Drifting Champ’s Hot New Ride? The Pontiac Solstice GXP
General Motors unveils the new Red Bull Pontiac Solstice GXP Formula D Drift car.
By Chris Ayotte
Marketing Manager
Pontiac Solstice
Drifting — the art of defying a car’s traction into a controlled slide sideways around corners at breakneck speeds — is still below the radar for a lot of Americans, but the sport continues to grow nonetheless. Sound confusing? Take a look at this.
Tracing its origins back to underground races on Japan’s winding mountain roads in the 1960s, drifting was a full-fledged and heavily funded motorsport in Japan by the 1980s. It arrived in the United States in the late 1990s, and has been gaining in popularity ever since, boosted by the cult following of the Japanese Manga/Anime series Initial D. This summer, American movie-going audiences will get hit with a full dose of the drifting phenomenon with the third installment of The Fast and The Furious trilogy, subtitled Tokyo Drift.
But to Rhys Millen, a New Zealand-born American, it’s more than just a pop-culture fascination. Millen shifted from the top of the rally car racing circuit to drifting and now has two wins in the United States drifting series, known as Formula D. In last year’s Formula Drift Championship, Millen muscled his way to first place in his drift car, a modified 2004 Pontiac GTO. When it was time for a new ride to slam through the corners, Pontiac had just the answer:
The Red Bull Turbocharged 2007 Pontiac Solstice GXP Drift.
This rear-wheel-drive beauty is powered by a race-modified version of the GXP’s 4-cylinder ECOtec 2.0L direct-injection engine, boosted up to provide 500 bhp for every drift and slide. Millen took second to 2004 Champ Samuel Hubinette’s Dodge Viper SRT10 after a disqualifying spinout in Round 1 of this year’s Formula D series. Millen will look to take the advantage with his new Solstice GXP over Hubinette’s latest drifter, a Dodge Charger SRT8.
The two Formula D champions are set to square off again at the Round 2 event at Road Atlanta on May 12th and 13th. The new car will debut at Round 3 in Chicago on June 10th. We can’t wait to see Millen and the Solstice GXP Drift in action. We’re pretty excited to have the American champ driving his second Pontiac in a sport formerly dominated by imports. And by the way — the Solstice GXP Drift is powered by home-grown E85.
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hrmm… sounds intresting, i guess every type of performance is important to GM, while it doesnt seem like the best idea to porposefully lose traction… correct me if i’m wrong but, ideally one can go around the corner faster with 100% traction. like my lt1 firebird, with blitsen shocks and eibash springs keeps me glued to the pavement, and i’ve never lost traction since i’ve put those on… but if drifting is a new sport, and its a popular one, Solstice, go out there and kick some butt!
Chris,
Drifting is all fine and dandy, but that Solstice looks incredible as a hardtop. Any chance GM will make a coupe version???? Can you give Bob Lutz a nudge in his other blog and tell him he has a potential gold-mine on his hands with a coupe??? I’d definitely plunk down $23-28k for a coupe version with a blown V6 (and I know it’ll fit b/c Mallett put a V8 in a Solstice).
Thanks,
Nathan
While I agree Drifting originated in the mountains west of Tokyo in the mid to late nineties it was common for meets of Drifters to use the urban roads around Tokyo and Yokohama as their “race track.”
Living in Japan between 1994 and 2001 gave me plenty of opportunity to view them first hand.
Watched a couple Solstices race at an SCCA autocross last weekend. Both were novice drivers but they did very well for first time out. This car has real performance potential!
Bob was right when he said all we have to do is do a stretch 4 door Solstice sedan and compete head on with BMW. And Solstice does for Pontiac what the Viper did for Dodge.
Still everybody does Pontiac’s sport image what if we add some racing bikes as someone suggested. Put GM on the map when the bike show rolls into town. We need to build an unmistakable brand identity. At the bike show, Toyota was there, as was BMW, Honda, Suzuki, and a host of other car companies. But no GM or any of its divisions at all.
Pontiac should make a distinct noise, a louder rumble than everybody else. Anyway Pontiac, whatever you do just be ready to race.
Look at all the RWD, stick-shifted, lightweight 4 seaters in that Drifting 2.0 video.
Hint, hint, GM.
YES!! the hardtop looks AWESOme!!!
Tim
Drifting is not racing, it’s Dancing, and like Olympic ice skating is judged not on speed but difficulty and smooth exicution, Hanging the tail out farther towards 90 degrees is more difficult and earns more points, smooth trasitions between being full lock left and full lock right requires more car controll skill than abrupt trasitions and also help tally more points. Drifting may have been officialy chrisend a sport by the Japanise but Yankee,and Aussi muscle exells at it as evideced by Rhys Millen’s success in the genre. There is also a Japanise driver for TOYO tyres team drifting a Ford Mustang.
Great looking drift car!Although I’m a bit sad to see the big tire-smoking bruiser GTO go, the Solstice is probably more in line technologically with what the average Drifting fan likes, although I’d argue the Sky’s looks are more suited to that crowd.
Now, why is it that Mitsubishi and other companies pump so much money into the Fast and Furious movies and all GM cars get are a brief showing and maybe a crash into a wall? Or some nostalgic Camaro from 30 years ago that no one can buy new?
GM needs to get into more “Gen Y” media like movies and especially video games with these performance machines, lest you leave it all up to Escalades on MTV and again get labeled as the Truck and SUV company. The Solstice (or even the GTO) would have been perfect in The Fast and Furious 3, since you have an American going to Tokyo. The storyline could have followed a Millen-like character who wins in a hot GM car and then exports it over to Japan in a “reverse” of all of the import =cool propaganda where he takes the GM muscle up against the best drifters in their Japanese cars.
