Workdawg
NARWHAL
I took a test drive of the above mentioned car today. I drove an MX-5 a few days ago, and was inspired to see what the competition has for it. The Solstice GXP, with 260hp sounded like it would be pretty fun.
Initial impressions were fine. I'm not a huge fan of the looks of the car, but hey, it's got 260hp. The trunk is all but non-existent when the top is down, and it's only a little better when the top is up. The glovebox is tiny, but of course there's a little hiding spot in between the seats. When I finally sat down, I found the rearview mirror seemed to block my vision out the front of the car. Coupled with the dealer plate the salesman put up against the windshield, I only had a couple inches of room in between the mirror and the plate. There appeared to be room to mount the mirror higher, I think that would have helped immensely.
On to the driving...
The wheels are fitted with some Eagle F1 GS-2 tires. Reviews seem mixed on tirerack about these tires. Saturn Sky-Redline owners sing it praises, but one review I found is very similar to my findings.
The Solstice comes equipped with a 5spd manual. The shifter has a short throw and it felt precise. The knob was a bit big, and it seemed to be mounted rather high for my tastes, but it worked. The clutch seemed to be lacking a lot of feel. Even when trying to give it a decent launch, I ended up bogging a bit more than taking off. The tires had no problem chirping a bit shifting into 2nd though.
The one thing the Solstice GXP has going for it, IMO, was the power. It didn't feel quite as raw as the MS3, but it was there. I didn't actually take it on the highway because of traffic, but I did take off a few times and it goes.
Overall, you'd have to offer me a lot better tires, and likely some upgraded suspension bits to get me to ever own one. The MX-5 was much more confident and fun to drive.
Initial impressions were fine. I'm not a huge fan of the looks of the car, but hey, it's got 260hp. The trunk is all but non-existent when the top is down, and it's only a little better when the top is up. The glovebox is tiny, but of course there's a little hiding spot in between the seats. When I finally sat down, I found the rearview mirror seemed to block my vision out the front of the car. Coupled with the dealer plate the salesman put up against the windshield, I only had a couple inches of room in between the mirror and the plate. There appeared to be room to mount the mirror higher, I think that would have helped immensely.
On to the driving...
The wheels are fitted with some Eagle F1 GS-2 tires. Reviews seem mixed on tirerack about these tires. Saturn Sky-Redline owners sing it praises, but one review I found is very similar to my findings.
It seemed almost anytime I took a corner at ANY speed higher than you might normally, the tires were scrubbing. I had the TCS set to "Competitive Mode" which might have had something to do with it, but the tires didn't hold on much at all. The traction control can't be blamed totally, it was still scrubbing even after letting off the gas. My driving of the MX-5 kept coming back to me. In the Miata, and DrWebster can back me up on this, the car was hugging the road like Ivan's mom hugging a Big Mac. I took the MX-5 out for quite the driving and only had the tires complaining a couple of times. I was able to pay more attention to the body roll, which was extremely well contained, than to whether I was going to lose traction. The same cannot be said for the Solstice GXP. I honestly can't remember even thinking about body roll because I was concentrating on keep the car on the road too much. At one point, I took a left-hand turn at a stoplight, stepped on the gas a bit at about the apex of the turn, and the back-end broke free; only for a second, but it did. The MX-5 handled the same type of maneuver like a champ.guy on tirerack said:
The Solstice comes equipped with a 5spd manual. The shifter has a short throw and it felt precise. The knob was a bit big, and it seemed to be mounted rather high for my tastes, but it worked. The clutch seemed to be lacking a lot of feel. Even when trying to give it a decent launch, I ended up bogging a bit more than taking off. The tires had no problem chirping a bit shifting into 2nd though.
The one thing the Solstice GXP has going for it, IMO, was the power. It didn't feel quite as raw as the MS3, but it was there. I didn't actually take it on the highway because of traffic, but I did take off a few times and it goes.
Overall, you'd have to offer me a lot better tires, and likely some upgraded suspension bits to get me to ever own one. The MX-5 was much more confident and fun to drive.
