1971 Triump SolFire, The Spitfire Solstice Mashup that No one asked for...

After completing this years challenge which marks my 5th year in a row attending, i finally have the courage to take on a build that will challenge me in ways ive never encountered before. The inspiration mainly comes from a lot of folks at the challenge as well. I absolutley loved Daniels MG with the rotary and hearing his presentation made me realize i should tackle my projects similarly, Especially since i too am a mechanical engineer. 

But all of those at the challenge who inspired this build other than Daniel with the MG and LMP are Travis, robbie and Ian, and Pat (lotus, datsun, and corvair). So below are this years contestants and the cliff notes summary for the build. 

A 2006 pontiac solstice with a 2.4 N/A ecotec mated to a 5 speed manual (ar5). The car has 105k miles and still runs and drives. there is no frame damage and it appears all panels were hit above wheel lines. The car even still has working AC. I think its a crime in Florida to remove working AC from any vehicle. 

Next we have a 1971 Triumph Spitfire. This is actually Tim Suddards old car. it is in great shape over all. 

The plan is to more or less body swap the spitfire onto the crossfire chassis. Modifying our way to success throughout the build. The track width of the solstice is about a foot wider. which is fine as we planned to have some aggressive flares over some 15x10 wheels. and the wheel base is about a foot longer. This will be made up 2 ways. the stock solstice runs 18" wheels and we will be going to 15's. so we make up 3" total center to center. then the remaining 3 inches will be trimmed from the front and rear of the respective wheel wells. 

Aw yeah this is gonna be good! Is forced induction on the menu?

i really like where this is headed.  carry on!

This will be interesting to follow.  The solstice is a cool choice.   I'm intrigued by how you will handle the cockpit width and how that will look.   But clearly I'm a fan of old British cars with alternative chassis.  

I had the chance to Autox a Solstice on stock suspension with 200tw tires recently and was very impressed by the performance.  

Also glad to hear you got something out of the presentation at the challenge and are inspired by the builds to push yourself.  

In reply to maschinenbau :

It is on the Menu. Currently my overall goal is to fit a cobalt ss supercharger onto it. But a turbo may be cheaper and make more power. i just think the supercharger would be bonkers cool. these 2.4 with about 10psi are consistently making 320rwhp +/- 10hp here and there. if we can keep the car below the goal weight of 1800 pounds, it should be a riot.

Also, the 06-09 solstice is unlocked and supported by HP tuners, so double plus!

In reply to nocones :

it was a great presentation. and your MG is just super cool. I doubt i will be able to use anything from the solstice interior. it would be cool to keep the dash and console, etc. but i may just end up using the spitfire dash and fitting the gauges and maintaining the solstice column and controls that come with it. 

one of the up front challenges is the god awful bolt pattern of this car (5x110) so one of the first orders of business is removing all of the hubs and rotors and re drilling it to 5x114

As someone who is also dropping an 2.4L LE5 and Aisin AR5 into a little British car, I'm going to watch this one with great interest. Cheering you on!

In reply to BadBug :

Thank you! i was more than pleasantly surprised with the potancy/ capability of these LE5 motors. i look very much forward to getting some power out of this and ripping it!

This should be fun to watch 

In reply to surfshibby07 :

I kinda stumbled into the LE5 engines last year, knowing next to nothing about them, but I've since become a big fan of the platform. Miata guys swap them into their cars. There's an entire subculture of Ecotec-powered sand rails and dune buggies. Lots of turbos and supercharged versions around. They're cheap as dirt in junk yards. Etcetera. The AR5 tranny is also very strong. I'm halfway into swapping an LE5/AR5 into a Bugeye Sprite, including an intercooled turbo. 300hp is what I'm expecting with about 10psi of boost. Some local A/X Solstices are running 20-25psi in theirs with great results and even higher HP levels.

In reply to BadBug :

Nice! im not sure what year LE5 you have but 2006 and some 2007 models came stock with forged bottom ends!

claiming my front row seat to the build thread show!

Okay this is too cool! Installing the Spitfire body on to the Solstice chassis and retaining all the wiring, suspension and the entire drivetrain will be much easier than trying to put that drivetrain into the old Spitfire chassis. Spitfire body can be cut away internally and braced as needed if it is sitting on solid mounts and not being stressed, so can't wait to watch this all happen. That tilt front end will be your friend in regards to working on the engine and this solves the old Spitfire rear axle problem with any engine swap over 100 hp. Spitfires are still cheap, so no guilt necessary for cutting up an old classic sports car. Watching this one!

Have you considered just widening the Spitfire body to deal with the width issue? Not too hard to cut it down the middle and weld in a 6 inch strip, been done before on MGB's and at least one GT6.

In reply to dherr (Forum Supporter) :

Maybe a dumb question, but I never understood how widening a car like this works when it comes to the windshield? How do you source or build a wider windscreen?

In reply to dherr (Forum Supporter) :

I actually wanted to retain the factory spitfire width and just make massive/functional flares over the wheels. if any of the floor sticks out from the solstice it should be easy to mold/fabricate them into a permanent side splitter. if not it will get hacked flush with the side panels of the spitfire and will make the flares that much more prominent. 

In reply to BadBug :

I would assume you would have to find something close and modify the pillars, or just make something out of lexan. 

Stafford1500 has a widened spitfire that looks amazing 

Dusterbd13-michael said:

Stafford1500 has a widened spitfire that looks amazing 

I agree on the windshield question, would love to hear what Stafford1500 did to address it.

i need to see this widened spitfire now...

I have paged steve....

In for future updates!

This is exciting!!!

Following with great interest as I have a nearly free spitfire in my basement. 

Widened flares ala rocket bunny JDM would be interesting.

In reply to Andy Neuman :

That sounds like an awesome basement lol