We all know that we own a very special little roadster. For many of us, "love at first sight" was certainly proven when we literally leaped across the void by purchasing the 2006 Solstice without having taken a single test drive. Some of us didn't even sit in it until the delivery date! Talk about faith!

For those of you who may have missed the earlier threads, I'd like you to know that there is a new book about the entire Solstice experience.
It's called The Pontiac Solstice Book and it was written by Gary Witzenburg, an exceedingly talented GM engineer/racer/writer. GM's Vice Chairman, Bob Lutz wrote the foreword and you can see him sitting in an aggressive Solstice, justifiably proud in realizing his long held dream of building a "stylish, beautiful, affordable, great-handling, no compromise, two-place roadster". The book was published by Michael Lamm, a great guy and a supporting vendor of this forum who has authored and published other automotive books.




The Pontiac Solstice Book chronicles the journey of the Solstice: concept & design, engineering (w/GXP turbo), production, sales & marketing and mods & performance. The final chapter tells the story of the Saturn Sky, the Sol's first cousin. There are eight chapters in all, 125 pages filled with fantastic personal experiences and plenty of outstanding photographs to pore over.


Currently on the boards you will find a Boxwood Plant inquiry thread. The number of people taking the poll illustrates to me that there is yet an insatiable hunger for information about the Solstice. We want to get as close as we can to the history of the car; to personally see and feel
"The Mecca", the birthplace of our unique little roadster.

Two years ago on these boards, you could find an ongoing flurry of speculation about the production schedule and activity at The Mecca. This book answers all those questions quite definitively.

Chapter Five of The Pontiac Solstice Book is titled "Putting It All Together". This chapter is 18 pages long and contains 20 beautiful photographs which were taken inside the Boxwood Road plant in Wilmington, DE. Included is a schematic of the plant and of course, the timeline of events.
Dennis Dougherty, the plant manager, relates the experience in his own words.

You can purchase this excellent book for yourself and/or a friend through Mike Lamm's website, KappaSphere's website or from Amazon.
The links are provided below for your convenience:


Lamm-Morada Publishing Co Inc - www.lammmorada.com

KappaSphere - www.kappasphere.com

Amazon.com Books - http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listi...e=UTF8&s=books

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Amelia Clunkenquiet - she's cool and she's CAR.

My All American, Coast 2 Coast, Rt. 66 pics. 22 states, 9,000 miles in 4 weeks. http://www.solsticeforum.com/forum/f...ad-trip-20928/

Founder - KAPPAS for the Cause
Founding Member - MASC/MASSC
Founding Member - NASSOA
TEAM SOLSTICE 2008
Team Solstice! Folding@home Team


Join MASSC! mylyte@gmail.com

Well done, Solli!

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"If you haven't seen the future, you haven't driven fast enough"
#000741, delivered 10/3/05

Yes buy the book and then visit the plant (aka "The Mecca") and then maybe bring it with you and get some of the folks to sign it? ... Oh and in case you don't know which thread we are refering to about the plant tour Click Here

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#118042 11/18/06 GXP Mean Darkside loaded wo On-Star
MODS: ED IC Pipes, Dejon IC, Magnaflow Catback

#1922 12/03/05
Mysterious Steel/Sand w/ 6-Disc Monsoon
Conv., Pwr & Premium Pkgs A/C LSD Carpet Mats
MODS: GM CAI & CATBAck
Dover DE

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Pontiac builds excitement...
Saturn has rethought it's image...
The time has come for the enthusiasts...
NASSOA
Founding Member - Recording Secretary - Northeast
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This is truely a high quality, coffee table type of book; very well written w/ beautiful photos. I encourage all to get one.

I've only managed to get about 40 pages in, after receiving the book as an unexpected gift from a friend.

I gotta set some time aside to get through the whole thing. So far, it is very good!

Now that some of you are finally reading the book, let's give this a try again.

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Volley - ICOD GOTHIC................"Pontiac Pure Excitement".........
.................................................. ...."Drive it like you stole it"


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The time has come for the enthusiasts...
website link - NASSOA - Officially recognized by GM
Founding Member #69
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I've been reading the chapters pretty slowly, just relishing them, since there is so much information to absorb.

I gotta say that I was pretty thrilled to see a picture of Steve Padilla in his "flame shirt" at what looks like a summer test run. Steve was at the NEO's SOS March '06 run driving a Sky (right in front of me) and he also graced us with his attendance at the 1st National Meet in Kansas City, MO this past July.






