The wife and I had a concert to go to tonight... with our schedules this is a RARE occurrence. We take my car. Not a surprise here.
As I was pulling out of our driveway I see a car coming down the road but far enough away that I'm sure I can be up to speed by the time it reaches us... so I pull out.
Before long I am up to speed (45-50mph on a twisty, two lane blacktop... pun intended) and this car is on my rear bumper. I see its a Cobalt and am not worried. I speed up a bit and take the first set of corners. The Cobalt is still on my ***, so I speed up a bit more and set up for the next set of turns. He's still on my ***.
At this point I'm wondering if he's pissed and thought I pulled out in front of him to be a dick. I'm waiting for a gun barrel to come out the LS window.
I speed up a bit more and finally he can't keep up with me in the corners.
Keep in mind, my wife is in the passenger seat the whole time.
So now I said to her, "We have someone behind us that wants to play!" She was ahead of the situation as she had seen the car in the RS mirror, so I told her to hold on. At this point I really wasn't sure whether this guy was pissed or just playing.
We speed through several other sets of turns and I keep gaining ground on him.
Finally, we arrived at the next intersection and I STOPPED!!! Not a California stop, but what I usually do. Stop. Feel the jerk. Count to 3 while checking for on-coming traffic, then go. (Second nature. Been doing that for years!!)
I pull out with this car right behind me. He takes the suicide LH turn lane for the other direction and passes me. Then I see the wing and SS badge (for those uninitiated, an SS badge on the rear of a Chevy Cobalt means its supercharged) as well as fart can muffler on the back of the car.
I am about to turn 55. He was about 25.
He had the power that I didn't, but not the handling. Had the "event" gone on much longer, I might have lost him all together.
I caught up to him again at the next stop sign.
My wife said, "He wanted to race you!!"
I said, pretty confidently, "No. He wanted to play." And play it was. Kinda' fun really!!

 

HAHA nice story. He was just playing... lol wonder if he even got in to boost. LOL
The early ss balts are super charged... the newer are turbo charged... most push 350-400hp to the wheels.

 

I'm pretty sure this was an earlier car. No blow-off in between shifts, not even when he passed me. At that point we were on more main roads and I wasn't going to take the chance of causing, or being involved in an accident. Besides, I can't compete with that kind of raw hp in a straight line.
Since I live on this road and drive it nearly every day, I know its turns and its not the first time I've played on it.
What's funny is my wife doesn't understand, and I have tried to explain this to her, why I will go into a turn hot, then back throttle at the apex, downshift and punch it for the exit.
It's funny to hear her ask, "Why are you accelerating for the turn?"
All I can say is FWD, Dear. FWD.

 

Cobalt is a small car that was offered by Chevrolet from 2005 through 2009.
GM today revealed the first official image of the 2009 Chevrolet Cobalt SS Sedan, a new body style that will join Cobalt SS line-up a few months after the launch of the coupe version.
Under the hood of the future Cobalt SS sedan there will be the same turbocharged and intercooled 2.0L Ecotec DI engine that delivers 260 horsepower and 260 lb.-ft. of torque (353 Nm) with the standard five-speed manual transmission.

2006 Model:
The Ecotec 121.9 cui SC four-cylinder engine delivers 205 horsepower at 5600 rpm and 200 lb.-ft. of torque at 4400 rpm. Compared to the Ecotec 134 cui I-4, the cam timing was altered sin order to raise the mid-range torque and to match it with the top-end power.

The engine was fitted with an Eaton M-62 helical roots-type supercharger and an air-to-water intercooler to reduce the temperature of air entering the engine. The supercharger can produce a maximum boost pressure of 12 pounds per square inch (psi).

It's a good thing you upgraded your springs and tires, with the stock set-up you may not have accomplished this. This is Mazda's claim to Zoom Zoom, but obviously it is still possible to improve upon it.

 

I've personally seen Balts at dyno meets that put down 350-400 to the wheels with a tune and some meth with stock turbo.
You can c&p all you want but till you are in the passenger seat when the guy driving does a third/fourth gear pull and hits 160mph. Numbers on a forum don't do the car justice.
Edit:note I said turbo
I've seen the supercharged push just a touch over 300 with tune

 

And that against my 8 yr old car with 72,000 miles on it @ an averaged factory rated hp/tq rating of 160/150 at the flywheel.
Of course his car was probably nearly as old and considering that I don't put that many miles on per year his may have had more miles on it too? But if he had lost some power over the years chances are mine has lost more than it can afford to lose in a contest like this one.
From a power standpoint I would have been struggling. But from the handling I could have beaten a car that had nearly twice the power and about the same weight... and being approximately 30 yrs older too.
I don't think I did too bad at all.
Even my wife commented how much better my car "corners" compared to her Vibe.
I said, yes it does, but at the expense of a nice ride too.

 

You obviously did not read my post properly. I showed stats for both Turbo (2009) AND Supercharger (2006).
I'm quite sure they could reach the numbers you suggest, with deep pockets!

Virgin1: You got the suspension & tires to do this. I would have loved to have been with you. You also had good balance with your wife in the car for the twisties!

 

Methanol injection is NOT NEAR STOCK.

Don't act like it is. And 400FWHP is useless in the situation Richard described.

Honestly...

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Also, I just realized you said turbo. I kept thinking about the supercharged Cobalts...in which case, 400WHP would be a crazy number. lol. My bad.

 

*facepalm*

 

^^^^^