[Chip]

I think it might be helpful if there was one thread and one place to look at the convertible top,"hump", rear decklid, cut-away, & suspected attachment points. Could those of you that have posted these images in other posts please put them here? Then if we could have them pinned (sticky) they would all be available in the same place as a reference source. Thanks!

 

[mceb]

Trunk Pictures, Trunk Volume

The famous "hump" (courtesy of GA73)...

 

[mceb]

Has anyone seen a picture with the top up?

Every "top up" picture I have (all test mules + 1 early clay model)...

 

[brentil]

Solstice cut-away showing the roof inside the trunk,
http://www.solsticeforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=141&password=c122ffc78201af97f214d96a9035dfb5&sort=2&cat=3030&page=1

 

[mceb]

Chasis pics from gallery...

First Pic

Second Pic

Third Pic

 

[mceb]

Few snippets on top operation (from early prototype tops examined in the England test mule articles)...

Motor Trend:

The full-manual process to stow it involves popping and lifting the rear-hinged lid, unlatching and collapsing the top, tucking it away and clicking the lid back down. You must do it from outside the car, but it's easy enough

Autoweek:

Before letting us slip in behind the wheel, the GM engineers folded down the mechanical top. The process starts by twisting a latch on the inside that releases the top from the header, and then opening the trunk in reverse fashion. There are a couple of wings at the rear of the top that fold inward, and then you're ready to fold the top down into the trunk. After the top is stowed, the trunk lid can be closed and the finished look is clean with no need for a boot.

Car and Driver:

The joy of other Solstice elements, however, remains to be seen. For example, the convertible top will need considerable work to make it a user-friendly device. It's distinguished by a flat-glass rear window and flying buttresses snugged down atop the teardrop fairings that extend behind the headrests and rollover bars, eventually blending down into the deck. Stowing the top entails some complicated folding before the whole business disappears beneath the rear-hinged decklid.

 

[piippor]

The more I look at these pics, I'm starting to think that hump is where the muffler is. Anyone else seeing this??

A little aftermarket exhaust could reroute that and make for more trunk space, if the muffler is the problem.

I also see a stiffening bracket in that location on some of the renderings.

 

[Rickady88GT]

None of the pics I have seen show the tank. The cut away pics show the muffler. It is behind the rear end not in the trunk. Look closer and you can see the exhaust pipe go into the muffler. Those pics show the entire exhaust system, not the gas tank.

 

[piippor]

yup, you're right. It was hard to tell but I see it now.

But there is definiately a brace attached to the top of the brackets, in the renderings.

 

[Rickady88GT]

I am thinking the brace is a smoke screen. Not used on the real car but put there in pics to keep people from knowing what the real trunk capacity is?

 

[bmwtourer]

May be they could/will...

Ok, lets say it ain't a hard top... :-(

It the spy shots (especially the 3rd one) do reveal the "true" top.

What do you think if the rear window would raise straight up like a door window. It would NOT be part of the top... The mechanism is simple proven and already available apart for the guides...

Bringing the rear window up would bend the top and might seal the window with the top...

This would explain the box behind the seat... it contains the window mechanism!

Just an idea...may be I should patent this!

 

[brentil]

None of the pics I have seen show the tank. The cut away pics show the muffler. It is behind the rear end not in the trunk. Look closer and you can see the exhaust pipe go into the muffler. Those pics show the entire exhaust system, not the gas tank.

In the cutaway I posted above you can see the fuel tank. It's shaped exactly like the hump in the car.

I've taken and edited the cutaway image and did a white wash over everything but the fuel tank in the rear. If you look at it full size you can see the triangular arms holding it up, and some sort of support beam across the top. More then likely protects the tank, fuel pump, fuel inlet, etc. I had to shrink the image down to get it to post here, but if you zoom in you can make it out.

 

[brentil]

Ok, lets say it ain't a hard top... :-(

It the spy shots (especially the 3rd one) do reveal the "true" top.

What do you think if the rear window would raise straight up like a door window. It would NOT be part of the top... The mechanism is simple proven and already available apart for the guides...

Bringing the rear window up would bend the top and might seal the window with the top...

This would explain the box behind the seat... it contains the window mechanism!

Just an idea...may be I should patent this!

We've had several discussions about this to try to discern of the Solstice does or not. If you look at any of the images of the Solstice there is absolutely nowhere for a window to come up out of on the body. If you see the images of the most recent almost production cars, there's no hint of a place for a window to rise up out of that would be weather proofed to stop water from getting in. There's really not even just a non-weather proof opening for a window as well. The Del-Sol has a window like that, but it rises up into a solid roof structure.

