Yep...I was just on my freeway and a STI comes rolling up and we are just messing around and I just downshift to 3rd and take off and he finally hits it and is starting to catch up...WHEN...He hit the lev limitor twice and tried to downshift into 4th but he put it into 2nd!!! Yikes...Anyways We pull off and his check engine light was on and I never found out what happened (Who cares it isnt my car)! So the morale of the story is dont **** with the SS on the freeway cause it will break your car! haha...sorry STI.

 

Well it seems to me like another rich kid that dos'nt know how to drive. Maybe he should have bought a honda or something like that for practic. BUT GOOD WORK ON KILLING THE INPORTS SWIZZ

 

probably a very accurate assumption, but i woulk like to know why his enigne light came on..i mean, ive hit the rev limiter a few times myself (on accident, yes) , and im still runing just fine?

 

my friend downshifted to 2nd at 75 mph in his mazda 3, but it was only the 2nd day with a manual car, it was kinda scarey... but nothing happend.

 

oooooooouch..

i know if im at 60+, i cant go into 2nd.. why the HELL did he go into 2nd at that speed?

 

well that just goes to to show you that the STI has a flaw maybe!!!!!

 

cause he really didn't know how to drive manual that well... and he thought if he put it in a lower gear he'd go faster... it was only his 2nd day with the car....and 1st time every driving a manual car. Kinda funny now when we talk about it.

 

a little tough love i guess. :P

 

well 2nd isnt far away from 4th, and when ur shifting fast out of 3rd....


congrats on the kill tho
i dont think he woulda walked you that bad, from a roll FWD has the advantage over AWD
my friend in a stock SS beat a lightly modded WRX from a roll

 

does anyone watch nopi tunervison on the speed chl.

 

yea, the driver

 

I do when I am Around, But I always miss it. Why what did we miss

 

i will have to disagree with this one. wouldnt of walked him bad? are you insane? yeah, the awd does loose a *little* advantage, but tell that to almost any sti owner (i even told it to the guys with sti's that i know) and they will just laugh in your face.

so we all had some little runs, from about 60mph-120ish

by the end they were a few cars a head, and i know how to drive, and so do they, so dont even try saying "you just cant drive"

 

I think this is a great story, but I have a couple of comments to make. First of all I don’t see a kill here, so I’m unsure why every one is congratulating him. As some people have pointed out, and as I have seen with my own eyes an STI will beat you from every speed, so long as he’s on full boost. If you sneak an STI when he is lagging you will pull till he gets back on. Heck this guy even admitted the STI was starting to catch him.

What happened to the kid driving the STI is actually a common problem. All of you guys calling him out for being a bad driver will have it happen to you at least once; you just have to hope that it doesn’t grenade your engine. It very common when shiftig from 3rd to 4th under heavy acceleartion, or light cornering. The G's move your body around, so you lose perspective as to where the gears are. If the STI had the short throw shifter it’s actually really easy to do, as the gears are VERY close together.

However I must concur with your proposition that he didn’t know what he was doing. STi’s redline at 7,100 RPM’s but stops making horsepower at 6,000, so there is no reason for him to have gotten anywhere nears the Rev limiter. Shift from first to second, and second to third should be made at 6,500, all the rest at 6,000.

Finally, can people driving the Cobalt stop referring to foreign cars as rice? Have you looked at your car lately? I hate to break it to you, but a majority of the Cobalt is produced outside the US. Furthermore, the car is clearly inspired and engineered by copying Japanese cars. The car is as much rice as a Honda civic. Now if you’re rolling around in a Mustang, or a Vet, you can do so, but a Cobalt is Domestic RICE.

 

There could be a multitude of reason his light came on. First of all when you accelerate into the rev limiter it shuts you down immediatly by cutting gas to the throttle. When you downshift and the lower gear puts you into the rev limiter, there is noting the engine can do to get the RPM's lower becaue the wheels are moving the pistons. Thererfore it is possble to drive the car way above redline for a long period of time. When you drive the car above readline things start to get hot, so any sensor that is set off by heat could have been tripped. Furthermore components like the oil pump start working past their acceptable tolerances so that could set off a light. If he did any serious damage to the internals that would also set off the sensors.

Was the light flashing or just on? The flashing light means serious trouble, and the steady light just means get it checked out. If he had an accessport he could read the code, which would save him from taking a trip to the dealership, for a BS code.

 

I'm not laughing with you... the cobalt is not Rice... mayeb you should think before you speak, it is actually copying a saturn and an OPEL, both are NOT japanese cars... do some research before you make a stupid claim

 

First of all the Cobalt is not copying Saturn, Saturn and Chevy both owned by GM built the car pretty much hand in hand. Saturn released the Ion First, but Chevy was not copying anything!

I'm well aware that the Cobalt is built on the OPEL platform, but the SS is inspired by the Japanese way of doing things, eg. small displacement, and turbo charging/super charging. Traditional American cars win races with displacement, not F/I. Furthermore take a look at your big spoiler, and 18 inch rims, where do you think those ideas came from?

Rice has transcended Japanese made cars and applies to a particular way of building and modifying your vehicle. Chevy and many other American car companies realized how many sales they were losing to the Japanese makers, and have responded with the Cobalt SS, and the SRT-4. Both of these cars copied the Japanese formula for building and design, and therefore they are exactly that, RICE!

I don’t understand why the designation bothers you so much, because we both know that if you didn’t get the SS and the SRT-4 was not available you would be rolling around in a Japanese car.

And please don't tell me to do my research, you failed to do yours. Any person in their right mind knows that the SS and SRT-4 were designed by copying elements from Japan, I don't care whose platform it was built on. If you want to make this a personal mud slinging match, I'd be glad to get into it with you. So do everyone a favor and keep the discussions civil, and avoid referring to someone’s intellect, just because what they say makes you upset.

