In 1980, British Leyland (as part of a desperate attempt to get money quickly) chucked together a car as quickly as possible and branded it under the Solstice name.
The car, to many, was piss poor. It made a laughable 51 horsepower, it got a measly 29 MPG, and it looked pretty damn ugly, even by 1980s standards. It was also incredibly basic. Infact, it’s quite amazing that the definition for the word “basic” in the Oxford Dictionary isn’t just simply “a 1980 Solstice”. Sales, somehow, were actually pretty damn good. The car was incredibly cheap and so it became popular among youths, and it is about as common as an Opel Corsa in many parts of the world because of how cheap they go for on used car websites today.
Stat wise, the car seriously lacked. It’s capable of 0-60 in roughly half a decade and it will get to 100 in- oh wait, that’s right. It doesn’t even go 100.
Feast your eyes on the 1980 Solstice Buxton!
British Leyland, after making their money from the Buxton, sold the Solstice brand to Volkswagen Group in 1982. Needless to say, the Buxton ended production in 1982.
Volkswagen decided to re-name Solstice Motors to “Solstice Performance Autos”, seeing as Solstice’ best selling cars were sports cars. And so in 1984, the first true Solstice Performance car was released, re-using the Fleetwood name. Although it had absolutely nothing to do with the original 60s sports car, they did have one thing in common. The ability to haul ass.
Car coming soon…
The 1984 Solstice Fleetwood was a different kind of sports car. It featured a combination of both American and European styling, but had a European engine. It was a fairly quick car, despite having only a 2.0L Turbo-4. Most of the reason it was quick was because it had aluminium body panels and a light monocoque chassis.
Despite being a “sports car”, it was actually fairly basic. This was for two reasons, one reason being we needed to save weight because of the small engine and because Volkswagen didn’t have too much trust in the brand, so they didn’t want to put a lot of money into a car that wouldn’t return any profit. The car (in 1984) only cost $96,192, which was fairly cheap considering what you’re getting for that price (aluminium body, turbocharged engine etc).
The engine’s power, fed through a 5 speed manual transmission, propelled the car from 0-60 in 7.4 seconds, and could go down the 1/4 mile in 15.42 seconds.
In 1990, a 3.8L twin turbo flatplane V-8 was offered (I wonder where I got that idea from? 
). With this, the sales of the Inline-4 dropped fairly significantly, so after 1986 the Inline-4 was no longer an option.
I’m liking this company’s story, good work! 
Thanks! 
Sometime in 1995, there was word going around that Solstice were working on a new car - a car like no other. The kind of car people had in mind was a twin turbo crossplane V8 coupe that could leave mile long tire tracks, but what was actually made was something completely different.
A V8 hatchback.
Re-using the Adze name, the new 1995 Adze featured the same flatplane V8TT from the Fleetwood. The major difference between the two cars (besides the fact that one’s a hatchback) is that the Adze features all wheel drive, so what it actually was, was a super-hatchback of sorts, and it was insanely fast for the time (and by today’s standards too).
It could accelerate from 0-60 in 3.7 seconds, 50-75 in 2.5, it could fly down the quarter mile in 12.06 and had a limited top speed of 170 MPH.
(Ignore the cheeky little turbo)
Lookin’ good buddy !
Love the 1960 Buckshaw.
I don’t find the Buxton ugly, add a huge spoiler and a big V6 in the trunk and we’re okay for Group B !
On the other side, I think you could get much more power from the drag-ready Fleetwood.
Try a bigger bore and a shorter stroke, that way you should get better RPM limits.
If you run it as rich as possible, even on 91, with a beyond-50 cam profile and even more as you have OHC, you should get past the 500 with little quality bonus.
Thanks! I guess if you look past the flaws, the Buxton is a cute little car
The thing with the Fleetwood DE is that I didn’t want to change the displacement for two reasons:
- Its already 7 liters.
- The engine was already on the brink of blowing up (stupid 60s tech…)
The power it has now is already a lot, but as you said it could definitely be in proved. If I have time I’ll go update it.
Thanks again!
