Welcome to Solstice Performance, the very pinnacle of all that is luxury and fast.
We are one of the very few old British companies that still build all of their products at home, here in England. However, we are not an independent company.
We take great pride in our 66 year long history, and as such we aim to uphold our brand’s reputation by consistently delivering high-quality products to our customers.
[quote=“Oskiinus”]Wow, 154 km/h, much faster than first Porsche 356’s!
But, to be serious, it’s very pretty car. I don’t know why, but I like it.
BTW. Your manufacturer name reminds me Pontiac Solstice, lol.[/quote]
Yeah, speed may be a LITTLE off, but I’m not sure what speed would be realistic.
As for the manufacturer name, that car kind of served as inspiration for the name, when I was trying to think of a name I was thinking of muscle car brands, then I remembered Pontiac had a car called the Solstice, so I used that.
Thanks for the feedback!
By the time 1955 came around, the Adze was looking a little outdated. It still had an inline four and it looked like it had come right out of 1949. It was time for something new.
We at Solstice knew that the market was changing, there was little demand for Inline 4s and Inline 6s were becoming less and less popular. We had to look at the pros and cons of each engine type, Inline engines offered less power, but more practicality whereas V engines offered the exact opposite. Using a V8 also would have been our chance to expand into the North American market, so all things considered we decided to use a V8. With our new car we had a lot more resources available and we also had more experienced staff.
[size=200]The Engine[/size]
The engine is now a 4000cc V-8 that puts out 181 hp @ 4100 RPM & 246 ft-lb @ 3200 RPM, with a redline of 4500 RPM. The people who designed the engine were stuck between using an OHV or an OHC setup, but in the end we decided on OHV solely due to the fact that we were already experienced with pushrods. Overall it is a very simple engine that is easy to modify. The new engine now runs on super leaded 98 octane fuel, too.
[size=200]The Car[/size]
The car features a very modern rear end, and perhaps a more futuristic front end. The transmission options are still either a 3 speed manual or a 2 speed automatic, the brakes are also still 1 piston front and rear. The car still uses the same suspension parts as the Adze, front MacPherson struts and rear leaf springs. The car with the manual transmission gets a very impressive 26.6 MPG (UK), accelerates from 0-62 in 10.3 seconds and does the 1/4 mile in 17.94 seconds.
This adds up to give it in MSRP of $2749.88 ($24423.75 today).
For 1960, the Buckshaw was given a completely new exterior and interior. Its styling was toned down significantly to give it a more casual appearance, however the interior was now far more luxurious than that of the 1955 model. The car featured the same engine & transmission as the 1955 Buckshaw, as that engine was still on par with most modern engines (performance wise). Originally, Solstice intended to have a V-12 variant of the 1960 Buckshaw, and 2 prototypes were built. However, it is unknown whether this is true or not, as there is no physical evidence that these cars ever existed. It is thought that they were destroyed, either by Solstice or in road accidents etc.
After the first year of being available, sales were not looking good for the 1960 Buckshaw. After 1961, Solstice announced they would be stopping production of the Buckshaw, with only around 2,500 being sold in 1960. However, we decided to keep on producing the small block V-8 found in the Buckshaw, and they were sold to other car manufacturers around Britain.
By 1968, people were wondering what happened to Solstice. There had hardly been any news regarding them for nearly a decade. However, the truth was that Solstice was very much alive and kicking. During the years between 1961 and 1968, we had been trying to develop a car that does everything. It had to be comfortable, look awesome, sound equally as awesome and be extremely powerful. Thus, after many years of failed tests and destroyed engines, the Fleetwood was born.
Named after the town in Lancashire, the Fleetwood was our attempt at making the perfect car for the 60s. It featured a 2 door design that seemed to be popular at the time, had 4 seats, a 4 speed manual transmission and a massive 426ci V-8 engine.
Originally, we had planned for the car to have a 2.8L I-4. It very nearly made it to production, but reliability became a huge problem, and there just was no market for 2.8L Inline 4 engines. So eventually we just came to the conclusion that we should just screw it and put the biggest engine we had in there. Performance wise this car was unmatched for its time. It could take you from 0-62 MPH in 6.1 seconds, 50-75 in 3.1 seconds and could run down the quarter mile in just 14.10 seconds. Cornering however… let’s not talk about cornering.
The engine was a brand new 426ci, cast iron V-8. What separated this engine from the rest at the time was the fact that it didn’t use an OHV system, like all of the previous Solstice engines had, and most of the American V-8s had at the time. It creates an incredible 428 horsepower @ 5000 RPM & 469 ft-lb of torque @ 3900 RPM. The thing that really made us love this car was its incredible sound. Have a listen: youtube.com/watch?v=W4qGBYq8 … e=youtu.be
Looking good man! The 1968 Flletwood would be competing with the 1967 Prato Zoope Rally for sales in North America. Different niches mind you, it’d be interesting to see how they matched up!
While obviously the Fleetwood has twice the cylinders and nearly 6 times the power, it weighs about as much as a small mountain. Your car would also obliterate the Fleetwood on most tracks because y’know… Leaf springs + 2 and 1 piston brakes + corner = death.
Thanks for your feedback!
In 1969, the engine was given a new air filter and re-tuned to provide an increase of around 7 horsepower and around 11 more ft-lbs. Because as if the 426 wasn’t good enough already
While obviously the Fleetwood has twice the cylinders and nearly 6 times the power, it weighs about as much as a small mountain. Your car would also obliterate the Fleetwood on most tracks because y’know… Leaf springs + 2 and 1 piston brakes + corner = death.
Thanks for your feedback![/quote]
You could use the Fleetwood to haul zoopes for me, the current transportation contract expires soon :-p
In early 1970, a limited edition drag model of the Fleetwood was available. It featured an entirely fiberglass body, 235MM rear tires, a race exhaust and a race intake, as well as a re-tuned engine. Only around 50 were known to have been made because of the sheer cost and effort it took to make them. It is believed that around 38 still exist, with about 5 in the United Kingdom, 15 in the rest of Europe and the others in North and South America.
Technically these cars weren’t road legal, though you might notice that the car still features indicators in the front inmost headlights and reverse lights.
This special edition model had 450 horsepower @ 5100 RPM & 497 ft-lb of torque @ 3900 RPM fed through a brand new 5 speed manual transmission.
All this adds up to allow the car to fly through the quarter mile in only 13.62 seconds. Oh, did I also mention that it only takes 5.9 seconds to get from 0 to 60?
Oh, and just to make this car even more bad ass, you get a couple of new vents on the bonnet as well as hood pins!
Up until 1973, the company had been going strong. Solstice had been making some of the fastest and most powerful cars ever during the 1960s, it seemed like nothing would ever stop them when… well, something stopped them.
When the oil crisis hit in 1973, sales of the Fleetwood plummeted as people were going to AMC and Ford for their Gremlin and Pinto. As the Fleetwood was Solstice only car at the time, they were forced to close shop. The company was sold to Leyland Motors in late 1973 and no cars were produced under the Solstice name until 1980…
