This Innocuous Saturn Sky Hides A Seven-Liter V8 Secret - The Autopian (2024)

In photos, the honey badger doesn’t look like a particularly threatening beast. Grumpy? Perhaps, but it’s only about the size of a giant squash and almost seems friend-shaped. However, it’s one of the most vicious animals in the entire kingdom, and like the honey badger, this Saturn Sky that recently hammered on Bring A Trailer proves it’s not about the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog.

Your average Saturn Sky is a lovely, if slightly impractical alternative to a Mazda MX-5. With a four-cylinder Ecotec engine up front, drive to the back, and compact dimensions, it’s a joyous little roadster for the backroads of America.You could even get a Red Line model with 260 horsepower, and that’s an underrated little firecracker on the secondhand market. However, this particular Sky’s a bit more powerful than that. Actually, a lot more powerful than that.

See, this isn’t an ordinary Saturn Sky. It’s been worked over by Mallett, a North Carolinian shop specializing in absolutely insane performance packages. Sure, there are still four cylinders under the hood, but Mallett added another four cylinders courtesy of an LS7 swap. That’s the 505-horsepower seven-liter V8 from a C6 Corvette Z06.

Oh, and while the Vette is impressively light at 3,130 pounds, even with the LS7 conversion, this Sky should weigh in under 3,000 pounds, all while cutting a smaller silhouette. Now that’s ruthless. While test track figures for the LS7 conversion are elusive,Hot Rod magazine did a similar swap on a mechanically similar Pontiac Solstice, and that thing blitzed from zero-to-60 mph in 3.3 seconds and ran the quarter-mile in 10.99 seconds at 133 mph. Yep, this thing should be in supercar territory.

Of course, this particular Mallett Sky doesn’t just stop at a seven-liter V8. The package also included a Tremec six-speed manual transmission, a LuK Pro Gold clutch, a 3.73:1 8.8-inch rear end, beefier halfshafts, and a beefier driveshaft to handle all that torque. Then some more twist was added thanks to a bigger cam, ported heads, and a set of headers that lets the V8 slot into the Sky frame. Stopping power’s afforded by SSBC calipers clamping 13-inch front discs, while the dampers are some seriously high-end Penske units. Oh, and then there are the Continental ExtremeContact Sport tires measuring 275/30ZR19 up front and325/30ZR19 out back.

Granted, this particular Saturn Sky Mallett isn’t perfect, and I’m not talking matters of taste with the alligator interior. It has a minor hit on its Carfax from 2007, and the Illinois title is marked “corrected,” which could scare off some buyers. Despite that, this ballistic Sky hammered on Bring A Trailer for $34,550. That’s a decent sum.

That’s C6 Corvette Z06 money for a tuner car, but here’s the thing: Everyone expects a Corvette Z06 to be fast. Nobody at an open lapping day expects to be ruthlessly hunted down by GM’s Miata competitor, especially if they’re driving a Porsche 911 or a Mercedes-AMG GT. The Saturn Sky Mallett 427 exists to humble giants, a true feat of American ingenuity. Long live big cubes.

(Photo credits: Bring A Trailer)

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