(This car is from 1990, the hatchback up there ^ is from 1995. Ooooopppsss 
)
[size=200]S[/size]ix years since the inital revival of the Fleetwood, technology had changed a lot, which meant the car got outdated fairly fast. However, ever since the 1984 Fleetwood was released, we already had a concept for the future Fleetwood model. 1990, being the start of a new decade, felt like the right time to release this new model.
For the new model year, the Inline-4 was dropped, just because it simply wasn’t needed. The FP V8TT did everything better (besides price and fuel economy, but it’s a sports car so who cares about fuel economy?).
The car was capable of 0-60 in 4.8 seconds (thanks to those 255mm rear tires), 50-75 in 2.3 seconds and could do the quarter mile run in 12.90. Thanks to its all aluminium structure (body, chassis, engine block & heads etc.) it was also capable of a theoretical 175MPH.
Weight distribution was fairly good, with a 52.8% front weight bias, in total the car weighed a mere 2679.1lb.
However, all of that shit doesn’t even matter. The coolest thing on this car is the awesome pop up headlights! (Credit to Felgen, you sexy motherfucker.)
Contrary to what many people believed, there was no re-design for the Fleetwood in 2000. Instead, the Adze model line was dropped due to lack of sales.
The biggest thing to happen to Solstice in 2000 was the fact the new engine redesign, however. In 2000, you could either buy a newly updated 3.8L Flatplane V8 Twin-Turbo for your Fleetwood, or a brand new 426ci Crossplane V8. Being a tribute to the original 1960s Fleetwood 426, the new 426 was certainly worth the extra money with its incredible sound and extraordinary power. Take a look at how the two engine options compare:
[size=200]The 3.8[/size]
[size=200]The 426[/size]
In 2007, the Fleetwood underwent a complete redesign on its interior as well as exterior. The outside was re-shaped to be more modern (if not a little futuristic) and the interior had many of its luxuries stripped and replaced with lightweight aluminium or carbon panels. This year, all aluminium exterior panels were replaced by carbon panels to make it even lighter, as it was beginning to weigh too much & aluminium was becoming a thing of the past for Solstice. The engines were the same as the ones found in the 2000 model, they hadn’t been re-tuned or re-designed, however the transmission was replaced by a 6 speed manual and received new gear ratios, as the old ones were spaced too much. So now, the car was capable of 70MPH in 2nd gear. The car was given front and rear 6 piston Brembo brakes, as well as 285 mm wide rear tires and 255 mm wide front tires. Also, the 3.8 model and the 426 model were now very different beasts (performance wise).
The 426 performed as follows:
Top speed: 182.3 MPH
0 - 62: 4.6s
50 - 75: 1.8s
62 - 0: 31.9m
1/4 mile: 12.06s @ 130 MPH
The 3.8 performed as follows:
Top speed: 161.8 MPH
0 - 62: 4.5s
50 - 75: 2.1s
62 - 0: 31.8m
1/4 mile: 12.54s @ 119 MPH
2014 was a fairly big year for the Fleetwood, and it was also going to be its last (see next post).
The car was kept mostly the same, however the head, tail & fog lights were redesigned to look more modern, and so were the grille and various vents around the car, the visible exhaust tips were also removed and replaced by chrome exhaust vents. This was not the major change. (By the way, I’m not too sure on the tail lights and they’re definitely going to be changed at some point.)
The major change was the two engine options. Both were re-designed for maximum horsepower, torque and responsiveness. Now, when pushed, they certainly delivered. Infact, they delievered exactly either 652 hp & 543 ft-lb or 393 hp & 367 ft-lb at just the slightest touch of the throttle. All this power was fed through a brand new 7 speed manual transmission. We stuck to manual transmissions instead of sequential or automatic transmissions because of our heritage and because of how simple they are, compared to automatics or sequentials.
Motor Trend Magazine perfectly summed up the 2014 Fleetwood in their review of the '14 Fleetwood 426 - “Yeah, it’s another Fleetwood. And let’s face it, it’s probably faster than whatever you drive.”