But I guess I’m the only one who thinks that these movies have an influence on what people buy. No, wait…you just said the movie will hit us with a “heavy dose” this summmer. I sure hope GM has something big planned for future movies and video games, though from the previews I’ve given up on F&F Tokyo Drift, despite hearing that Millen played a role in the making of it.
It’s great to see one of our local (Costa Mesa) boys do so good. I pass by Millen’s business at least once a week, hoping to catch a glimpse of what might be coming down the pipeline.
PONTIAC is definitely headed in the right direction, if it decides to make all models RWD.
BUICK should go totally AWD.
CHEVROLET should be FWD largely due to the mass production aspect of the cars.
Camaro and Corvette could remain the only exceptions.
SATURN is headed in the right direction also, but it conflicts with Chevy too much. I would much rather Saturn position itself as GM’s hybrid entry to compete with Prius.
CADILLAC is, well, perfect and should be entirely RWD. Dump the silly alphabet soup monikers, please!
Now with a line-up like that, no one could complain about redundancy or badge engineering. All the cars would have a special place and function in the GM line-up.
I’ve watched drifting and really don’t care for it. Nonetheless, it’s incredibly savvy marketing on GM’s part to be involved in this kind of sport as it is so heavily observed by a very young desirable demographic. Applause to GM and thanks for using E85 in the racer. That should bring great awareness to the fan base, and maybe they will be able to buy small cars from GM (soon?) that use E85.
BTW, I might be alone, but I really liked the Pontiac-sponsored movie “The Last Ride” with Dennis Hopper and Chris Carmack and actually bought the DVD.
If Hollywood won’t make a movie about cool new GM cars, and insists on insinuating not so subtley that the only GM (and Ford) cars worth seeing in a movie are muscle cars from 1965, then I’d like to see GM make more movies – maybe its own video game – that introduces its newest hottest cars to the 18-25 age segment.
I wrote a list of such potential GM cars for video games (or movies) here, if the link is allowed: http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/showthread.php?t=11758
If Nissan alone can have 64 cars in Gran Turismo 4, and Toyota can have a 1986 Corolla in Microsoft’s U.S. made racing game Forza Motorsport, GM should be able to come up with more than a handful of cars in both, dominated by old Camaros and Corvettes. Same goes for these pop culture car movies like the Fast and Furious.
Ming
I liked the LAST RIDE too, I,m a huge Dennis Hopper fan and realy dug that he lent his cynical but loveably human style to a movie about a pontiac.
I agree with you MING 100%!!!!GM should do more with Hollywood.With cars like the GROUNDPOUNDER ZO6 Corvette.Pontiac Solstice GXP,Saturn Redline,Cadillac V-Series cars how can they go wrong.Examples of GM cars in movies,Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit,THE DUKE in McQ that Trans Am,The late great Warren Oates in TWO LANE BLACK TOP that Ram Air 4 Orbit Orange GTO,Harrison Ford in American Graffiti that 55 Chevy with a 454. What was one of his lines I AINT NOBODY MAN then REVS that Big Block Up what a ROAR!!Gum Ball Rally that camaro roaring threw the hillside.I hope they can showoff more of GMs cars.Idea of the Day?Alot of people have computers today and they use the Internet to get pictures of Dogs,Cats,Nature Scenes and yes AUTOMOBILES.Alot of the people EX will got to Yahoo and type Example Chevy Silverado or Concept Camaro then hit IMAGES above and then Save the image to there computer but Ive noticed there sometimes arent alot of good images or some are just great but to small and if you stretch them they look funny.This could give you the ability to REACH for more customers make sure search engines are Stacked full of great and BIG images.
I would recommend that GM make all of its 2007 cars, especially the halo cars, the Sky Redline and the Solstice GXP, E85 capable.
Without E85 compatibility, I wouldn’t buy it.
the solstice gxp/redline are by far the most interisting cars being sold by GM today. infact, these are the only cars that gm makes that i would even consider buying (and i am). im 22, out of college and i am looking to buy a car that noone makes, a lightweight rwd 2 seater coupe (convertibles are for girls) is there any chance of putting a roof on a GXP??for once GM would be the first to market instead of the last. how stupid does a $23K GXP coupe make a civic si or gti look? front wheel drive performance is an oxymoron and its time to show a new generation what a sports car is! you can do it bob, JUST PUT A REAL ROOF ON THE DAMN THING AND YOU WILL HAVE NO COMPETITION. within a couple of years there will be a hard top miata and then all the asain companies will have theirs. you can be ahead of the curve if you JUST PUT A ROOF ON IT!!!
I’d like to echo the comment about a hardtop Soltice. Do it and I buy one.
Drifting is going to be huge in the US very soon. It would be a good idea for GM to really throw some support towards it. A lot of presence could be gained at a comparatively small price.
drifting is outta control in the US.. too much money involved..
There is an old school GM drift Camaro http://www.blacktoprodeo.com
This is a great article about drifting. Thanks!
How bout a hard top convertible solstice? you could have the hard top fold into the trunk. or even remove the roof section and store it in the trunk or garage.. maybe even a LS2 option in it.. just a few ideas
Still patiently waiting for the relase of the Pontiac Solstice coupe. (As shown at the 2002 Detroit Auto Show) Is it ever going to be built? By the time GM decides to give it a green light it will be time to redesign the 2006 body style. Hope not!