Quote: Originally Posted by
A-Town SRT 
Are you sure about that? They should be dead even acceleration wise when you compare the specs of both cars. The cobalt only has one thing over the neon, a TCS. TCS isn't going to give the cobalt that much more of an advantage because its still FWD.
I own both cars. I have raced both cars on the same track and under similar conditions. I've watched and logged my runs and also what other cars and do under those same conditions and how those cars are modified. I've put over a thousand miles on the Cobalt and made over 30 passes down the track in the first week of owning it and have made hundreds if not into the thousands of passes in the SRT-4.
Now let me ask you a question. Have you even test driven one of the new SS Turbo models yet or are you basing your opinion on what it "should" run on various magazine and manufacturer numbers? I'll repeat it again as someone who has both cars, just from the acceleration standpoint, on street tires the new SS does very well and better than I expected. Consistently trapping over 101 at the end of the day in mid-90 temps, high humidity and over 1100 foot elevation may not sound like much when compared to some of the great tracks on the east coast, for example, but out here in southern California that's really close to what a stock Stage 2 SRT-4 will do (and just to reemphasize the "stock" portion of that one more time).
Quote: Originally Posted by
A-Town SRT Also by switching to a turbocharger Its pretty much a second attempt at a previously unsuccessful design. Its still putting down the same times that a 5 year old car already performed. Thats 5 years behind in technology. For that you gotta give the neon some credit. The new cobalt is a nice little car but its nothing to write home about.
Second thing; you're not a car guy and apparently can't appreciate the driving dynamics and characteristics of other makes, irrespective to the package (styling/design) of those other cars. It get pretty old hearing the same old tirades of "how they're
xx years too late" and so on. If we wanted to play that game I'd bring up the point that the SRT-4 is nothing new and Dodge had a turbocharged, 16 valve sedan running in the early 90's. What took them so long to bring out a new one? Or GM bringing out the first front drive hot hatch in the US market. What took Chrysler so long to respond with something that had decent power and great handling? The game could go on forever when playing the what-if's. What's more telling of the manufacturers commitment to the market is what they have right now instead of living in the past.
The fact is that the first supercharged Cobalt SS was a decent handling, pretty fun to drive car with good (not great) power. The SRT-4 had excellent power and so-so stock handling on anything other than a smooth track. Now Chevy has added a lot more power, improved the already great handling, and has a much nicer platform that it's built on compared to the ancient PL2K that was already long in tooth at the beginning of the Neon SRT-4's run.
I don't think anyone is "not giving the Neon credit", but instead stating that it's an older car and has been left in the dust in many categories. It was an old car that went fast like so many other turbo Dodge's over the years. You can also build it up for even more power, improve the suspension, and do many things to improve it. But you can also do those exact same things to new cars like the Cobalt, which are already much better rounded and have a leg up, stock-for-stock, than the old SRT-4.
Trust me, I'm no partisan brand loyalist and I do like my GM and turbo Dodge's, but I've also owned Ford's and a Toyota and would consider driving a lot of domestic and imports given the opportunity and abilities to do so. If you're happy and love driving your SRT-4 no one is trying to take that away from you, but when you start bagging on a new or different car it makes us (i.e. SRT-4 owners) look bad. We're already heading down the path of being the next Honda/Civic with the "ricer" mentality and it doesn't do any good to be closed-minded that the automotive world is progressing.
The best advice I can offer is to go out and find one of the new turbo Cobalt's and see if you can get some good driving time behind the wheel. I'd be willing to bet you'll find things you like and don't like, but if you can leave some of the bias behind you'll find a great overall little car in my opinion, enough so that I opened up the wallet to take one home.
By the way, the traction control doesn't help at the track and neither does the launch control feature. The quickest way to launch the car is to hold revs between 2and 2.5k rpm's and feather out the clutch. If you go WOT too soon it will break traction (even on the big Conti's) and kill the 60' time.
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