from Bryant Racing, and bumping up the displacement to 2.02L. With the motor ready, the long block was assembled and capped off with a GM valve cover and Bates Engineering oil pan. Counter-intuitive to turbo logic, the motor's new compression ratio was bumped up from 9.2:1 to 9.72:1, reason being GM's choice of E85 for fuel (see sidebar for more on this mysterious gas).