According to this months Car and Driver's Preview section, the Chevy Cobalt SS Superchargered is "astoundingly good" as such improvments allude to "superb interior trim that mimics a Volkswagon's..."

Features that caught my eye were:

Alum block&head; 2.0L
M62 Eaton Supercharger, twin rotor; 12 psi
air-to-water intercooler
forged steel crank, sodium exhaust valves, oil cooler, oil jets
curb weight: 2900 lbs
Performance Package: Recaro seats and Quaife LSD
Tires: 215/45/P18
A-pillar boost gauge: 30inHg-20psi
0-60mph: est 6.1
1/4mile: est 14.7
Base Price: $21,995

Seems like Chevrolet is begining to understand that performance does not have to come at a steep price and are begining to realize and incorporate the phrase "Give the people what they want!"

 

I like the car personally.

 

this is all good for buyers....more options and more competition means others should be stepping up as well. It's great to have so many options in the $17k - $21k price range. Personally I like that the car is a 2 door........I was so sick of 4 friggin' doors before I bought my Z.

 

Youd think theyd make it just abit faster to beat the srt4.

 

any pics of this "g" ride?

 

Still an FF though?

 

here are some

still don't think its ready for the SRT-4......



interior

 

*Finally* more car makers are realizing there's a huge mainstream market for small high performance cars. People loved the RX7, MR2 and Supra - and others like them - but they ended up being kind of cult cars. Now 15-20 years later America's finally getting it! I think we have Subaru to thank for the recent surge.

I saw the Cobalt at the Auto show last week and I'm not a fan, but I'm glad it exists. The interior is nice... maybe nicer than the Evo

 

Contender to maybe a RalliArt ... But not to a stock evo .. by no means ... 200HP =P

 

^Contender to the evo if it were placed in the "General Forum"....

contender to other performance compact cars hence in "Other Car Forum"

use common sense...Thanks

 

^^ Gee thanks .. add another one to the list ..

 

Its a nice compact, even the interior shows more thought than what GM usually delivers.

Here is the problem though, and its the same in the Cobalts brother the Saturn ION Redline. The tranny in that car is the weak link. The Eco-tec is a damn good engine, as can be seen by how many people are using them in Salt Flats cars. The engine could handle more boost, but the whole drivetrain is capped in an effort to preserve the tranny. Go look at a hp and torque curve on an ION Redline. It never peaks. At redline, the graph is still rising, meaning the rev limiter stops the engine before it ever reaches peak. Now compare this to normal cars that have hp and torque curves that begin to level off and fall by the time they reach redline.

The numbers for the car are decent, but for me a RSX Type S would be a better choice. Similar performance numbers, better looks in and out for the RSX, plus GMs reliability is suspect at best. I agree though that its exciting that domestic makers are finally waking up.

 

That OIL LIFE digital gauge thing is pretty neat - wonder how that works and if we could integrate one into our cars ...!

 

yeah, I agree. It'll be really hard for any maker to beat the brute power of the SRT-4 and stay around the $21k price range. Their best bet is to try and make a more well-rounded package.....maybe a little less HP than an SRT but improved handling and refinement which appears to be the angle their using for this Cobalt and at first glance they seemed to do an admirable job. Curious to hear how it handles though.

 

i know motor trend dogged the saturn ION saying it handled like crap.. the cobalt is suppose to be based off the same chassis. hopefully they did more work to it. we'll see... i think it took dodge to put their nut on the table with the SRT-4 before another american company came out with something like this. kinda like subaru with the WRX...