 

[Rickady88GT]

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/showthread.php?t=979653
This shows the Corvette C6 gas tank in the rear bulk head. Will the Sol be exactly like it? No but it does show how the tank can be mounted behind the seats without useing up trunk space.
I looked at the GM web site about the C6 and the Power Rag Top is also non evassive in the C6. This top could be used in the Sol also, Maybe?

 

[brentil]

The difference between the Solstice and the C6 I think that makes the fuel tank placement difficult is that the C6 wall behind the seats between the seats and the trunk is just a sheet of metal that curves inward under the seats from all the cutaway images I've seen. On the Solstice we have that giant bathtub bulge right behind the seats that goes striaght down instead of curving under. I really wish I knew what that huge compartments behind the front seats is, because it looks a really large wasted space. Only things I can think of but we have no way of prooving yet are, behind seat storage (but I'd rather have the fuel tank there then and have much more trunk space), some sort of structual part of the car, or it really is the fuel tank.

 

[Rickady88GT]

That is the gas tank. Or more accurately the tank is between the flat sheet and the bathtub. Just like on the C6. that cavity is a structural member that the plastic tank can be fitted into from underneeth. we dont have all the datta to see just how the fuel fill and vent lines will run but they sure cant run from the filler neck to the top of the tank if the tank were put in the center of the KAPPA trunk.If the tank is under the "cover" then there would be some realy creative venting going on in there.

 

[LatinVenom]

That is the gas tank. Or more accurately the tank is between the flat sheet and the bathtub. Just like on the C6. that cavity is a structural member that the plastic tank can be fitted into from underneeth. we dont have all the datta to see just how the fuel fill and vent lines will run but they sure cant run from the filler neck to the top of the tank if the tank were put in the center of the KAPPA trunk.If the tank is under the "cover" then there would be some realy creative venting going on in there.

Look at this picture, the gas cap door is closer to what Rickady88GT is talking about, I believe he is correct about the gas tank been behind the seats.
Here is the link to that picture:
http://www.solsticeforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=180&size=big&sort=2&cat=3013
:smile

 

[SolsticeMan]

Thanks for the whitewash pic, Brentil. I've been meaning to do something like that - it's what I've been trying to say all along.

The "hump" is the fuel tank, with the vent, sender, etc on top. It's obviously a mid or bottom fill (not impossible - only requires filler neck about 25-40mm above the top of the tank, looks like that's pretty close from my last trip to NAIAS, today) and a very simple box shape. It's not complicated and ahead of the trunk like the C6, or the Z4 or other roadsters because form-fit tanks are 2X - 3X as expensive as a simple plastic box-tank.

I guess this packaging inefficiency is just the price you pay for a record-time "new platform" with no styling sacrifice. Look at how close the darn thing is to the original car back in 2002, and you can see what I mean. I don't think you could get closer without going way above $25,000, or living with inefficient packaging decisions (like the reverse swing decklid, or top stowing in the trunk).

Remember, this platform only got the go ahead about 20 months ago or so.

 

[Rickady88GT]

Hold up, just a minit. I saved that pic and transfered it to a photo editing program and magnified it so I could see the picture better. I found that there is NO PICTURE of the gas tank in the Phantum pic. The highlighted part is the brace that is in question but the tank is defenatly not in the picture. What you see as a tank is actualy the rendering of the muffler in the back ground. In the magnified photo I can clearly see the rubber exhaust hangers on the muffler and the rolled edges of the muffler (that is how the ends of the muffler are held on) and the thing that you think is the tank does not even line up with the brace or any mounting holes in the brace that you tink is holding up the tank. The Ghost picture uses ALL of the other picturs already given to us buy GM and are posted in this thread. The ghost picture does not add any new info and does NOT show a plastic gas tank in the center of the trunk. I can now see the muffler in the "altered" pic but could not realy see it well without the magnification of the other program. If you have a program that will alow you to magnifiy the pic, try it. You will see for yourself that that is NOT a gas tank in the ghost pic.

 

[Rickady88GT]

http://www.solsticeforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=161&size=big&sort=2&cat=3014

http://www.solsticeforum.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=160&size=big&sort=2&cat=3014

Look in this pic. This is the same exact pic used in the ghost pic in question. you can clearly see the muffler behind the diff. Now if you added all the body work/skinns and seats (superimposed into each other) you could easly get confused. The thing you think is a gas tank under the hump is the muffler that you see in this pic.