Grand American Cobalt

[razoredge]

Its spends most of its time on 3 wheels ?.............

Note the UAW sponsership on the rear quarter.

Seriously the Cobalt is leading the ST class in the Grand Am Cup series with four victories, one 3rd and one 4th. Ahead of Acura, BMW and Mazda. How cool is that ? Heres the current results

http://grandamerican.com/CONTENT/Docs/PDF/...fg%20Points.pdf

heres for Prototypes and GT cars with Pontiac making a great showing in GT and a second to Lexus in Prototypes.

http://grandamerican.com/CONTENT/Docs/PDF/...fg%20Points.pdf

Acuras and Hondas holding up traffic

A news article

http://grandamerican.com/News/Article.asp?ID=6820

[Sixty8panther]

Yeah, that has been the VW GTi's claim to fame for a while now.

It's amazing how many "magic tricks" FWD cars will do to try to

win us euthusiasts over. I love the Cobalt and all but lifting the

rear wheel just proves how pointless FWD is, taking advantage

of 75% of the traction available when trying to get maximum

cornering force is as backwards as doing burnouts to save fuel.

[razoredge]

Yeah, that has been the VW GTi's claim to fame for a while now.

It's amazing how many "magic tricks" FWD cars will do to try to

win us euthusiasts over. I love the Cobalt and all but lifting the

rear wheel just proves how pointless FWD is, taking advantage

of 75% of the traction available when trying to get maximum

cornering force is as backwards as doing burnouts to save fuel.

169359[/snapback]

And that would explain why Cobalt and Acura are leaving ultimate driving BMW's

in the dust.

Who enthousiasts ????????????????????????? Is that a special club ?????????

Did I say I was trying to impress someone because the wheel was off the ground ? It was just a bit of interest in a photo I grabed for a topic about how the Cobalt is kickin ass in GA Cup. I have seen a picture of my good friend and fellow Brit sports car enthousiast in a Cobra he built with both inside tires in the air on some corner at LimeRock or the Glen. DOnt know how he could have figured he would have any traction doing that.....thats like what ? 50%...................must be he was going.................fast ???????????? The inside rear tire is always the go to tire in hard cornering, thats why the WRC fellows hang em right of the edge of cliffs.

some RWD owners will do amazing majic tricks to win we non enthusiasts over.............like the wonderful smell of burning rubber............I like it so much I think I'll go set some old tires on fire, the wind is just right, I can get the smell to flow through the house.

Holtom's fastest lap in qualifying (1:38.184) dipped below the lap record and earned Jamie his first Grand-Am Cup pole position.

Not bad for only having 75% of a car..........or was that just another one of dem dar majic tricks ?

[razoredge]

One of the earliest FWD majic tricks was performed in the 1967 Pikes Peak Hillclimb when 2, thats TWO FWD Toronados fooled everyone into thinking they won the darn thing.

[thegriffon]

I've seen some unusual sponsorship before, but ClearSCADA?

[Sixty8panther]

Razor:

I was reacting to the photo & to the traditional VW fad of lifting

the inside rear tire... not attacking you. For what it's worth.

Acura sucks no matter how many races they win.

[balthazar]

One of the earliest FWD majic tricks was performed in the 1967 Pikes Peak Hillclimb when 2, thats TWO FWD Toronados fooled everyone into thinking they won the darn thing.

Actually, Toronados finished 1-2-3 in the '67 Pikes Peak stock division.

They also finished 1-2-3 in the '68 Pikes Peak stock division.

A Hemi Mustang Boss 429 blew away the field in '69, but the same #62 '67 Toro placed 1st yet again in the '70 event.

Olds sponsored hill-climb cars from '67 thru '90.

[ocnblu]

Ford made a 429 with hemi heads? Being a GM guy, Ford's performance history has only been tersely reviewed by me. I'd like to hear more about that Hemi Boss 429.

[balthazar]

I admit: I played it a bit loose with the moniker; official enthusiast designation is 'Semi Hemi'. I'll poke around and see if I can find more specifics.

[razoredge]

I admit: I played it a bit loose with the moniker; official enthusiast designation is 'Semi Hemi'. I'll poke around and see if I can find more specifics.

169855[/snapback]

Arent all "Hemis" ............semi ?

[razoredge]

You'll also notice the inside front tire has very little weight on it either, check it out

[ocnblu]

The rims look pretty small in diameter. It shows me that these tall-ass rims do nothing for performance, they may actually hurt it.

[PurdueGuy]

The rims look pretty small in diameter.  It shows me that these tall-ass rims do nothing for performance, they may actually hurt it.

170066[/snapback]

Exactly - for small cars, the best performance usually comes in 14-16 inch rims, the lighter the better.

[BuddyP]

Yup, rotating mass. That's why all the high fuel milage cars have dinky little wheels.

razorsedge, Awsome sig pic! 250LM right?

[Enzora]

Who enthousiasts ????????????????????????? Is that a special club ?????????

169760[/snapback]

Enthusiast: Person who denies that there is ever an alternate way to positive results.

