In the spirit of the AC Cobra, Hot Rod magazine has built an amazing piece. A brand new Pontiac Solstice was taken into the garage, the four cylinder engine removed and in its place, they bolted in an LS7, the 505hp V8 from the Z06 Corvette. Of course, they did a little work on the engine before installing it and their numbers are 585hp and 540 foot pounds of torque through the full exhaust. This is hot rodding at its best. Even better, GM Performance was along for the ride so a parts list was created so you can roll your own extreme performance Solstice.

What kind of performance? How’s 0-60 in 3.32 and the quarter mile in 10.99@133.25mph sound? You get 1.05g on the skidpad. It also stops, 60-0 in 95 feet! Those numbers are better than the Corvette the engine came from and also better than a Porsche Carrera GT and Ferrari Enzo.

You would think that a V8 in place of a 4 cylinder would mean a nose heavy monster, but the car as built has a 52/48 front/rear weight distribution. Not bad!

Obviously, the build isn’t cheap and takes some work but the parts are available and it won’t be surprising to see a few of these popping up around the country. Hmm … I wonder if you can order a Solstice with the “engine delete” option?

Link: Hot Rod LS7 project