i have a house at deals gap tn, for those that dont know thats 318 turns in 11 miles (one way). so i am looking for any mods that autocrossers or road racers are trying. anybody got any
thanks
jim

 

In stock form the car is really, really good. What more do you want? Lowering it is not going to help...

 

I'm going to put LSD (ordering this week) which i regret not getting and some wider tires, like some 225 or 235 for added traction. prob eibach springs for a stiffer ride and some better engine mounts to stop wheel hop.

 

Putting a wider tire on isn't going to help. The 215/45 is a perfect match for the rim. When it comes to handling the more tire you have bulging over the rim edge the more lateral flex you get.

 

Lets say I did get 225 on the rims the "lateral Flex" is going to be very minimal, if noticable at all and the improvment on the acceleration and cornering will be noticed quite a bit depending on which tires i get.

 

A brake upgrade is always money well spent, A set of high quality street/track pads, some braided stainless brake hoses and a msater cylinder out of the Z-body cars would be a great start. Big rotor upgrades when available if you dont think the first round was enough.

I just swapped from the stock master cylinder to the larger Z-body(Malibu,G6) like I had done on my Cavalier(swapped to N-body MC) and apparently like the Grand Am Cup cars do and the difference in pedal feel is great, a much more positive/firmer pedal.

Braided hoses reduce amount of pressure loss at calipers due to hose expansion.

Switching to DOT4 fluid if your REALLY tough on brakes would help.
DO NOT SWITCH TO DOT5/SILICONE FLUID you risk injuring yourself, your vehicle and others as DOT5 is not comaptible with ABS systems

Switching over to a set of adjustable damping struts and shocks would also make a big improvement in hadling as you could tune the car to the roads in your area and your driving style.

If you want maximum results you need to think about removing unnecessary weight from the car,(back seat, sound damping materials, etc...)using carbon body panels.

Also as far as tires go....there are better tires than the Pirellis available.....225's cant hurt, and food for thought: the Grand Am Cup cars use 17's.....remember lateral flex isnt all bad, since your tires are actually part of your suspension their RF rating(radial force..or spring rate) needs to match the operating characteristics of your car. the stock tires are a compromise. to stiff a sidewall will hinder your handling as much as to flexible a sidewall.

 

I agree some smaller rims, 17", would likely allow you to fit wider rims and tires on the car. After all thats what Mopar did for the ACR edition of the SRT-4, they fit 16" rims (vs 17" for the regular SRT-4), and they fit some meaty 235 series tires.

 

hey maven thanks for the poop. the ss lines are good i finally put them on my s10 blazer this spring and will do it on the cobalt when i can afford it. never heard of swapping master cylinders before are there any directions out there for that? i would also like to know if you know were i could find lighter better wheels 17 or 18 i am really looking for gas milage as i have long drives to get from here to the gap.

thanks
jim