[razoredge]

Yup, rotating mass. That's why all the high fuel milage cars have dinky little wheels.

razorsedge, Awsome sig pic! 250LM right?

170263[/snapback]

However, larger overall diameter tire surface will have more grip due to contact patch.......and...........larger diameter makes surface intrusions smaller. But thats old farm tractor tech nog log y I believe it applys to todays tire tech, F1 tires are huge, not real low pro though. I walked by the tire mounting area at ALMS race but never thought to see what size the tires or wheels were. They were at least 18's I would say and maybe a 50 series kinda profile.............and W I D E. They werent rubber band tires thats for sure. A trailor being towed past afterwards had slicks with huge rubber globs stuck to them that looked far worse than the underside of an old school desk.

On these smaller lower powered cars the ticket is to have the grip you need for the weight and nothing more, more robs HP and top end speed.

250LM..........hell yea ! Amounst the first mid-engined automobiles, a fine era indeed

Edited July 24, 2006 by razoredge

[razoredge]

"larger diameter makes surface intrusions smaller. But thats old farm tractor tech nog log y" Correction..........that dates back to covered wagon and stage coach tech.........then even earlier in Europe.

[Turbojett]

Are those SC/SS's? I thought they didn't allow forced induction.

[MyerShift]

I don't know myself

But, this is awesome.

If I'm lucky enough, I'll catch a glimpse of the Grand Am Cobalt on Speed Network during the race.

It's so cool.

[razoredge]

Are those SC/SS's? I thought they didn't allow forced induction.

170454[/snapback]

Yes they are supercharged. These are fairly close to showroom stock classes. They are allowed few modification. Cobalt get its HO by use of forced induction, Honda and BMW get theirs with HO NA methods.

Heres the list of allowed modifications and car specs. Cobalt is allowed at lot of weight reduction and aero panels, but they are not the only ones. Also note most all other cars beside various Honds, A4 and Protege most engines are closer to 3 litres. You'll also see many of the small I4's are allowed factory forced induction. This is how they level the playing field.

You'll need to scroll down to ST (street tuner) the top is GS class which includes the larger cars.

http://www.grandamerican.com/CONTENT/Docs/...emode=bookmarks

Edited July 25, 2006 by razoredge

[Flybrian]

Yeah, that has been the VW GTi's claim to fame for a while now.

It's amazing how many "magic tricks" FWD cars will do to try to

win us euthusiasts over. I love the Cobalt and all but lifting the

rear wheel just proves how pointless FWD is, taking advantage

of 75% of the traction available when trying to get maximum

cornering force is as backwards as doing burnouts to save fuel.

169359[/snapback]

Yet another asanine statement that ignores a splendid accomplishment by a splendid little car.

"Us enthusiasts..." Give me a break...

[Sixty8panther]

Well... in all fairness I'd like to see a poll as to how many

Automotive entusiasts drive 1st gen. Auroras. Maybe

Benz & BMW suck in your oppinion but their buyers are

much more "entusiastic" about this hobby than most Olds

owners. Oldsmobile was at the top of their game

making big old land-yachts bought by little old ladys, old

retired WWII vets & frugal doctors. RWD obsessed BMW

& Porsche owners are the ones who spend tons of time,

money & enegry to figure out the proper camber & tire

combo to run at next weeks SCCA event 0.5 sec. faster.

I guess "enthusiast" is a relative term.

O.B.

A mint 1969 Boss 429 Rustang shows up at a local show on

regular occassion. The damn valve cover on that beast is

about as wide as a SBC oil pan. I have several photos of

the car, I'll try to post them soon.

[razoredge]

All Aurora owners are automobile enthousiasts........if they werent they would be driving V6 Camaros, Mustangs, Camrys and Accords like the rest of the sheeple.

If you have a problem with some of the GM oriented topics perhaps you could spread your BS elsewhere and stay off topics about that which you seem unable to cope with. After all you only appear to have one purpose in replying to this topic and that was to insult over an incidental.

Perhaps your pissed off to find out little 2 litre and under, $25,000 FWD cars are blowing the doors off $33,000+ 2.7-3.0 litre RWD cars in a series as important as Grand Am ?.............I mean who knows what would have spured you to freak out about FWD on a topic that was about the track provensuccess of a GM product that also happens to be FWD. Once again I seem to have been fooled into thinking that GM successes are what we were all here for.................. ah......the ponderance of it all..................

Edited July 25, 2006 by razoredge

[zhawk]

Looks like the Cobalt is doing an excellent job in Grand Am. I love performance driving no matter what wheels are pushing the power. My former Y2K Grand Prix GTP was a very fun car and performed very well.

There is plenty of room for FWD, RWD, AWD, 4WD, whatever in the performance auto enthusiast world. Give credit where it is due and enjoy it all. I know the Seattle Club Grand Prix is full of enthusiasts and so is the Pacific Northwest Camaro Club. Hmm, maybe its because we respect each other's cars and find COMMON GROUND that we get along so well.