Took my new turbo SS to the Streets circuit at Willow Springs Raceway (very technical, low to moderate speeds) this past weekend and wanted to share my thoughts. Car is pretty much stock, even has the original motor oil Only things changed are tire pressures, removal of wing, sub, spare/jack & floormats.

Keeping in mind the Cobalt is not a hardcore sports car and has obvious limitations....
GM(PD) has made one very nice driving car. Fantastically easily to drive at the limits. Very good feedback from the chassis & steering. Suspension is a bit soft, but is very well sorted and absolutely never does anything unexpected/unpredictable, not even hitting the curbing while sliding at high speeds. Steering is very precise and for the most part you can put the car exactly exactly where you want it to go. Seats are an awesome compromise in my opinion for a daily driver.....you do start having to hold yourself in place during some transitions where there is significant body roll, but it never becomes a fight to stay in the seat (at least not on street tires). It's surprisingly neutral at the higher speeds, turn-1 at Streets of Willow (clockwise) is the only high speed sweeper with speeds around 100mph and the SS does nice, even 4 wheel drifts only understeering here at WOT. Unfortunately understeer does rear it's ugly head in the lower gears as you would expect; even with 40psi (hot) in the rear tires and flicking it in, it still doesn't want to let go. Think I will try some stickier front tires and more aggressive alignment next time out. Overall, I am very happy with the SS as a whole.

I've come across some references saying the factory brake pads aren't very good. In short, in my opinion there is a really good chance many of those complaining do not have pads are not fully bedded-in and broken-in, what you are experiencing is "green fade". In my case, I bought my SS used with 1,900 miles on it, did a couple of aggressive canyon drives and still got some green fade at the track with 4,000 miles on the brakes. Bed-in/break-in didn't really enter my mind since I bought the car used. I can tell you once the pads are properly broken-in, they are absolutely rock solid, not even the smallest hint of fade. It will be interesting to see if they hold up as well with better street tires on a very hot day.

 

Your comments are right on track with a guy I'm helping with a 2008 SS/TC that goes to Watkins Glen.
He made 3 schools this summer and will be doing more this summer.

He had track tires that he drove to the track with, about 2.5 hours
Other than the tires we flushed the brake fluid with ATE Blue/Gold, very easy to do with a pressure bleeder.
I think be will be going to Cobalt Friction pads this summer and new rotors if he can find any.

He will have track tires to only be used at the track also.
We fit all 4 tires in the car by folding the back seat down, and you will have room for a small jack and some tools.
He said he will get the tire bags to keep the mess out of the car.

He is talking about lowering and struts which look like a easy job.

I don't think you need much more power, more time working on traction/control/driving skill seems to be the way to go right now.

Well it was -17 last night so we have some time to come up witha plan.

PS: If you bleed the brakes make sure that you take a Qtip/tooth pick and stick it in the bleeder after you are done.
It holds enough that will make a mess of the wheels and look like you have a problem when you get to the track.
That's what the openwheel guys told me to do after making fun of me and telling me that I should have know better.

 

I Track and autox my ss. I found my sportlines were the best improvement to date.
I have almost no role in the corners now .

 

Did you replace the struts ?????????????

 

Keeping an eye on this thread. I wanna hear more "civilian" reviews from owners. Nice to compare from all these professional drivers and reviews.

 

No not yet . Eventually I plan on getting Koni struts and shocks.
But even with stock SS/sc struts it was a night and day improvement.
From what I've read the SS/tc struts are more heavily dampened then the SS/sc struts so you should be fine.

By the way I would defiantly go with Eibach springs over most others .
They are more of a performance spring rather than just lowering.

 

Yes they say that the TC struts are a bit better so I think you are right on track about just changing the springs.

 

Subscribed...also want to see more impressions/info.

I will be doing some tracking this summer...but with no LSD I get to be the one-legged wonder... Oh well, it's all fun either way.

 

ref: springs. I have considered this but the sportlines for the ss/tc show a drop of 1" F and 1.3" R. I don't need it lower with the new tire/wheel setup I have.

I ran following stock setup at the track twice:

1st time out
Stock configuration (tires, brakes, suspension, seats, seat belts)
SRF Brake Fluid
Alignment, but no adjustments - so that sucks.

