<img src="http://i57.photobucket.com/albums/g220/dmedeiros/balt.jpg" align="left" border="0" hspace="5" vspace="5">The Cobalt SS/SC: Traction-less no more!
By: Denny Medeiros, Cobaltss.net
As my black Cobalt SS/SC is sitting in my parking lot, newly washed and waxed, I can’t help but smile with pride as I gaze at her from a distance. What a beautiful coupe! Even at a standstill it looks fast, with its powerful Supercharged / Intercooled 2.0L Engine rated at 205HP/200Torque. It’s a machine that screams speed and wants to be driven hard on every curve. With a sticker price of approximately $20,000 USD /$25,000 CAN brand new with a full warranty, you can’t help but think ‘what an incredible bargain!’

Now imagine yourself in the following scenario. One day as you’re just driving along, enjoying the music and the sunshine, you stop at a red light. Directly beside you is a Ford Focus and the driver is challenging you to participate in a friendly little race, provoking you by revving its measly 136 HP engine. Of course, you plan on schooling this car and its driver. How could it possibly expect to win in a race against you? As you’re patiently waiting in first gear, with your foot on the clutch, the light turns green. Then it happens, and terror strikes as a stock Ford Focus has just left you behind on the light as your Cobalt is wheel hopping, scraping the pavement for traction and not going anywhere fast. The owner of the Ford Focus waves good bye, and although you could easily catch up, the race is already over, and you feel humiliated. You glance at your rearview mirror, checking to see how many other cars witnessed this embarrassing feat. Argh! The frustration is building and you shake your head in disbelief. You just crank up the tunes louder to forget about it all and move on.

After having been released for two years now, it’s no surprise and everybody knows that the Supercharged Cobalt has no traction. Everybody knows it and everybody at one point in time has experienced the dreaded wheel hop by now. You know what I’m talking about… that violent shake that shatters the whole car giving out this feeling like the whole front end is going to come apart. In some cases, broken wheel axles have even been left as souvenirs to the unfortunate ones. When I first test drove the car, everything was in check (shifting, speed, handling, sound) and it was awesome, but how about accelerating fast from a dead stop? With the salesman sitting beside me, watching me like a hawk, I wasn’t about to do that with him there, especially not on a brand new engine with only 20km on it, that I was a potential buyer for! So I assumed that it would perform exceptionally, and I bought the car. Now that you’re in love with the car, you’re not going to get rid of it just because you don’t have traction. You kind of live with it, and desperately hope for an aftermarket manufacturer to come up with a cure one day.

Well the desperation is over and finally a solution is here. It’s here now and does it ever deliver! Ingalls brings the Engine Damper to us Cobalt SS/SC owners. This beautiful
engine brace is extremely well engineered, and the quality of this kit is amazing. Installation took me only 30 minutes, and there was nothing to cut or drill. It truly is a bolt-on, no doubt about it! (Refer to my step-by-step installation link to see exactly how I did it.)

https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/how-guide-43/how-install-ingalls-engine-damper-your-cobalt-ss-sc-19559/

I couldn’t wait to go and test drive it. The minute I drove out I felt the difference in the overall responsiveness of the car when shifting, as the shifts where more crisp and precise. Now for the big test… I revved it up to 4k, dropped the clutch, “Wow!!!” Very minimal wheel hop and a nice peel out!! I was convinced! Now I’ve recently adjusted the brace from 14mm to approximately 12mm, and the wheel hop is gone. Yes, you’re reading this right, COMPLETELY GONE!!

In my opinion, this upgrade should be by far the first upgrade to be done on the Cobalt SS/SC, because when you think about it, increasing the horsepower and torque is only going to make this problem worse. Without traction, all that power is useless.

You can buy the “Engine Damper” directly from our supporting vendors here at cobaltss.net.

Denny Medeiros is also author of A DREAM COME TRUE: The Supercharged Chevy Cobalt SS.

 

your a good writer bro you could be in a magazine

 

Thank you.

 

very very nice write up. I dont think that it is only ingalls though. This weekend I installed my Cynic TB. It was just a front mount and installed almost the same exact way. Wow. What a difference. It stiffened shifts and wheel hop is very VERY minimal. Waiting for my rear brace to come in and i will defiantely add how it feels. But nice job denny.

 

its becuase he is canadian

 

I am about to install mine today!

 

Good job on the review!!

You really could wirte for a magazine!

 

Awesome write up dude!

So when you gonna show me? My stage 2 against your dampner? hehe

 

No doupt about it!

 

This sounds great!

We should get some sort of group purchase if possible.

 

very nice write up bro.

 

Nice Post!

 

lol nice write up Denny. After reading that I can't see why anyone wouldn't want to buy one.

 

Excellent write-up, and a great how-to to go along with it. I think I'll be ordering mine next paycheck.

 

hm i wanna see one of these 4k rpm launches in action cus I wanna see how much faster this car can get with a good launch. Any chance of a video showing such a glorious and amazing launch

 

Thank you! everybody for the great feedback on my review

BLKSS buddy, I tried calling you no answer and your voicemail is full!! Even your p.m box is full...lol...

OniMirage to answer your question on a possible video. Even if I did it some people would still not believe it..lol.. I say get a ride from a member that already has it installed if you dont believe me.

Better yet dont waste your time wondering if it really works, buy one you wont regret it. This Mod is by far the best mod "best bang for the buck" it's worth every penny.

 

nice job dude!

 

i"LL have mine tues.... I"ll hopefully get a vid up tomorrow night

 

cool... what would be awesome was if someone had some before and after runs in similar conditions, so that we could really see the difference

 

good write up, but i hope you really did not get beat by a friggin focus

 

Nice Denny. I totally agree. now instead of checking the rearview to see who witnessed the humiliation, we can check to see how man carlengths we have.

 

If i buy this torque brace, I won't need to replace my engine and transmission mounts when I'm pushing 300whp?

 

Quick question for the reviewer:

How did the engine damper affect the drivability of the car in non-performance situations? Typically stronger motor mounts increase driveline vibration notably or otherwise affect the "normal" ride of the vehicle. Is that the case here or does it seem to be business as usual?

 

To answer your question Justinian. The drivability is excellent.
Even adjusted to 12mm (15mm very soft - 10mm very hard) vibration is very minimal.

 

Great write up Denny, this is exactly the type information I was looking for to upgrade my brand new 05 SS/SC. She's a little over a month old and I have suffered the wraith of the wheel hop too many times. I even took it back to the dealer and complained about the feeling of power falling off when shifting between 1st and 2nd during normal driving. The tech told me it had a lot to do with the engine flexing due to the soft mounts. I asked him if he knew of a solution, but he had no idea.

I'm gonna order one after I look through all the vendors on the site here.