![]() ![]() Using launch control or no-lift shifting gives you the inkling that you’re going to break the car or engine or Saab-sourced five-speed manual-or all three-in half, but Chevy warrants the powertrain for five years or 100,000 miles and says that engineers performed 600 launch-control blastoffs in a row to validate the whole shebang. More pops are bad, since that means you’ve bounced it off the rev limiter and aren’t accelerating as quickly as you could. ![]() In the produce section at the grocery store? Yup, no-lift shift.Ī tip from the engineers: One pop from the tailpipe is good. No-lift shifts, though, coax such sweet burbles and gunfire pops from the exhaust that you just have to do them all the time. Both are fairly violent events, and not lifting off the gas when you shift feels, well, ludicrous. Rocketing to the top end is a ridiculous amount of fun in the new SS, thanks to the standard launch control and no-lift shift functions, which are also found on the less hard-core, pudgier HHR SS. Top speed is as high as 160 mph, so long as you forgo that ginormous, drag-heavy optional spoiler. Peak torque is an impressive 260 pound-feet, and it’s available from 2000 rpm.Ĭhevy figures a blast to 60 ought to take 5.7 seconds, but the SS Supercharged took a mere 5.9 in our test, so we’re thinking maybe an additional 10th or two could be squeezed from the more powerful turbo model. More important, though, is that the new car puts 260 horsepower under your right foot versus 205 in the SS Supercharged. This 2.0-liter Ecotec turbo four, introduced in the Pontiac Solstice GXP and Saturn Sky Red Line roadsters, gains direct injection and variable valve timing for intake and exhaust and returns a claimed 22 mpg city and 30 mpg highway. (The naturally aspirated imposter SS was discontinued after 2007, too Chevy now calls that model the Cobalt Sport.) As a result, the new SS gets force-fed via an air-to-air intercooled turbocharger rather than the Eaton supercharger of the old car. The SS Supercharged had to be discontinued because its blown four didn’t comply with emissions regulations for 2008. Not only does it remain face-peelingly quick, but it’s also now a maniacal piece of machinery that laughs at nearly any corner you toss in front of it. A mini-muscle car, it was quick in a straight line, although it became a ball of understeer when the road went bendy. Comparison Test: Seven Cheap Speeders of 2009.2008 Chevrolet Cobalt SS Short Take Road Test.Although CobaltSS.Net assures that certain tuners know what they're doing something, many will eventually break. With such tuning potential obviously comes great peril, which is why it is best to avoid buying these heavily tuned cars. The dyno results page showcases modest tunes producing 300 HP and full nitrous builds going as high as 898 HP -a truly crazy figure in the 3,000 lbs car. With different threads dedicated to each individual engine specification, advice on living with the car, which covers everything from hypermiling to vendors for parts, it's a must for potential buyers of the car.Īs Chevy intended, the Cobalt SS became a part of the tuning scene, its four-cylinder engine has a lot of untapped potential producing only 200 HP from the factory. The car has a forum dedicated to it CobaltSS.Net here long after the car's introduction is a flourishing community of those who own the car. Some have been tuned to make more than 500 HP. The Cobalt SS became a huge part of the tuning scene, so much so that it featured in numerous Need For Speed games during its lifetime. It runs contrary to sports car design, where the bonnet is long and the rear short. It is easily recognizable, with a long sloping rear window that is accented by a spoiler from the factory. The two-door variation has a distinctive side profile, still very obviously a product of basic computer design but one that is well proportioned. With chunkier bumpers and alloy wheels, the saloon SS is a remarkable improvement over the base model, but it is no rival to the coupe. The four-door variant of the car is very utilitarian in design, boxy, and with a little flare, it could come from no other than noughties General Motors. This economy styling continues in the rest of the car most obviously with the saloon. Its European rivals do not have the same feeling. The Cobalt was a replacement for the Caviliar, a compact economy car the SS may have been a step above this, but sharing the same underpinnings as the base car, the SS falls short in terms of interior quality, suffering from the same affliction as the Neon SRT-4.
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