Car is well sorted and the brakes did not give up. I had more brake than tire. The rear won't move around, which sucks. I was driving the track counter clockwise with a lot of left hand turns. All right turns were on camber or flat.

2nd time out
stock configuration (tires, brakes, suspension, seats)
SRF Brake Fluid
Harness Bar + Harness

Car is well sorted, pulling and walking a bmw135, until I get to the off camber right hand turns and the front tire just rolls under and the rear won't spin around. To get through the off camber right turns I started braking the rear by hand to get the car to rotate. The rear brakes need more bite or more bias and/or more toe out configuration for the suspension.

Bottom line, the car is great, accelerates well and drives consistently. Good control delivers proper cadence when tracking the car.

Up next

3rd time out
Stock Config (suspension)
SRF Brake Flud
Harness Bar + Harness
Kirkey Road Race seat (I'm 6'5" and need the room)
OZ Ultraleggera wheels 18x8 (tirerack fitment)
BFG R1 scrubs with 3/32nds (comes 4/32nds)
checking alignment for more negative camber in the front.

I'm expecting the car to drive well in this configuration. Two things I want from GM

1. Stage 1 LNF kit for the cobalt
2. Stage 1 suspension kit for the cobalt

The problem with item two is that the market is small and without running the car on the new rubber I don't know if I really need it. The car does roll - it's a good balance between street and track though.

There are tire/wheel pictures here:
https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/wheels-tires-96/oz-ultraleggera-18x8-245-40-r18-tires-pictures-152161/

JK

 

You coudlnt get the rear to turn a little with trail braking?

 

correct

The front driver side is artificially heavy and on an off camber (angle going down and away from the track) right hand turn, the front end dives, so trail braking would have helped but the turn was decreasing radius and off camber so going in a little hott and trail braking wouldn't get it to come around. I tried the turn with multiple combo's - in fact there are two turns on the track with similar configurations:

http://www.motorsportranch.com/1.7-road-course.cfm

the turns are wagon wheel and horseshoe. Wagon wheel is a decreasing radius turn, meaning the radius becomes smaller as you make the right hand turn and it's also off camber, meaning it angles away from the inside of the turn, so not banked.



The car is 100lb's heavier on the LF; see smokin joe
https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/08-10-ss-turbocharged-general-discussion-152/2008-cobalt-ss-tc-corner-weights-overall-weight-120547/

JK

 

You can run the Eibach Pro Kit springs . Stock front ride height .5in drop rear on a SS.
I'm also running the TTR25mm rear swaybar . It really helps get around the tight stuff .

 

That sounds like a tough corner. Decreasing radius turns bother me I never feel like im getting around them properly.

 

Did you completely disabled the TCS/ESC? Just wondering. What tire pressure F/R are you running with the stock tires?

 

competitive mode on at first, just to get the car sorted - I love newton, but he is not always my friend in mechanical physics :-)

after a few blips by the ESC in comp mode I was sorted and turned it all off. Never got the car turned around, but did go in a little deep my first weekend out and put two wheels off. Lot's of good run off room, so no worries.

Tire pressures were 30lbs at first, then I started lowering the fronts depending on direction, counter clockwise, front right is lowest of the three, I usually stagger 1lbs left to right and front to back. So if I am going ccw then air pressure would be...

RF - 29
LF - 30
RR - 31
LR - 32

after four sessions rotate the tires left to right in the front, then after four more sessions rotate them front to back, left to right.

Loving the same size tires, on my vette it was staggered (18F and 19R).

Mind you, I'm not a genius at this - I just try to get most things right.
JK

 

x2...The Sportlines are great springs for Auto-X or track days.

 

You can get the rear end to let go in factory trim, but I think what jkonkle means it won't "stay loose". So for example a quick 30 degree turn is no problem to trail brake and get the car pointed in the right direction, but it quickly catches after that....so on a longer 180 degree turn, the rear end won't "stay loose". I've driven fwd cars where you can trail brake the back out and hold it there. Don't expect any cool D1 style drifts, but it gets the car to rotate nicely.

On the springs note, those Eibachs aren't linear rate are they? I'm not a fan of progressive rate springs for track use.

-Mike