NEW Chevy Sonic Project

[Eggman]

I work at Import Tuner magazine (let's try to keep our opinions of the scene and magazines aside) and we've been asked to do a Chevy Sonic project car. Yes, it might seem weird that Import Tuner is doing this but let's face it. The Sonic doesn't really fit in most other domestic magazines like Hot Rod, Chevy High Performance, or Super Chevy. If anything it fits better in the compact car culture that we are in.

So rather than us building the car our way. I wanted to approach you guys and kind of let you guys determine the build. Let it be somewhat of a co-build between forum members and us. Let us guinea pig products or do a build that you guys wish you could do. We do have a budget to work with and won't be spending our own personal money so this would allow us to do some of the things you guys really want to see done but don't yet want to spend your own money on or void your own warranty doing.

Some thoughts we've been looking at.

PERFORMANCE OPTIONS
- HEP Turbo Kit. Does the Cruze kit fit? Does this really make power?
- Trifecta Tune. A known quality upgrade. But how far can we take this 1.4L turbo with even more bolt-ons (sans internal work)? This is probably more of a realistic build most owners can mimic.
- Anyone have any luck with a meth injection kit? Should we try this?

SUSPENSION
- Should we tackle and document the Cruze coilover retrofit? This would allow the Sonic a much wider selection in aftermarket coilovers.
- Maybe we should use air ride suspension. A possibility would be using Universal Air's Aero Sport bag. This simply replaces the coil spring on a coilover. We'd be able to test to see if coilover handling is still good while having full adjustable range at your finger tips.

EXTERIOR
- We're looking into the various aftermarket body kits to see which ones aren't just crappy FRP that requires 40 hours of body work to fit and which ones are worth buying.
- We're also looking at getting the Holden Barina front end, Aveo/Barina clear corner lights, side markers, etc. Both Australia, Thailand, and Korea have a version of the Sonic and tons of aftermarket exterior mods overseas.

Anyhow, I hope I'm not breaking any forum rules with this post. And I'm in no way trying to promote my job or the company I work for. I only mentioned it because I wanted to be up front. This post is honestly trying to let you have input on our build and this is an effort to help out the Sonic community in aftermarket customization.

Here's our 1.4L turbo Sonic LT sedan.
Eggman

 

[$ub$onic]

Welcome! Nice 1.4!

I have a 1.8 so my 1.4 info is lacking.

However I do a bit of testing with 1.8 parts and I have been running prototype lowering springs for awhile now so my over all knowledge is better then some

 

[Obviously Tyler]

Definitely interested in the Holden front end and oversea parts.

 

[Stew]

The Trifecta tune is something we've heard a lot about already, I would skip that if you are wanting to really grab peoples attention, go with the turbo upgrade kit since that is the point where people are starting to look to for more power and at least one person is undertaking right now.

Another thing that has been talked a lot about but no one has done yet is a rear disc conversion either from a Sonic RS or a Cruze. Again, I'm looking at it from the perspective of things that many people have asked about but nobody's done yet.

I think the Barina front end would be an excellent choice, a lot of us are wanting to do away with the bowtie but there aren't many options out there.

If you really want people to follow what you're doing, try to stay away from things that have already been done numerous times.

 

[Preloader]

Or you could just skip all the work and give the Preloader a four page spread plus the centerfold.

The Cruze Turbo kit should fit with very little tweaking, but word is that it was only installed for a show and never really tested.

Also, at this point it has been speculated that the 1.4 won't likely exceed 300whp by any conventional method.

 

[$ub$onic]

Definitely interested in the Holden front end and oversea parts.

Well obviously hahaha

 

[Obviously Tyler]

Well obviously hahaha

not sure if pun

 

[$ub$onic]

not sure if pun

Both actually Would like to move the bow tie to the grill vs current location

 

[Ltguy]

So are you guys looking more into current-market available parts and/or swap parts from other similar platforms? Or looking at building more of a Mule??

