This report has gone under the radar, but if you have the GT500 issue of Motortrend, there is a comapro between the two, and the Cobalt tied the SRT4 in the 1/4, but beat it on the track by about half a second! Price difference came down to the Cobalt's performance package of Recaros and LSD, but they gave the Cobalt the win.
Good job GM...now lets work on that motor some more!!

 

No kidding, its the most unsupported engine ever. There should be two turbo kits out for it by the end of the year though, and then there are the GM staged upgrades.

 

As I've said 100 times, the Cobalt rocks!

I'm not a fan of FWD, and I'll say when & where I think GM has screwed up, but Cobalt, and to a far lesser extent the G6 & LeCrosse are going to be viewed as exceptionally assembled cars that hit the mark as word gets around. Especially as performance models get out and generate a bit of buzz.

 

The SRT4 was the slowest one they ever had. The cobalt will not tie the srt4 in any acceleration test. It will best it slightly on a skid pad. This same type of comparo could have been written about the mustang/camaro 5 years ago. just because its in print does not make it true.

 

For those that haven't seen the mag, here are the test Data #'s. 1st set of numbers are for the Cobat, and the following set are for the Neon.

0-30: 2.2 ------2.4
0-40: 3.5-------3.8
0-50: 4.8------4.9
0-60: 6.1------6.0
0-70: 7.9------7.8
0-80: 10.2-----9.7
0-90: 12.6------11.8
0-100: 15.4------13.8

Passing 45-65mph: 2.7------2.7
1/4 mile : 14.4@99.3--------14.4@ 100.8
braking, 60-0mph: 113'--------118'
Lateral acceleration: 0.88g's-----0.88g's
MT figure-eight: 26.0 sec @ 0.69g---------25.9@0.69g
1.6 mile road coarse: 97.2 sec ----------97.4sec

So they're tied in the 1/4 mile as well as slalom, and the Cobalt did better in the braking. As for the road coarse, the Cobalt was 2 tenths of a sec faster. The Cobalt edging out the SRT-4 on a road coarse is no real surprise nor was the braking, but the SRT-4 was definitly out of normal-pace with that 14.4 1/4 mile. They attributed the relatively new engine (1,450 miles) and build variations to the slow times.

so the Cobalt did well.

 

So basically above 60 mph the Neon smokes the Cobalt.

 

It should under 60 too, but this example was running a bit weak. Previous tests of the SRT-4 in motor-trend have netted 0-60's of 5.5's. This one ran a 6.0....half a second slower.

I don't think anyone was really expecting the Cobalt SS to match or out-accelerate the SRT-4. To put things in prospective, it'll hang door to door (mph wise) with a 300hp STi till about 125-135mph and just pulls pretty hard away from the STi once 130mph or so hits. I think the SRT-4 hits 150mph 8 or so seconds quicker than the Sti. Just putting things in prospective. The SRT-4 pulls.

 

An off the pace SRT still had 1.5 mph greater trap speed. A buddy of mine has a STOCK 2004 SRT that has ran 13.80 @ 102.

 

Even the idiots at Motor Trend can only screw up a trap speed with great difficulty, and the trap speed is telling quite a story there.

GMPP needs to get off their collective duffs and get the aftermarket fired up here. Something like LS1Edit is most certainly in order as I know there are shops out there with CNC programs for the Ecotec cylinder head.

BTW, something is wrong with the 0-100 data shown on the Cobalt. There's no way that car takes a full second to go from 99.3 to 100mph unless someone threw an anchor out the passenger side window at 99.5mph.

 

Even the SRT numbers look weird as well. 0-100mph comes in at 13.8 seconds but it cross's the 1/4 traps going 100.8mph in 14.4 seconds. So an extra 6 tenths of a sec to go 0.8mph faster. On the other hand, it is taking the Cobalt 1 full second to go 0.7mph faster.

Odd numbers, but it's what they have published.

 

It is odd.

Hmmm.... so how long is it going to take for the whole raft of SRT-homer cyber-excuses to kick in?

"GM sent a ringer."

"The SRT-4 was feeling bad because it realized how ugly it was."

"Well, let's run the Cobalt against a Stage 42,342 and see what happens then!"

"I have sand in my p***y."

 

maybe a shift is required?

 

Could be if they're that stupid.

Crap, hold the thing out for another 25rpm or so. Yeesh, the damned thing has a rev limiter on it for a reason.

 

that is exactly what i noticed, those numbers are way wrong.

exactly why motortrend isnt the magazine it was 4-5 years ago

 

I'm pretty sure that HP Tuners is working on a tuning program for the Ecotec line....