Just picked up a 2010 Cobalt SS coupe (black on black) last night. I LOVE this car! To sum it up, this car is the corvette of the $20K market segment, unbelievable bang for the buck.

Didn't know what to expect since this is my first turbocharged car. Power and torque seem to come on much more linearly than I expected (good thing, from my perspective). Shifter has a nice manly feel, trans. is nice and raw; love rowing through 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Exterior styling is great (may do a spoiler delete though). Seats are a 10, sound system is incredible. And the RFD is perfect for me since I'm OCD when it comes to performance parameters. And this little beast handles on rails, a BMW 335xi in the family couldn't keep up through a nasty twisty exit ramp.

Something is really weird though, I swear I've seen that steering wheel before, can't put my finger on it...





















Next up, GMS1 upgrade. My mission in life is to have two underdog American cars that slaughter the competition.

 

Nice

 

Glad to hear from you. Although alot of idiots on this forum believe in the industry image that Cobalts suck donkey wangy. I'm glad that a real truth review has been generated from a new owner that respects what a Cobalt SS turbo has to offer. Excellent performance for the price and decent modest styling. I love going everywhere in this car it makes my commute tolerable and enjoyable.

 

Thanks, appreciate it.

In my experience, the truth usually lies somewhere between the extremes. Japanese and German cars are not perfect gems sitting on pedestals, and American cars are not nearly as krappy as a lot of people claim.

Funny example, BMW connects all of the electric lock actuators in a car in series. So if just one fails, all fail (including the gas cap lock). And to top it off, when all locks fail, only the drivers side door(s) can be opened mechanically, so if grandma is riding shotgun, she has to crawl over the center console and fall out of the drivers side door. My brother-in-law had a funny opinion of that situation, he said "no wonder they lost the f'ing war".

But that being said, I consider myself to be a true car guy, I respect the machine, not the brand. Cars like the GT-R demand respect (would never buy one though because it doesn't come with a real manual). I love M3s (owned an E46). Would sell my left ******** for a Porsche GT3 RS 4.0.

 

Welcome, glad to see you enjoy the car. GM STG1 will not disappoint you.

 

Thanks. Like the license plate! Believe it or not, I used to be a Mustang guy too (I've done 'em all). Is that beast a terminator (looks like it)? Must be pushing some insane power. Another car I'd like to add to the stable.

 

Thanks, I got the plate to try and get people to mess with me more but it hasn't really worked. I love all of America's sports & muscle cars as well. And yes she is, making roughly 600whp. Sig pictures are actually old, she looks a lot different now. Lowered, new wheels, professionally smoked tails.

 

Get some suspension upgrades with your GMS1. Then you'll really rock!

 

Nice. Is she still weighing in around 3600 lbs? With 600 rwp and even the stock curb weight, could be a problem for most Z06s, since they are typically driven by 80 year olds, weigh in between 3200-3300 lbs now and push ~460 whp (6 lbs/hp vs. 6.96 lbs/hp respectively). I got the stripper model (1LZ), "deweighted" her down to about 3100 lbs, and I'm pushing about 500 whp (very conservative estimate, probably more like 510-520). So my weight to power ratio is roughly 6.2 lbs/hp, but I'm a little crazy, and I can drive it at 10/10ths. Another thing that really helps that car is the ridiculous gearing, you can take it up to 120 with two shifts (into 2nd at 60, into 3rd at about 90). A lot of vette owners don't know how to do that without spinning; all it takes is an ease into 1st through 3500 RPM then lay it down all the way through 3rd.



Already ordered a set of Hawk HPS pads. Was thinking about the eibach pro plus package (pro kit springs, front and rear sways). Always served me well in the past, haven't looked up the reviews on here yet though.

 

Idk if there called this for the vette or not but get a tubi for the exhaust, i guees maybe another word for vibrant
i saw one of those beat the living hell outa Viper loud as hell too, nice purchase

 

According to a handful of the AutoX/Track guys on here, the stock pads are superior. Just an FYI.

Please post more of your Vette!

 

Hawk HPS pads are junk. Fine for the street, nowhere near as good as the factory Ferodos. I made the same mistake (and I should know better).

Don't waste your time messing with the suspension; the factory got it right. Eibach springs will make the car worse, they are likely softer than the factory springs. At the most (without a damper upgrade, different conversation completely), upgrade the rear swaybar. In my experience, understeer was greatly reduced going to -3* camber, and it is free. Open up the holes in the struts. Some will recommend Pedders springs.

