Firstorbit's Black Turbo Sedan

[firstorbit84]

I just got my car just over a week ago and already have some plans for her. Shame on you Sonic owner's forum for helping with my stage 1 wallet weight reduction.

Here she is as she sat when I got her: Bone stock

Custom Plates:

And.... I just picked up a set of pristine Chevy Cruze 17" wheels from a guy on CraigsList (for only $230 )

(they're wet from washing, so they look like they have little marks all over them, but it's just water.)
However these probably won't be going on for a while, since I want to use up my oem tires first

My short term plans will be to tint the windows, devise a cell phone mount, tint the front signals, maybe tint the rear tails, maybe smoke the chrome trim.

Longer term plans will be to mount the 17" wheels, get a full suspension with shocks and struts or coilovers, tune it, maybe add intake and exhaust.

That should keep my budget occupied for the first few years.

 

[ThatTmoGuy]

Nice! I've been planning on keeping the stockers as a backup set but most likely will end up with some drag radials or slicks on them at some point.

I look forward to seeing the mods as they come

 

[firstorbit84]

yeah, when I'm ready i'll have to see whether I want to keep the stock 15" wheels and put on r-comps for auto-x or just run good summer tires on the 17's and use them on the street and for auto-x

 

[$ub$onic]

Dig the plate

 

[firstorbit84]

Thanks!

 

[firstorbit84]

First mod may be OEM camber bolts and a slightly more aggressive alignment: 1° negative camber on each side and a 1/4" total toe out

Also very interested in picking up a leather steering wheel from the ss or zl1 Camaro or RS sonic

 

[$ub$onic]

OK what does the aggressive aliment do and how does it effect tire wear

 

[rdss]

Alignment can do many things, increase high speed stability and lower cornering capability or increase cornering capability and decrease high speed stability. And going to out will lower the tires life span. The factory settings are designed to give you good handling, stability and tire life.

Orbitz, I like the wheels. I considered going with the Cruze 18's before picking up a set of sonic LTZ wheels.

 

[firstorbit84]

The specs I gave should be within factory specs or very close (not sure what factory specs are), so additional tire wear should be minimal if anything. Also, I'll probably end up auto crossing on the stock tires next year, so I'm not really that concerned with a little extra wear on the street.

A small amount of toe out will increase the car's turn-in response. A small amount of negative camber will increase the contact patch (and therefore grip) in corners. Ideally you'd want more than just a degree but that will affect tire wear on the street.

 

[JohnT]

First mod may be OEM camber bolts and a slightly more aggressive alignment: 1° negative camber on each side and a 1/4" total toe out

Also very interested in picking up a leather steering wheel from the ss or zl1 Camaro or RS sonic

What rdss said, but to elaborate a bit more:

The car should have about .5-1 degree camber from the factory, dynamic camber is not so good on a strut car, most lowered autocross people will run high camber 3-4 degrees on a lowered car as the suspension is no longer helping out. I found this for a quick explanation of the movement: Strut Suspension Camber Behavior - YouTube

Anyway, at stock height I went from 1 degree to 2 degrees with the GM crash bolts (this is the most I could get). This is not enough camber to cause significant tire wear, especially if you are even slightly aggressive in turns. You will notice the car is a bit more darty at speed and tends to follow the road more, but not extreme at 2 degrees. With the soft factory tires I can hardly notice a difference. Good street tires are a bit worse, but not unsafe.

Toe out on the other hand will cause accelerated wear, I'll leave that up to you whether you want to make that compromise. It will also make the car very darty at speed and the car will follow whichever track has a bit more traction. Assuming you want this for turn-in at an autocross, my suggestion is to set it at events. Zeroed out, mark the tie rods and give it a 1/8" toe out on each side, then set it back at the end of the day. I did a string alignment and you can easily reach in and change the toe without jacking up the car (at stock height).

 

[firstorbit84]

Never done my own alignment before but I think I want to give it a shot. Thanks for the feedback and info.

I did my first mod today:

Custom cell phone mount using the card slot... more details and pics to come.

Also, did a few baseline 0-60 runs and the best was about 9.27 according to my Torque app. Pretty good I think for only a couple tries on 15 wheels with stock tires in the wet.

Edit: My boost (according to the app) looks like its peaking around 10-11 psi. I think the highest I've seen was 11.3 in a 2nd gear pull. Is this normal for sea level with ambient temps the past few days in the 50-75 deg F range? Again, not a lot of data was collected to judge max boost.

 

[firstorbit84]

Second mod:

DIY here:
http://www.sonicownersforum.com/forum/t5330/

 

[rdss]

I think I might have to give the dead peddle a shot sooner than later.

 

[firstorbit84]

mod 3: black vinyl wrap on bowties.
mod 4: debadged/rebadged

before:

after:

I'm a little OCD and the busy-ness of the rear really bothered me. so, I removed LT (wtf does LT stand for anyway? from what I understand it used to mean "luxury touring" but now means nothing but the middle trim), and I moved the turbo badge up under the sonic badge. It looked really clean without turbo at all but I couldn't bring myself to leave it off...

i will probably leave it like this for a while and then maybe change the red letters to black in the turbo badge. eventually I will probably remove sonic and turbo emblems and have them replaced with black vinyl letters on the chrome trim piece...

 

[dvn]

Edit: My boost (according to the app) looks like its peaking around 10-11 psi. I think the highest I've seen was 11.3 in a 2nd gear pull. Is this normal for sea level with ambient temps the past few days in the 50-75 deg F range? Again, not a lot of data was collected to judge max boost.

That was typical for mine on the stock tune. I usually saw between 10-12 and the highest I ever saw was 13.

 

[firstorbit84]

cool, thanks! I did some more reading after and realized it was probably normal.

 

[firstorbit84]

mods 5, 6 and 7 coming up soon:
- ordered wheelskins leather steering wheel wrap in two-tone gray/black with perforated sides
- bidding on ractive pedal covers

- picking up 1/4" wheel spacers locally from the lug man

http://lugmanusa.com/#!/~/product/category=3836091&id=16479338

 

[firstorbit84]

My wife picked up the spacers for me today, and she said that the "lug man" said he quoted me $5/ea on the phone. I don't recall him saying that but whatever. Scored a set of 1/4" spacers for $20

Edit: no wonder these are so cheap. they are really terrible cast aluminum that I feel like I could snap with my hands. I'm going to throw them on anyway, and I hope they hold up.

 

[rdss]

You're a braver man than I!!! Hopefully they hold up for you.

 

[firstorbit84]

Well my commute is all city, so I rarely go on the highway or over 60 mph. Plus I'll double check them before any auto-x events