.... If the answer is the Mule route I would love to see someone develop aftermarket intake, throttle body, cams w/ valve terrain, etc

Welcome to the site too

 

[Insanika]

Whether or not WE are all familiar with it, doesn't mean the general Sonic modding public knows what the tune can do. I think the tune is ALWAYS a must have, and the limits to which some of the members here have pushed Vince's tuning expertise.. Should be able to get more out of it than your average Trifecta-tuned sonic.

That being said.. Exploring the other options that are available in the tuning world for the sonic would be worth some merit in my opinion. I'm happy with trifecta, but there are more and more new members asking about other options.

Also I second the motion of the cleaner Barina front bumper ...

EGGMAN-cruise the build section and look at the builds of the more advanced Sonics.. I think you'll be surprised what's already been accomplished in our little world.

 

[Stew]

Insanika, that's a good point about people outside the SonicOwnersForum perhaps not being as familiar with the Trifecta tune, I also agree that exploring some other tuning options would be very interesting, such as HPTuners.

 

[firstorbit84]

Let me add: HID retrofit, and LSD.

Also nice color/body choice

 

[BrianJ88]

+1 for rear disks and LSD.

 

[ChrisJ]

I'm sorry but I don't have anything to offer other then "you picked a sedan for this project!?"

 

[Thaifight-R]

OMG Yay! Import Tuner!!! :banana::banana::banana:

This is going to be very exciting! haha

The Cruze coilover retrofit has already been done. Actually, my car currently has BC Racing coilovers from a Cruze. Iraqivet was the first person to retrofit them if I recall correctly. (before selling them to me.)
As far as I'm aware of, ZachTullier and I are the only ones that currently have the Cruze coilovers retrofitted for our Sonics (I apologize if I forgot someone else.) granted we both have BC Racing coilovers. I don't think anyone has tried any other brands yet.

Basically, it's just enlarging the holes for the front strut mounts and making an adapter piece for the rear shock.

Air suspension has also been done on the Sonic, but I haven't seen any documentation of it since it's all been done overseas. Personally, I would like to install air ride in my car in the near future, but we'll see.

What would be really awesome with this car though would be if we could find/make a hub that can be adapted to this car to give it a more common bolt pattern. Kind of like how some 240SX owners swap their 4 lug hubs with the 5 lug hubs from an S14 240sx SE, or a Z32 300ZX. The Sonic comes with a really obscure 5x105 bolt pattern, so it severely limits wheel options. (and of course, you can only fit so many wheels with adapters since that limits what offsets you can use.)

^^I would love you even more if you could figure that out. hahaha

For body kits, I have yet to see anyone (non sponsored) in the States with a kit other than the 3D Carbon kit or the GM kit. The Thai AT Autopart AT-1 kit is fairly popular in Thailand. Perhaps you could look into the quality of that kit or something. The Holden front end and clear corners would be an awesome addition as well.


Hope that helps. Like I said before, I am very excited to see how this goes.
Always loved Import Tuner.

 

[firstorbit84]

Don't the euro models use 4x100? I'm sure those hubs would swap

 

[ecohauler]

Don't the euro models use 4x100? I'm sure those hubs would swap

Should work. The difficulty is in sourcing the parts, and you need rotors/drums to match. AFAIK no one has actually done it.

Let me add: HID retrofit, and LSD.

I second these. Make sure you retrofit projector housings to fit the HIDs properly. I would love to see a high-quality write-up on that. The reflector housings on this car are amazing when they've got a filament to focus on, but no reflector housing will work properly with HID bulbs.

 

[Thaifight-R]

Don't the euro models use 4x100? I'm sure those hubs would swap

The euro models and some Asian models have the 4x100 bolt pattern, but I hear that they also have smaller brakes.

 

[Eggman]

4x100 would definitely give a larger array of wheels. the 5x105 bolt pattern is only available on the sonic and cruze so you won't find too much available in the aftermarket world.

thank you everyone for the input so far. keep it coming.

 

[Eggman]

thinking it over again. i'd hate to lose the option of upgrading to the RS rear disc if we were to get the 4x100 hubs. doesn't look like the 4-lug cars ever had a rear disc option.