Take back the keys!

Emunds did a full report on Chevys new and improved Cobalt, turns out it seems to be pretty well put together. Not to mention has a nice trap speed to boot.

http://www.edmunds.com/insideline/do/Drives/FullTests/articleId=125288/pageId=137002

Holyy shit. Stock launch control? They weren't kidding around with this thing... that's badass.

They put a few nice things into it I have a book of everything they changed here. Has some nice Brembos on it also

BOOST3DWRX wrote:They put a few nice things into it I have a book of everything they changed here. Has some nice Brembos on it also

brembos are HUGE to see, glad the finally caught on after all these years..

From the article nick it seems as if the launch control really didn't work to well.

Rb25Cory wrote:

BOOST3DWRX wrote:They put a few nice things into it I have a book of everything they changed here. Has some nice Brembos on it also

brembos are HUGE to see, glad the finally caught on after all these years..

From the article nick it seems as if the launch control really didn't work to well.

Yah I saw that, but it's cool that they were thinking in that mindset while designing the car.

Nick Serra wrote:

Rb25Cory wrote:

BOOST3DWRX wrote:They put a few nice things into it I have a book of everything they changed here. Has some nice Brembos on it also

brembos are HUGE to see, glad the finally caught on after all these years..

From the article nick it seems as if the launch control really didn't work to well.

Yah I saw that, but it's cool that they were thinking in that mindset while designing the car.

Definitely, then need to talk to Nissan and what they did to the GT-R lol...

What they need is a RWD or AWD platform is they are trying to compete with Subaru, Mazda and Mitsubishi

Looks pretty nice, but I think I'd still go for the Mazdaspeed3 in this segment. Good that they're trying to control torque steer like Mazda.

BOOST3DWRX wrote:What they need is a RWD or AWD platform is they are trying to compete with Subaru, Mazda and Mitsubishi

Yeah but the 3 is fwd....

I hear theres talk of shipping the Colbalt Plant to Mexico?! Supposedly a 'new" car is to come here... heh...

I'm sure Rick knows more on the subject.

look like GM pulled their heads half way out of their asses on that one.. soon we might start to really wake up in the market place.

They did a great job on this - it actually looks pretty fun to drive and a nice ride. FWD does not thrill me, but a quick dd mabey?

very impressive coming from a cobalt

Rb25Cory wrote:

BOOST3DWRX wrote:What they need is a RWD or AWD platform is they are trying to compete with Subaru, Mazda and Mitsubishi

Yeah but the 3 is fwd....

I hear theres talk of shipping the Colbalt Plant to Mexico?! Supposedly a 'new" car is to come here... heh...

I'm sure Rick knows more on the subject.

Yah GM got a new car I forget the name of it though... Bolt maybe?

BOOST3DWRX wrote:Yah GM got a new car I forget the name of it though... Bolt maybe?

*Volt. That one is still up in the air. First they said Lordstown, then Mexico, then Detroit.. Who knows?

Rb25Cory wrote:

BOOST3DWRX wrote:What they need is a RWD or AWD platform is they are trying to compete with Subaru, Mazda and Mitsubishi

Yeah but the 3 is fwd....

I hear theres talk of shipping the Colbalt Plant to Mexico?! Supposedly a 'new" car is to come here... heh...

I'm sure Rick knows more on the subject.

I'm still laid of from GM, but I'll tell you what I do know..

The Cobalt is to remain in Lordstown until 2010. After that, who knows for sure. It's getting a facelift for '09. When this bodystyle of Cobalt is killed off, the Pontiac G5 is going all together. For 2008, the N/A 2.4 "SS" coupe and sedan have been replaced with the "Sport" model(thank God, it should've never been called an SS in the 1st place..). Which is exactly the same thing as the '06-'07 non-supercharged SS was. Wheels, styling, power/drivetrain, etc. The turbo SS is coming out with new wheels and even a sedan version this time. Of course Brembos and launch control are finally a part of the package as well. How and how well the launch control works, I have absolutely no idea. I haven't read that much into them, nor have I driven one or had the opprotunity to help assemble one, yet.

From a performance standpoint, the new Turbo SS is dead on in the 1/4(14.0) with the new '08 STi (yes, STi) and EVO GSR, according to the last issue of Car and Driver. The Cobalt won't ever go rwd since it's considered an affordable, entry-level sub-compact. Its competiton is the Civic, Lancer, Corolla, Focus, etc. As much as I would like to see a nice, round "300hp" and AWD come from this thing, I can't see people paying $30k+ for a Cobalt. (though they do everyday for a Lancer or an Impreza, which still boggles my mind) However, everything I've read on the LNF (turbo 2.0 Ecotec) engine states that 300hp from that engine is right around the corner for the Solstice GXP and Sky RedLine. It could or could not trickle down to the Cobalt, only time will tell...

Something I want to point out from that article was they claimed the supercharged version only ran a 15.2.. Funny, since Motor Trend ran a 14.5 with it and other magazines were in the 14.4-14.9 range. Those engines (LSJ) were actually underrated, considering that they put down 215-230@the wheels from the factory. But I'm glad the CSS finally went turbo. When I first started in Lordstown back in '04, we were building the pilot '05 Cobalt models, engineers from Detroit were there and a couple of them were telling me that the supercharged engine was only temporary and a turbo version will be out in a few years. They also told me that the Cobalt itself was a "stop-gap" car and "the real" new GM comact will be out around 2009 or so. This was back in '04, mind you. The Saturn ION has been killed off and they've replaced it with the European built Astra. Supposedly in another year or so, that car will be built in Lordstown and we're also supposed to get a mid-size sedan as well. Possibly the Euro-market Caddy BLS. That's all I know for the moment..