The performance of the new models are as followed:
3.8
Top Speed: 159.6 MPH
0 - 62: 4.4s
50 - 75: 2.1s
62 - 0: 31.5
1/4 mile: 12.42s @ 119 MPH
426
Top Speed: 190.4 MPH
0 - 62: 4.4s
50 - 75: 1.9
62 - 0: 31.6
1/4 mile: 11.82 @ 135 MPH
[size=200](PHOTOS REMOVED DUE TO IT BEING EXCESSIVELY UGLY)[/size]
In early 2015, the CEO made this statement:
“After a good 40 years working on the Fleetwood on and off, we believe it is time to start working on new projects and to move away from the Fleetwood for the time being. The Fleetwood will continue to be produced until we say otherwise. But for now, we’re working on a new car, a superluxury sedan. This new car will be the center of the company’s attention for the next few years, and it is expected to enter production mid 2015 for people willing to pay the price, which, lets be honest, will likely be as high as you think it will be when thinking of the word “superluxury”.”
So perhaps I should list the MSRP of all of the cars here (I will give all prices in 2014 moniez)
1949 Adze: $6510
1955 Buckshaw: $24425
1960 Buckshaw: $26114
1968 Fleetwood: $30875
1969 Fleetwood: $30911
1969 Fleetwood Drag Edition: $36827
1980 Buxton: $7189
1984 Fleetwood: $42001
1990 Fleetwood: $50765
2000 Fleetwood 3.8: $53647
2000 Fleetwood 426: $52852
2007 Fleetwood 3.8: $81139
2007 Fleetwood 427: $80349
2014 Fleetwood 3.8: $81416
2014 Fleetwood 426: $81757
2015 Buxton V8: $478304
Super-luxury is a relatively new thing to Solstice, and we hope to make a name for ourselves in the luxury car market with our newest car, the 2015 Buxton.
Re using the name from the 1980 hatchback, we at Solstice realise that we had to redeem ourselves for making such a poor quality car, thus, we made a car that is the exact opposite of that, and gave it the same name.
The 2015 Buxton comes with 3 engine options (only one of which is currently complete).
A 5.2 Litre flatplane, twin turbo V8 (GT),
A twin turbo V12 (GT12).
Or a naturally aspirated W12 (GT-R).
The car shown is the V8 model, the V12 and W12 models are to come at a later stage.
The new 2015 Buxton re-defines luxury, it features a fine fully hand-crafted interior, a sturdy fully aluminium body and engine and it looks absolutely stunning. It is also the kind of car that would cost you your house to fix a mere scratch in the paintwork.
The interior is powered almost fully by an LCD screen in the middle of the dashboard, it is similar in size to the one in the Tesla Model X. Everything found on the car is proudly handcrafted by our top engineers using some of the finest materials on Earth, nothing even comes close. And so for that reason, the car (with the V8) starts at $478300.
Now, for the engine and performance figures.
The engine is a flatplane, twin turbo, 5.2 liter V8 monster. It produces 941, yes, 941 hp @ 7300 RPM & 750 ft-lb @ 5400 RPM, which makes it one of the most powerful production cars ever. This ultra responsive, ultra reliable engine propels the car to an astonishing 207.4 MPH, it can take it from 0 - 60 in 4.6 seconds, 50-75 in 2 seconds and can do the quarter mile run in 12.42 seconds and the power is fed through an all new 7 speed AWD automatic transmission. “But wait, Microwave, it has a 941 horsepower engine and an AWD transmission and can only do 0 - 60 in 4.6 seconds?” Now, please bear in mind this car weighs about as much as a small house at 5250.1lb (2381.41kg) and would you really want those important men in the back being snapped back into their seats and spilling that expensive wine all over your handcrafted interior and their fine suits? I think not. Now, enough of me explaining, let the car do the explaining for me.
THAT.ENGINE.MUST.GO. In the Fleetwood.
Which?
The standard V8.
Now, obviously I can see why you would want it gone, and also I did contemplate it but frankly I just prefer having it available. It gives buyers more of a choice and I wouldn’t want to shove a loud, obnoxious V8 down every buyer’s throats. It is also turbocharged, so you could probably churn out a few more horses yourself with the right tools fairly easily. And, as you can see, in everything except top speed, it is almost identical in performance. But, if I want to remove the 3.8 I’ll do it much later on because for the time being I’ve stopped working on the Fleetwood. Thanks for your feedback, anything else you might want to add about any of my cars?