Until I read this book, I have to confess that I didn't fully "get" his significance in the entire scheme of things: Steve was part of the engineering staff; he worked on the chassis as PIT (performance integration team) leader for vehicle dynamics: ride handling, braking and vehicle control. There's a short story about Steve's amateur racing ability and how Bob Lutz rode Steve's tail at the Milford proving grounds until Steve moved out of his way.


Vehicle performance manager Dean Perelli credits Steve for discovering that the Solstice mule tended to skip sideways across chatter bumps on the test runs at Milford. He said "Steve worked hard to get the suspension tuned to control the vehicle on various road surfaces. By the time he was done, the vehicle felt like it had a magnet underneath, holding it to the road."

He also said that "another big goal was to get the steering right. Steve Padilla benchmarked the best systems in the world. We worked with TRW to develop a system that represented the characteristics we were trying to get, and the steering on the Solstice turned out to be just outstanding; right up there with the world's best."

All I can say is thanks Steve! Hope to see you at the next SOS.

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Amelia Clunkenquiet - she's cool and she's CAR.

My All American, Coast 2 Coast, Rt. 66 pics. 22 states, 9,000 miles in 4 weeks. http://www.solsticeforum.com/forum/f...ad-trip-20928/

Founder - KAPPAS for the Cause
Founding Member - MASC/MASSC
Founding Member - NASSOA
TEAM SOLSTICE 2008
Team Solstice! Folding@home Team


Join MASSC! mylyte@gmail.com

I have just ordered mine looking forward to reading the history of our beautiful car

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TEAM SOLSTICE 2008
With approval

Ga. Kappa Club

Xtrememedic's Mod Page

This makes Steve officially one of my heroes. No electric steering here. Just good old fashioned superb feel and feedback, thank you very much. Steve Padilla is DA MAN!

I finished the book as well and have newfound appreciation for the extremely short deadlines the team was under, having to perform major phases of the development in parallel, and to milk every available shortcut that would not compromise the final product.

I still hate the clunk and the whine but after reading what the team had to go through, I must say I'm shocked that we haven't seen worse problems and a lot more of them. The entire team that developed the Solstice and Kappa platform pretty much pulled off a miracle.

Y'all done good!

I think one big benefit was that the development team was very passionate about this car. Another was Lutz personal guidance, to thwart the bean counters from getting in the way. And finally, I think the complete and total lack of time actually helped to produce a better car. I honestly believe that the tight deadlines lead team members to do great work and say "wow, that will work just fine, lets go with it". I fear that if they had another 2 years for development, the typical reworking and second guessing would have interfered. You can have too much time for a project and you can end up really watering it down as a result.

In a nutshell, I would say the Solstice team just didn't have the time to screw it up!

There is a kernel of truth in that. Working 14-hour days and longer, I'm sure Steve would categorically disagree!

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Solstice GXP Coupe
You still don't need a trunk to haul ass...
even at Red Rock Canyon in Las Vegas!

I have to say this is one awesome book. Lamm-Morada did an awesome job.

I actually received two copies of the book, a surprise gift from a friend as well and one from my parents. Going to keep one in the box and read the other one.

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Not to hijack but this link brings up an issue: And they used a dry diff because? The nagging question no one has answered sufficiently, does Getrag fill the diffs prior to shipment, and if so with what? And even if they do or don't at what point in assembly is the level checked and fluid added?

Back on subject:
I have been too busy since acquiring my book that I have done nothing more than skim through it. But it is definitely a keeper, full of pics we haver never seen on the web and tons of info and backstory. I still have to give a lot of credit to Vicki for simply showing up at meetings when she wasn't assigned to the car - they respoonded to her unbridled enthusiasm by giving her the interior to design.

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When more than one friend wants to ride shotgun

No, I do not work for GM or any subsidiary or supplier.

John, that's a question I'd ask Steve. He probably knows more about those particulars.

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Amelia Clunkenquiet - she's cool and she's CAR.

My All American, Coast 2 Coast, Rt. 66 pics. 22 states, 9,000 miles in 4 weeks. http://www.solsticeforum.com/forum/f...ad-trip-20928/

Founder - KAPPAS for the Cause
Founding Member - MASC/MASSC
Founding Member - NASSOA
TEAM SOLSTICE 2008
Team Solstice! Folding@home Team


Join MASSC! mylyte@gmail.com

Got my book yesterday. Good read. Still dont know why they call it a "kappa" platform. I understand why they had to make it, but why did they name it that?