Here is Car and Driver Review. Much balanced, shows how Juvenile crapmunds is about some of their opinions and views about cars.
We had a Twilight Zone sort of distorted-reality moment on our recent drive of Chevrolet's new HHR SS when one of the engineers on the project compared the retro trucklet to the Mazdaspeed 3. Who would have ever thought we'd be comparing an HHR with that angry little hatch? Pricing for the SS will start right around the Mazdaspeed 3's $22,935 base, and dimensionally, the match-up makes sense—the Mazda is less than an inch longer, the HHR 4.8 inches taller (HHR does, after all, stand for Heritage High Roof), but it still seems a little like dropping a kitten in a terrarium with a scorpion.
Don't be misled, though, because in the all-important power-to-weight-ratio battle, the HHR proves it's got a little venom on-tap. The last Mazdaspeed 3 we tested weighed in at 3202 pounds, while the HHR SS weighs an estimated 3300. While the Mazdaspeed packs 263 ponies from its turbocharged 2.3-liter, the SS's turbocharged four—the same as found in the Pontiac Solstice GXP, Saturn Sky Red Line, and upcoming Cobalt SS—manages 260 horsepower from its two liters, yielding 12.7 pounds per horsepower, which is within nipping distance of the Mazda's 12.2.
It may be Cute, but it can get a little bit nasty
For those who are still skeptical, consider that the HHR SS also includes some pretty nifty performance tuning tricks, like launch control. With the standard Stabilitrak stability control in Competitive Mode, the engine is limited to 4100 rpm until the tires hook up. In cars with the manual transmission, flooring the accelerator with the clutch depressed holds the engine at 4100 rpm. Miscreants who need more freedom to smoke their front tires will be happy to hear that, with stability control fully off, redline-wrenching parking-brake burnouts are still a possibility. Torque steer, a virtual guarantee when plumbing 260 pound-feet of torque through the front wheels, is wonderfully minimized; we noticed just the tiniest whiff in the lower gears. The second bit of surprising high-performance programming in the HHR SS is the no-lift shift feature, which allows the driver to keep the throttle pinned during shifts and holds the engine just below redline, therefore keeping boost up and eliminating turbo lag. With the throttle on the floor, the unrelenting turbo whoosh from beneath the HHR's shapely hood is accompanied by a pleasingly violent pop from the exhaust pipe during shifts.
Both the launch control and the no-lift shifting are rather hard-core for such a mild-mannered bread van, but then again, so are the performance figures. Chevy says 60 mph will arrive in just 6.3 seconds and the quarter-mile in 14.8 at 99 mph, numbers that would have trailed the field in our most recent hot-hatch comparo by only the smallest of margins. Just as important, the company claims 0.86 g on the skidpad, a scant 0.01 g behind the 'Speed 3.
Numbers are one thing—tie enough bottle rockets to a can of rotten tuna fish and it'll go fast. Feel is something much harder to accomplish, and we are pleased to report that the fun of the HHR SS driving experience goes well beyond engaging launch control and tromping on the gas pedal.
Now available from Chevrolet: A Rewarding Compact Performance
On the 1.6-mile road course at the Bondurant driving school's Phoenix facility, the SS proved stable and competent. It's not the on-the-rocks stiff, furious little machine that the 'Speed 3 is, but body motion is well controlled and the steering is responsive, although not as direct and communicative as that in the Mazda. Braking, as well, is on par with the class, with strong binders hauling the SS down plenty quick, although the pedal turns mushy at the bottom of its travel. Optional Brembos will be bundled with a limited-slip differential and improve the immediacy of the bite, but the non-committal finish remains. Think a step below the Volkswagen GTI in firmness and connectedness.
Past complaints about the HHR have mentioned the shifter for the five-speed manual and its awkward positioning, but that has been remedied in the SS. The window switches, which previously resided at the base of the center stack and in front of the shifter, have migrated to the driver's door armrest. This allowed Chevy to move the shifter forward by 1.5 inches and up by 2.0 so that it falls naturally to hand. Shift action has been improved as well, with a reduction of one full inch in side-to-side travel across the pattern, resulting in an unexpectedly precise unit that, while not as short as, say, a Honda S2000, allows better control than that Mazda the Chevy folks keep talking about.
How many Mazdaspeed 3, GTI, or Dodge Caliber SRT4 intenders will be cross-shopping the decidedly cuter (perhaps too much so?) HHR SS, we can't say. But those who will open their minds to the retro box will find it to be more relaxed, yet still quite confident. Customers for whom the Mazda and Volkswagen are a bit too tightly-wound may find the potent HHR SS to be precisely their pick. Besides, the HHR SS will earn cool points by the full-size truckload by being the only hot hatch available as a windowless panel truck soon after its launch.