I agree this car was the best performance bargain since, IDK, the NSRT4? Unreal performance on track out of the box for the money. And my sedan draws almost no attention.

 

I agree with above said comments. Dont touch the suspension unless your putting on a rear sway bar. The HPS are good for street and if you dont care for the stopping on a dime action. What you really want to do if it hasnt been done already is examine the rear calipers. Check the inside of the rear rotors for grooves and see if the sliding pins are lubed.

If they arent lubed and the rotors are scored to ****, buy some R1Concepts Premium rotors and lube those sliding pins!

Your gonna want an after market Downpipe with or without Highflow cat. They are pretty cheap from most companies on this site. You wont need to touch the stock exhaust really, its almost 2.75" mendral bent from factory and its a straight through system. Most guys on here will tell you a 3" stainless steel exhaust will net you maybe 2-3hp which to me is unmeasurable...

The intake options available that work are the airbox mod, you can search for it, with a zzp intake tube. Or trying out the K&N typhoon intake which most swear by, lol. There are other intakes out there as well but almost all intakes require a retune. Im using the K&N intake on my stock tune and it works fine.

As for tunes you may want to research what you want.. keep the GMS1? or go HP Tuners route? or go Trifecta.

I also recommend swapping out the intercooler.. the endtanks on that thing are platic shrapnel grenades waiting to happen. Also swap out the upper charge pipe as its an eyesore. lol.

 

Welcome!

 

it'll wear off soon once u hit a few bumps and your suspension deteriorates

 

real honesty

The car is great but the actual build quailty and materials is garbage

 

Welcome to CSS! enjoy your car

 

I love C6's .... My father (i'm 36 btw and he's 60 lol) had a paxton novi kit installed from East Coast Supercharging on his 06 C6. I had to drive it home about 400 miles and I couldn't believe how comfortable the car was on the highway. It can bite ya pretty quick if your being an idiot .....but otherwise it's super controllable when spinning from a 1st or 2nd gear roll .

It put down 565/545 to the tire ..... Threw the stock manifold's and cats (cats lasted about 500 miles before they melted lolo) . Only other thing done is a corsa catback.

When he was stock we went from a roll right around 40 mph ..... it took him till over 115 before he went around me lol..... but he was coming pretty hard lol. Not bad for a tune and a downpipe at the time .

 

Thanks for the warm welcome and all of the mod tips guys.

So the Hawk HPS pads are garbage? What I'm looking for is about 15-20% more stopping power on the street. One thing I did notice today is that my brake fluid is about 1/4 inch below the min. fill line (GM certification for you). If I top that off and go with the hawks, you think I'll get what I'm looking for? Or is a better bet the OE pads with aftermarket rotors?

Re. the other mods, I'm gonna try my best to start out slow, GMS1, a few cosmetic items (maybe HID headlights since it looks like a cake walk to install).
^I say this now but six months down the road half of the damn car will probably have been replaced.

The build quality posts are kind of confusing me. Is it really that bad, or just worse than something like a Honda? The real question is this: can you live with the flaws given that the performance of the car is worth about 1.5 times its price? I can, and I'm betting most of you can too, or else you wouldn't still have the car. The Z06 is the same deal, do the seats suck? Yeah. Is the interior up to par with a 911s? Hell no. But I tell you this, the performance is unbelievable, in cool weather the thing accelerates so fast it's unbelievable; I have eaten M6s and SL65 AMGs for breakfast.

And on that note, more pics of the beast. I joined to talk about how happy I am with my new Cobalt, and you guys want pics of my "old" car!

 

I bet 90% of the folks that have problems with their SS TC are a result of mods. The only problems I have ever had on my car were due to things that I changed. Never any major problems. The car is rock solid to me. I wring it out on track, and it is a great double duty car.

 

just a heads up gms1 has promblems

 

Only for people that don't install it properly. Jesus. Sometimes I hate the internet.

Solder it, or use CED's nice new harness adapter which requires no modification to the stock harness.

CED stage 1 kit, with harness adapters

 

unless installed wrong

 

you running the new adapters?

 

Nope. I never had a problem with GMS1. I got it the same week I got my car, just after the kit was released. I think Bill (MoreTorqueMoreHP) did a great job with GMS1, unfortunately, there are a bunch of crappy mechanics and crappy shadetree mechanics that screw this up. Would have been better if they had pigtails instead of cutting into the harness.