Inside the 2026 Pontiac Solstice, the $20K Roadster GM Had to Get Right
We drive the engineering work going into GM’s $20,000 rear-drive roadster.
Kevin SmithWriterMotorTrend ArchivesPhotographerMar 27, 2026
[This story originally appeared in the June 2004 issue of MotorTrend.] We asked for it and we got it: a good-handling Solstice. Well, actually we got a drive in some engineering test mules. But by all indications, the production versions of this new-for-2006 Pontiac roadster will feel appropriately lithe and entertaining to drive. Just what we were after. We previously asserted that GM and its chief car guy, Bob Lutz, were taking on a major challenge of packaging, chassis development, and ergonomics in presenting the Solstice to the world.
A small, open-air, two-seat roadster absolutely must be lively and responsive in the driver’s hand. It has to have balance and polish, feel compliant as well as stable, perform in a spirited fashion regardless of its actual test numbers, and generally possess a loveable character.
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A Mazda Miata delivers this package, and if the world’s largest car maker, with all its vast engineering resources, were to come up short, no one would even care why it happened. Shared componentry? Shortage of development time? Trying to hold to a price point? Looking for the widest possible audience? We’ve heard all the excuses, and they won’t wash this time. A coupe or sedan that doesn’t come out quite as sporty as promised is just a mild disappointment; a roadster that misses is a disaster and an embarrassment. Like an Italian restaurant with no garlic in the kitchen: Why bother?
Mr. Lutz pushed the design staff to get the Solstice on display at the Detroit show in 2002, shortly after he arrived at the corporation. Two years later, at Detroit this last January, Pontiac announced its intent to bring Bob’s roadster to market in the fall of 2005 as a 2006 model. A lot happened between those two auto shows, and a lot still has to happen before the car heads for America’s driveways. But we have now had a glimpse of the Solstice as a work in progress and talked to the people who are making it feel and drive the way it will, and we’re encouraged.
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First Drive, Even in Rough Form
We drove two cars undergoing testing on the twisty, bumpy lanes of southern England. They were frankly way too rough to be fair representations of the finished product. But the mechanical systems underpinning them gave us some sense of what’s coming and made clear what the development team is focusing on as the car takes shape.
Case in point, and a hugely important one: steering feel. Basic componentry of the system, from the steering wheel to the tire footprints, has been settled. But there’s a lot of tuning going on still, which can involve rigidity of mounts and bushing hardness, geometry, and especially power-assist characteristics.
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The Solstice mules had a taut, almost hydraulic sense on center, and the car responded sweetly and cleanly to major and minor inputs from the driver. However, there was little buildup of effort in the wheel as cornering loads increased. Consciously or not, a driver depends on that force feedback to judge what’s happening at the tire contact patches. You want the perceived load at the steering wheel to build as the front tires work harder. Then when front-tire slip angles exceed the ideal maximum and grip begins to fall off in an incipient slide, the perceived weight in the wheel will start to drop as well. The alternative is that nasty artificial feel of video-game controllers, lacking tactile feedback. You can steer a vehicle that way, but it doesn’t arouse much passion.
With start of Solstice production still a year away, that vagueness in the steering wheel matters less than the Solstice team’s awareness of it. We discussed it with Steve Padilla, chief development engineer, and he acknowledged they’re playing with the power assist to get force buildup where they want it. So that issue seems well in hand, and we’ll assume that the Solstice steering will be better overall than it is now. And it doesn’t need much to be great.
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Another critical example: structural integrity, or at least the impression of rigidity. Small, open cars—or any automobile without a roof—can flex and twist and bend in ways that affect handling performance (because suspension pieces don’t have a stable platform to work from) and perceived quality. The Solstice should be okay here, but again, the engineering mules couldn’t tell us for sure.
Their body panels were just rough approximations of the real things, lashed up to cover the guts to make the vehicles street drivable. Ultimately, the Solstice will have accurately produced sheet-hydroformed panels, properly fitted together and attached to the structure, with normal sound-deadening materials. In the meantime, though, the test mules were clattery, with bodywork flexing, rubbing, and making a racket. Under the circumstances, we couldn’t judge how solid the production cars might feel, but we didn’t identify any handling deficiencies attributable to chassis flex.
Since the Kappa platform beneath the Solstice was conceived and designed for this application first, it doesn’t depend on the egg-like enclosure of a body-with-roof for its rigidity. Termed a lower-dominant structure, Kappa has all its beef in the floor, using a pair of sturdy hydroformed framerails running literally bumper to bumper and a stamped central tunnel welded in as a structural element. To this robust foundation attaches a fully independent suspension of lightweight aluminum control arms and uprights with coil-over dampers. Combined with the targeted 52/48-percent front/rear weight distribution, this layout should give the Solstice an athletic feel, and indeed the mules we drove were quick and light on their feet. Primary ride was good, with plenty of compliance, yet there’s a taut, feel-the-pavement-texture sensation as well.
A Promising Foundation
Sporty as it feels, the Solstice isn’t a little car, exactly. Expected to weigh close to 2,900 pounds, its 71.6-inch overall width falls merely one inch short of a C6 Corvette’s (two inches shy of a C5’s), and a Vette is big by sports-car standards. Cockpit space and comfort benefit from this wide stance, as do handling dynamics.\nADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW\nBut the Solstice feels different, and certainly more expansive, than a Miata in the way it surrounds its driver. Especially because you sit low relative to the beltline and fender tops, there’s a sense of being well down inside the car, and taller drivers will feel more protected than in a Miata. Top-down wind management also benefits from this low positioning; a six-foot driver feels minor buffeting atop the head, but can easily carry on a conversation.\n\nThe Verdict (So Far)\nThough the interior, trunk, and top mechanisms on these cars were nowhere near production-intent, we could draw a few conclusions. The soft top looks best folded away under the rear decklid. The full-manual process to stow it involves popping and lifting the rear-hinged lid, unlatching and collapsing the top, tucking it away and clicking the lid back down. You must do it from outside the car, but it’s easy enough. What little luggage space the trunk offers, about four cubic feet, drops by half when the top stuffs into it. And there isn’t much useful stowage space inside the cockpit (nothing behind the seats), though the team is working on that.\n\nWhat else could we learn from driving these mules? The powertrain feels fine, if not dazzling. A new 2.4-liter version of GM’s Ecotec four (DOHC, four valves per cylinder, and variable valve timing) delivers decent thrust, crisp response, and a suitably raspy voice above 4,000 rpm. Output rating will be about 170 for both horsepower and pound-feet of torque, and flexibility and smoothness across the rev range are great.\n\nADVERTISEMENT – CONTINUE READING BELOW\nThe five-speed manual gearbox shifts nicely, with good feel and moderately short throws. Occasionally, the two-three upshift felt like a bigger ratio gap than the car really wanted, and if it were up to us, we’d move the brake and throttle pedals a bit closer together.\n\nBut we think we can trust such details to the Solstice development team. These guys appear to be on top of the sporting-roadster game. A lot of the architecture they had to work with, including the wide stance, wheels-out-to-the-corners style, and the 245/45 tires on 18-inch wheels, was locked in by the show car. Nothing wrong with any of that from a performance standpoint, though, and it appears to us the Solstice is on its way to being a delightful street sportster.\n\nFun to drive, pleasant to live with, cool to be seen in, and costing only about $20,000, it seems destined to be the spirited, rewarding roadster that Bob Lutz—and Motor Trend—challenged General Motors to build.Hot New Car Releases 2026: The Definitive Buyer’s Guide for American Drivers\n\nThe automotive
