Here's the rundown: I am in a very stable job with a good income, single, and have a passion for cars. Most of my time has been spent around drag racing, but recently I've got an urge to track my car. As things turned out I had to buy a 2007 Cobalt LT for my daily driver. I absolutely love the car and due to me not wanting another car payment and the balt working for me, I'm going to stick with it.

My question is, how well with this drivetrain hold up under autocross and road race conditions? I'm not going to be racing competitively, but do want to spend some time and money on the car to make it a streetable track car. If the proper modifications were done to the tranny (i.e. trans cooler, shift+, possible converter down the road) would it hold up for me?

I really want to do this but if it's going to destroy the drivetrain then I wont.

Thanks!

 

The problem is, when autocross, you start doing some of those mods and it'll start bumping you up to classes where you have no chance. It's fun to do once or twice but costs way to much money to even be competitive.

 

As long as you don't plan on competing at regional events, I see no reason why you couldn't have fun with it. And it doesn't matter what you do, a 2.2L or 2.4L Cobalt won't be competitive in any class you try. If you're in it to just enjoy it, then there's nothing stopping you.

The auto transmission in the Cobalts hold up well to abuse, especially on stock power. An auxilliary cooler is beneficial, but not necessary as it is already cooled through the radiator. If you plan on going F/I, then a cooler will become more crucial. Beyond that, you need to decide if you want the car to be a straight line car or a twisties car.

If you were to autoX, I'd suggest aligning any of your modifications with the Street Touring class - any Front and Rear sway bars, lowering springs (no coilovers), street tires, shocks/struts, I/H/E, shift kits, and tunes are allowed. It keeps the budget manageable, and you won't be putting out enough hp to really damage anything in the driveline with only I/H/E/Tune (and I highly recommend getting an ECM/TCM tune in lieu of the Shift+). Plus, you can ditch the granny wheels and tires with the huge sidewalls for something more low-profile (like 17's or 18's) which will help with steering response.

http://cms.scca.com/documents/Solo_R...categories.pdf

 

^ He sounds like he knows from experience. I do, and I support those thoughts. I'm a pretty regular autocrosser, and here's my advice: a stock car is going to be OK for autocross, especially as you learn the driving techniques necessary to do well at it. You can upgrade the tires to something stickier, upgrade brake pads, and even a front sway bar and still stay in stock class. But when you start swapping or upgrading trannies, you end up in the deep water quickly, going against fast. well-prepped cars and wishing for more on your car. Tracking the car might well require these mods (or cause you to spend $$ for repairs). I don't know where the limitations lie.

What I would do is to swap cars into something a little more sporty to start with, where your level of stock equipment is better. You then end up making less changes to the car yourself, and can stay at or near stock, yet be more competitive at the same time. For my future, that means an LNF Cobalt when my current ride (Saabaru) gets tired. I'm not telling you what to do, but that's what I plan to do myself. I have a lot of hours and dollars into my car, and it's quick, but there's a cheaper way, I think.

 

I don't disagree that making the 2.2L competitive will take some money, but it won't require you to dump tens of thousands into the car (the kind of money that trading it in on an SS/TC would cost).

He already stated that he wasn't looking to get into the competitive circuit, he just wants to know if AutoX'ing his Cobalt will break anything. The answer to that is "probably not."

 

Sorry, I guess I wasn't clear before. I was addressing the tranny, torque converter, and cooler upgrades spoken of by the OP. If you're going to spend that kind of money, I think you should probably start with something different. I agree that nothing is likely to break, and that car could actually do OK in HS at a local level. I think we're mostly on the same page, Illini - even if your fellow Illini did just do a "bad, bad thing" to our Spartans...

 

Bahahaha!

I will say that had Lucas been playing that game, the result would have been very different. In any case, it was a damn good game

Also, I'd give a large sum of money for the opportunity to punch Dick Vitale in the nose. That guy absolutely annoys the HELL out of me. Whenever he's announcing, I'm tempted to just mute the TV and sit there in silence!

But, that's OT so I'll stop there