Hope I answered all of your questions.

Good sum up, and information. ^

However I dont entirely agree with the reason they went turbo. Who spends all kinda $$$ if you plan to just remove the car and add a turbo later.

I feel it was the competition of the srt-4 and JDM compacts who came factory with turbos that lead GM to its choice. I mean I've seen plenty of SS's at the tracks running 15's to 16's..... I've yet to see a quick one that still retained its factory supercharger...

Glad to see they finally switched over, I mean 104 mph trap out of the box, thats quick for sure. New cars these days damn.....

Rb25Cory wrote:Good sum up, and information. ^

However I dont entirely agree with the reason they went turbo. Who spends all kinda $$$ if you plan to just remove the car and add a turbo later.

They were able to use it in the Cobalt now since it's the same engine(LNF) found in the Sky Redline, Solstice GXP and HHR SS. Also, the Supercharged versions came with factory 4.05 gears, which would be great for a turbo car, absolutely terrible for a supercharged one. (blowers make all of thier torque down low, as you all know) If any of you have ever driven a supercharged CSS, you would know that 1st gear only lasts for like a second (with insane wheelspin and tq. steer, if you flatten it) and then the car more or less falls on its face afterwards..

Rb25Cory wrote:I feel it was the competition of the srt-4 and JDM compacts who came factory with turbos that lead GM to its choice. I mean I've seen plenty of SS's at the tracks running 15's to 16's..... I've yet to see a quick one that still retained its factory supercharger...

Umm.. not really. 15s, 16s? If they were supercharged, then they couldn't drive for shit. They were mid to high 14 second cars, period. Then there were the GMPP's Stage 1 and Stage 2 upgrade packages which could get you into the mid-high 13s with a good driver and probably some dr's. Again, GM didn't really push their in-house aftermarket for this cars' engine (LSJ) because they knew it was already on its way out. They even pulled this crate engine out of its catalog early in the '07 model year due to this fact. The naturally aspirated (171-173hp) Cobalt SS's were good for mid 15s, so maybe you're confusing the two. The supercharged ones were factory (under)rated at 205hp @ the flywheel, but I've seen them put down between 215-230hp@ the wheels in person and on the internet completely stock. Which is exactly what the Neon SRT4's put down. As far as "JDM" cars are concerned, what Jap car that is sold here, that is facory FWD and turbocharged? Other than the Mazdaspeed 3. Honda doesn't make one, niether does Toyota, Subaru, Mitzu, Scion, Suzuki, Nissan, Lexus, Infiniti or Acura. The only other one I can think of is the old Madzaspeed Protege turbo (mid 15s, 170hp) Ford doesn't make anything (here). The old 170hp SVT Focus wasn't even close with its 16 second timeslips. The SRT4 Neon was killed off in '05, (which was the Cobalts first year) and the SRT4 Caliber is just now coming out. Though it has more power than the Neon it replaces, it's also heavier, uglier and and more expensive. As a matter of fact, it isn't any faster than the Neon either.

BTW, "JDM" stands for Japanese Domestic Market. Meaning you own a car (or part) that was never offered for sale in the U.S. So if you have a JDM car, you own a Civic Type-R, Skyline, FTO, pre-'03 EVO/STi, etc. An H22 or an RB26DETT are JDM motors, because they weren't ever sold here in any production car and were mainly exclusive to its country of origin. An "American version" of a '00 Civic Si or an '05 EVO isn't a JDM car. What mostly everyone in this club owns is simply a Jap car. In your case Cory you have a JDM powered "American" Jap car.

You guys should know this, what kind of ricers are you anyways??

Lol ^^ Didnt know we were getting technical here on our terminology with brands. You know what I meant.

They were most likely shit drivers as I was watching. Most people who bring those types of cars there are shit drivers who cut 2.5-7 60 ft's and spin and spin lol. However their trap speeds didn't impress me much...

Needless to say I feel it would be money more well spent to buy the turbo version, instead of the old supercharger one.... this all granted you like FWD's and colbalts..

Rb25Cory wrote:Lol ^^ Didnt know we were getting technical here on our terminology with brands. You know what I meant.

Yeah, yeah.. It wasn't just you, I've seen it from a few other people on here before..

Rb25Cory wrote:Needless to say I feel it would be money more well spent to buy the turbo version, instead of the old supercharger one.... this all granted you like FWD's and colbalts..

Right. But I wouldn't invest in a FWD car for anything else other than a daily driver anyway, aside from being decent in the snow/rain, fwd is completely worthless from a performance standpoint, that much I learned from my GTP. Given the choice of which one I'd rather have, I would definetaly go with the turbo version of the Cobalt over the supercharged one. But with the increased performance of the new turbo model, these will overshadow the older supercharged version, thus they'll suffer a huge depreciation hit, making them more affordable in the used car market. The same thing happened to the LT1 f-bodys when the LS1 came out. I might just wait another year or two and maybe I'll pick up an '04-'05 ION RedLine or an '05 CSS for a new daily to replace my GTP. By then you'll be able to pick one up for a song. The only modification I would make would be to take off the factory ricer wing and replace it with the standard models spoiler...