Test Drive: 2010 Cobalt SS ---WITH--- GM Stage 1
Hello guys,
My apologies if I take some of killerbee's thunder, but holy heck! The stage kit is totally worth it! I drove it tonight, met up with Bill on Woodward and tested the capabilities, its FAST. The car was pegged at 22 lbs of boost under WOT and you can feel the extra 50 ft/lb of torque around 4500-5000. My stock 09 Cobalt SS LNF pales in comparison and feels almost slow. The day I can afford this kit once it comes out (cough cough California hurry up), I'm buying it.
You can feel the torque steer once you get into boost, if you're not on flat straight pavement you do have to wrestle it a bit more than a stock LNF. Its noticeably more powerful. It won't give you that seat of the pants throw you back in your seat feeling a 2.7 60's S/C CAI/catless/catback will give you (I used to own one), but its fun.
Driving the car up and down woodward a few miles till we were able to get on the freeway, you wouldn't even know the difference, this kit does not affect the daily 'drive-ability' at all, the power is there when you want it and does NOT make daily driving a chore. The car pulled the 22lbs all the way to redline no dips drops or pauses, just solid smooth power the whole way through the powerband.
Also, the turbo Cobalt SS I drove was an early batch in the 1st 20 of the 2010's. The ONLY difference as far as I could tell was the black radio/hvac controls, same exact radio/hvac just not the tacky painted silver look. With the black on black interior, it looked sharp. Pictures of it are in my cell phone (I know I know, lame, I'm lazy) so if KillerBee wants to take pictures and put them up look forward to his thread about it and his pictures. The 2010 car I drove seemed to have longer throws relative to my 09 Cobalt SS, maybe it was just me or that specific car (or my seating position though I tried to mimic my 09 setup before I started driving it).
Thanks alot to Bill aka More Torque More HP for the opportunity to test drive the Stage 1 kit for the Cobalt SS turbo and here is to Chevrolet's continued commitment to the sport compact market, PLEASE MAKE A 2012 CHEVROLET CRUZE SS with the LNF and a 6 speed with similar/refined suspension dynamics, improve upon the success of the delta 1 cobalt with the delta 2 cruze
Bottom Line: Totally worth the 600 bucks in parts and 200 or so bucks in labor for a noticeable, if not substantially more powerful car.
My apologies if I take some of killerbee's thunder, but holy heck! The stage kit is totally worth it! I drove it tonight, met up with Bill on Woodward and tested the capabilities, its FAST. The car was pegged at 22 lbs of boost under WOT and you can feel the extra 50 ft/lb of torque around 4500-5000. My stock 09 Cobalt SS LNF pales in comparison and feels almost slow. The day I can afford this kit once it comes out (cough cough California hurry up), I'm buying it.
You can feel the torque steer once you get into boost, if you're not on flat straight pavement you do have to wrestle it a bit more than a stock LNF. Its noticeably more powerful. It won't give you that seat of the pants throw you back in your seat feeling a 2.7 60's S/C CAI/catless/catback will give you (I used to own one), but its fun.
Driving the car up and down woodward a few miles till we were able to get on the freeway, you wouldn't even know the difference, this kit does not affect the daily 'drive-ability' at all, the power is there when you want it and does NOT make daily driving a chore. The car pulled the 22lbs all the way to redline no dips drops or pauses, just solid smooth power the whole way through the powerband.
Also, the turbo Cobalt SS I drove was an early batch in the 1st 20 of the 2010's. The ONLY difference as far as I could tell was the black radio/hvac controls, same exact radio/hvac just not the tacky painted silver look. With the black on black interior, it looked sharp. Pictures of it are in my cell phone (I know I know, lame, I'm lazy) so if KillerBee wants to take pictures and put them up look forward to his thread about it and his pictures. The 2010 car I drove seemed to have longer throws relative to my 09 Cobalt SS, maybe it was just me or that specific car (or my seating position though I tried to mimic my 09 setup before I started driving it).
Thanks alot to Bill aka More Torque More HP for the opportunity to test drive the Stage 1 kit for the Cobalt SS turbo and here is to Chevrolet's continued commitment to the sport compact market, PLEASE MAKE A 2012 CHEVROLET CRUZE SS with the LNF and a 6 speed with similar/refined suspension dynamics, improve upon the success of the delta 1 cobalt with the delta 2 cruze
Bottom Line: Totally worth the 600 bucks in parts and 200 or so bucks in labor for a noticeable, if not substantially more powerful car.
I believe the dyno graph is posted on www.GMtunersource.com/ but if I remember correctly the graph showed 280hp 320 ft/lb torque at 4700 RPM...
talk about a fun drive, wow....
talk about a fun drive, wow....
Awesome man! Glad you had some fun and really great of Bill to do this with some of our members. He's even offering to anyone else in the area to meet up with him tomorrow to check it out. People in the Lansing area should make the trip to see him, sounds like they won't be disappointed.
Assuming the black radio is the one out of the G5... so nothing special and anyone can easily swap over if they find the silver to be tacky, which I do not. Also I'm assuming the car had a low spoiler? The 2010 ordering guide says the high rise is no longer an option, and yellow is cancelled... so we'll see if that is maintained for production or if they have leftovers or whatever.
I wouldn't mind the black trim pieces... mostly because it would match my AVIC a lot better. I bet they had a lot of G5 parts in the bin and decided to use them up on the 2010's
Wouldn't shock me in the least.
Wouldn't shock me in the least.
My trifecta tune spikes at 25psi in 1st 2nd and 3rd and holds at about 21psi. BUT once you go WoT in 4th and 5th, it will hold at 30psi all the way to redline. Not to mention the weather conditions were over 95f and almost no humidity at over 5k feet in elevation... For ME, and only ME, I'll stick with Trifecta. Stage1 isn't worth the pretty penny they're charging.
My trifecta tune spikes at 25psi in 1st 2nd and 3rd and holds at about 21psi. BUT once you go WoT in 4th and 5th, it will hold at 30psi all the way to redline. Not to mention the weather conditions were over 95f and almost no humidity at over 5k feet in elevation... For ME, and only ME, I'll stick with Trifecta. Stage1 isn't worth the pretty penny they're charging.
Awesome review! Tyler has pics of everything when he gets on he will post pics. Boy that car was a blast to drive!
The will be stock. This car will be put back to stock and sold after wards!
The will be stock. This car will be put back to stock and sold after wards!
Last edited by KillerBee; Aug 22, 2009 at 09:59 PM. Reason: Automerged Doublepost






