WTF did Chevy do with the Cobalt SS?

[Demon-Xanth]

Car and Driver basically has it owning all kinds of cars on a road course, and doing the Nurburgring in 8:22.

Did they put an acme glue spreader onto the front of that thing or what? It went from a completely "meh" handling and performing car to awesome.

 

[Arkaign]

Yeah, that is very impressive. Nice to see it backed up by C&D. The best I can tell is that they put much better brakes and wheels/tires, and tightened the suspension some more. It's sort of a confirmation to the smarter tuners out there, who take the stock wheels/brakes/suspension off and put good stuff on. Of course, most of the 'tuners' (ricers?) out there are doing it WRONG, but that doesn't invalidate the fact that you can make improvements when you choose wisely.

 

[Ktulu]

Originally posted by: Demon-Xanth
Car and Driver basically has it owning all kinds of cars on a road course, and doing the Nurburgring in 8:22.

Did they put an acme glue spreader onto the front of that thing or what? It went from a completely "meh" handling and performing car to awesome.

Um, from what I understand, the Cobalt SS even when it had the supercharger always handled well. Of course it's got more HP and they've furthered developed it's suspension ont the 'Ring.

 

[Arkaign]

Ah, from the C&D link : "host of chassis upgrades including wider tires and larger brakes. "

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Arkaign
Ah, from the C&D link : "host of chassis upgrades including wider tires and larger brakes. "

err, wider tires and larger brakes are considered chassis upgrades???

 

[Ktulu]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Arkaign
Ah, from the C&D link : "host of chassis upgrades including wider tires and larger brakes. "

err, wider tires and larger brakes are considered chassis upgrades???

Yes.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

I'm sure the extra power from that killer turbo motor helps too. GM took the Cobalt SS from last to first-in-class with the refresh.

 

[fbrdphreak]

They spent a lot of time tuning the suspension at the Ring.

I saw some pics of an SS sedan the other day. I hope they make an SS version of a higher end sedan or coupe with that turbo and a similarly tuned suspension. I need leather, heated seats, etc amenities and couldn't deal with the uber-cheap looking headlights & taillights (maybe because they look like every other Cobalt), but otherwise the car seems great. Good gas mileage too!

 

[SearchMaster]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
They spent a lot of time tuning the suspension at the Ring.

I saw some pics of an SS sedan the other day. I hope they make an SS version of a higher end sedan or coupe with that turbo and a similarly tuned suspension. I need leather, heated seats, etc amenities and couldn't deal with the uber-cheap looking headlights & taillights (maybe because they look like every other Cobalt), but otherwise the car seems great. Good gas mileage too!

I was thinking the same thing. You can get a pretty hot performing SS Sedan for ~$22K but there is no navi, leather, etc. available. Add a few niceties with a $25K price point, and they would probably get some takers.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Ktulu

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Arkaign
Ah, from the C&D link : "host of chassis upgrades including wider tires and larger brakes. "

err, wider tires and larger brakes are considered chassis upgrades???

Yes.

I guess I don't understand the word chassis at all...at least when it is applied to cars. I read up a bit on wiki on the def of chassis for car. I would call that platform but what do I know. for me chassis is just the frame.

 

[overst33r]

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Ktulu

Originally posted by: sdifox

Originally posted by: Arkaign
Ah, from the C&D link : "host of chassis upgrades including wider tires and larger brakes. "

err, wider tires and larger brakes are considered chassis upgrades???

Yes.

I guess I don't understand the word chassis at all...at least when it is applied to cars. I read up a bit on wiki on the def of chassis for car. I would call that platform but what do I know. for me chassis is just the frame.

It includes the suspension. Personally I don't consider tires part of a chassis, because that has nothing to do with how the car's body behaves.

 

[shabby]

Pity they didnt use the same brakes/tires on the solstice gxp, we got some economy performance tires and single piston calipers.

 

[BlackTigers]

I saw that the other day.

I've always liked the Cobalts, and this SS is a nice little car.

 

[LTC8K6]

25% more horsepower...certainly didn't slow it down any...

 

[zerocool84]

Originally posted by: SearchMaster

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
They spent a lot of time tuning the suspension at the Ring.

I saw some pics of an SS sedan the other day. I hope they make an SS version of a higher end sedan or coupe with that turbo and a similarly tuned suspension. I need leather, heated seats, etc amenities and couldn't deal with the uber-cheap looking headlights & taillights (maybe because they look like every other Cobalt), but otherwise the car seems great. Good gas mileage too!

I was thinking the same thing. You can get a pretty hot performing SS Sedan for ~$22K but there is no navi, leather, etc. available. Add a few niceties with a $25K price point, and they would probably get some takers.

If you want all that, go buy a SLOWER gti or si. This car is meant to be cheap speed. It does not need anything else. It's not meant to be a mass market car. It's fine the way it is even though Cobalts look like crap on the outside. It's currently the king of the mountain.

 

[angry hampster]

Where the hell is ford during all this? Four years ago they had the SVT Focus that dominated the sport compact market in performance/$.

 

[exdeath]

The bean counters and the Ford GT killed SVT and Coletti retired.

 

[vi edit]

Drop that turbo setup in a Vibe GXP model and I'm sold.

 

[PricklyPete]

Originally posted by: vi edit
Drop that turbo setup in a Vibe GXP model and I'm sold.

Not a bad idea at all. I'd like that engine put in just about every small to medium sized car in GM's lineup (at different tunes). I really hope it becomes available on the upcoming Chevy Cruze as an SS model. While it won't be as fast as the Colbalt due to size, it looks a hell of a lot better and has a number of the niceties people here are asking for.