 

Its not good for your car, it can **** up the transmission. But it will sort itself out unless you car has transmission probelms. Especially in a WRX or and STi.

 

ok pkskull77, i dont know what you think your talking about. i'd never buy a japanese car, no matter if the cobalt was availble or not. the cobalt was built to compete with japanese cars, that does not make it one, i dont think it is a copy either way.

next...dont think that your japanese that you hold on such a high pedistal invented turbochagers, the swiss did. GM was the FIRST car company to turbo a production car, IN 1962! they did so on a olds with a 3.5L V8, and a chevy corvair 2.4L 6 cylinder...both small displacements, in the 80's gm and chrysler both had small cars in their line up with small engines and turbo chargers(pontiac sunbird 2.0 turbo, dodge daytona 2.5 turbo...)

next...american cars were using big "spoilers" back in the 60's

next...whats that you say? japanese cars invented big wheels????

but wait..i thought all of this stuff was japanese ideas???? hmmmm...looks to me like the american cars inspired the japanese cars, especially by your logic.

who failed to do their research?????

 

Interesting stuff too bad it's off a bit. the Wrx and Sti are 2 different machines. This unfortunately was a kid driving a fast car who could'nt shift to save his life. I have plenty of experience with sports cars owing quite a few since I was 18. It's next to impossible to mess up that 3rd to 4th shift, the Sti linkage is extremely sitff and all that is required is just to gently pull down. He lost and that's a fact but don't assume this will be the case with a somewhat competent driver behind the wheel. I have yet to meet up with a SS but will be sure to post results win or lose. I can guarantee that if you race one it will not be pretty, the lag issue is next to non existent on the stock turbo due to the 2.5 liter engine. I am modified so it would not be a fair comparison though if I did do the SS match up. Also we do lose a bit of power due to AWD but our gearing is very short and that makes for quick acceleration, with modding the top end opens up drastically. Good luck on the roads!

 

Why is it that you would never buy a Japanese car? It always amazes me that people would let thier loyalty to a company get in the way of the better purchase. Chevy don't care about you, so why should you care about them. Spend your money on what suits your needs the best, and does it by delievering the best product at the best price. I've owned three American cars, and they were all seriously dissapointing.

I never made the assertion that the Japanese invented any of these things, and I knew I should have qualified that, because inevitably someone would try and pin that on me. Although the Japanese didn't invent these things the Asian tuner scene made them very popular. Chevy simple looked at what young kids liked, and put it on their cars. I don't see how you could argue this point? Pick up any tuner mag and whats on the front cover? Cars that look a whole lot like your SS, I wounder why?

While many of the things you described have been used in American cars, they were never particularly iconic of the American car scene. With the exception of the Grand National, and the 03 04 Cobra, I can't think of any Iconic American Cars that came from the factory Turbo Chared. American sports cars are Muscle, with silly amounts of displacment. The fact of the matter is that with a few notable exceptions American Car Companies have not been innovative for a very long time, just reactionary Most models that GM and Ford have put out over the last couple of years, have been reactions to things foreign car companies were doing. This stuff shouldn't be news, nor should it be insulting. American companies are struggling to compete, and I am just as embarrassed about it as you probably are.

 

^^^ I LOVE WHEN PEOPLE TRY TO SOUND SOPHISTIMACATED

 

Next to impossible? I understand that every driver is going to be a little different, but its not that hard to mess up a shift. I hang out with quite a few guys who fancy themselves as "good drivers" and not one of them hasn't missed the 3rd to 4th shift. I haven't done it in my current car (knock on wood), but I've done it in former cars, with equally as short a throw as the STi. It's going to happen especially if your getting tossed around in the car.

As for the lag issue, it is a big deal even in the STI when your racing one of these supercharged cars. If your RPM's are low enought they will pull you till you get the car up to 4 to 5 grand. If you look at their R&T numbers they actually have a better 5-60 number because of it.

I do agree with your other assertions, and I've seen a friend of mine pull like crazy on an SS. At the end of the run we were several car lengths ahead of the kid. For some reason he wouldn't run from the dig.

 

the cobalt is made to make sales in a market ruled by the japanese auto makers. its in the same class as most every little tuner car

hell, even the people who call jap cars "rice" are sitting there compairing their car side by side with the "rice" why then would you waste your time racing them? why not go after cobras, ls1's, ls2's, z06's? because they are way beyond your class, and it would take a lot of custom work to get a redline/ CSS/SC into the powerlevel of a car that can compete with the big boys.

people with mustangs, vette's. camaros, etc dont even give second thought to anything that is FWD, to them, FWD is rice

trying to say that your car(cobalt SS, SRT4) is not "rice" is pointless. its a car made to compete with all the jap cars.

im pretty damn sure when chevy was designing the C6, they didnt say, "lets make it have 400hp in the base trim so we can take out every civic that comes off the line"

instead, they thought, "lets beat them at their own game, and take more sales from a market we barely have a part of"

if the car is small, FWD, and small displacement, it is rice compaired to the "domestics" some of you wish your car was


that being said, im the kind of person who likes damn near every car for what it is. i drove an ion redline, and that car put a smile on my face, and i dont for a second doubt that stock for stock, it will easily beat most cars, even a WRX from a roll. i think the cobaly SS looks awesome, the interior looks good, cant deny the potential of the Ecotec, and factory FI opens the door for a lot of power gains

but that wont change the fact that its a car made to compete with the RSX type s, as well as the SRT4

 

It's not iconic like the Cobra and the Grand National, but the v6 Thunderbird came with a blower, and I think there was another turbo buick other than the GN.

Also don't forget the turbo Daytonas.