Any New Pedders Plans for the Sonic?
- Thread starter laborsmith
- Start date
Ridethesky84
New member
I know ddm is working on a basic coilover system now as well.
laborsmith
New member
One thing to bear in mind is Pedders coilovers are GMPP approved. Theirs is not the only GMPP approved, but as far as I know the other GMPP approved coilover makers are not making or planning to make any for the Sonic.
Laborsmith
Laborsmith
JusticePete
Supporting Vendor
Coilovers are DONE! Did some corner weighting today. Added a tweak to the rear suspension. A little more time with the fine tuning for ride heights, corner weights and alignment...
Ridethesky84
New member
Awesome. Can you post some pics when you get a chance?
JusticePete
Supporting Vendor
Yes sir I will. We have been revising the ride heights on our Sonic, playing with the scales and alignment. I'll get some pictures up this weekend.
laborsmith
New member
Since installation in April, we have traveled about 8000 miles and had the tires rotated twice and notice no unusual wear or wear patterns.
Everything was done by a Pedders dealer (Rodgers Chevrolet in Woodhaven, MI) so I have no idea about difficulty. The rears look pretty straight forward but the fronts look like they could be a bear. Pedders dealers "time the bushings" as part of their install, which involves extra steps loosening and tightening suspension components not always touched when doing an alignment. Which may help explain why Pedders lowering coils have a stellar reputation for being suspension noise free when a Pedderised vehicle is motivating down the road.
I have a thread in the BUILD THREADLaborsmith Gets Pedderised, which include a few pictures before and several after. It also has a couple pictures of the Corvair which will be heading toward Boston tomorrow morning in order to attend the annual Corvair Society of America convention.
Laborsmith
Everything was done by a Pedders dealer (Rodgers Chevrolet in Woodhaven, MI) so I have no idea about difficulty. The rears look pretty straight forward but the fronts look like they could be a bear. Pedders dealers "time the bushings" as part of their install, which involves extra steps loosening and tightening suspension components not always touched when doing an alignment. Which may help explain why Pedders lowering coils have a stellar reputation for being suspension noise free when a Pedderised vehicle is motivating down the road.
I have a thread in the BUILD THREADLaborsmith Gets Pedderised, which include a few pictures before and several after. It also has a couple pictures of the Corvair which will be heading toward Boston tomorrow morning in order to attend the annual Corvair Society of America convention.
Laborsmith
JusticePete
Supporting Vendor
Not much new here. The Sonic Gran Sport is headed to the OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitational and will be displayed in the OPTIMA OUSCI Corral.
JusticePete
Supporting Vendor
To put the OPTIMA Ultimate Street Car Invitation in perspective, my daughter's Sonic will be competing with this.
laborsmith
New member
JusticePete, I understand that the parts shipment Pedders has been waiting for is on the way to Texas from the west coast and am wondering if the box has any goodies for the Sonic.
Laborsmith
Laborsmith
JusticePete
Supporting Vendor
Sonic Xa coilovers are now IN-STOCK!
With the interior out for the OUSCI I did notice a lot of road noise. I found a light weight noise solution.
It is cheap at $15 a roll. It is also light weight. The total weight was only about 8 pounds.
It made a HUGE difference with or without the interior in place. With the interior my wife and daughter both love the new level of quiet and so do I.
One of the reasons we ran the Sonic at the OPTIMA was to prove to everyone what a wonderfully capable car the Soni is with minimal modifications. We installed GMPP Pedders Xa coilovers. We did a mild tune. Very mild with reliability a higher priority than power. We run stock exhaust, wheels tire size, brake pads, rotors... That we ran 23rd in the OUSCI autocross is INCREDIBLE. The cars that run in the top 20 are purpose built for the event. We beat 33 of them!
Maybe they need a new metric at the OUSCI. Fuel used. We used less than 2 gallons
laborsmith
New member
I suspect some of those cars were using much more than two gallons per minute. Your are correct Eric, less than two gallons for the race is intense.
Laborsmith
Laborsmith
JusticePete
Supporting Vendor
When you make 800 at the rear wheels your burn rate if intense.
rdss
Junior Member
Sonic Xa coilovers are now IN-STOCK!
With the interior out for the OUSCI I did notice a lot of road noise. I found a light weight noise solution.
It is cheap at $15 a roll. It is also light weight. The total weight was only about 8 pounds.
It made a HUGE difference with or without the interior in place. With the interior my wife and daughter both love the new level of quiet and so do I.
Pete, did you pick that up at Home Depot?! I think that might help out with my small noise problem I'm having. I might need a little more than you with the huge sedan trunk.
JusticePete
Supporting Vendor
Mark Stielow won the event with his 850 RWHP+ built from scratch 67 Camaro. It is part Camaro and part ZR1 Vette and all Mark. He is an incredible builder.
We brought our Lingenfelter / Pedders L/28 Camaro. It is 600 at the rear wheels. We finished 3rd in the AC and 5th in the Road Course. We broke on the road course. The OE rubber driveshaft coupler failed. The fastes Road Course time was 1.46 and change. That is a flying lap time. We ran a 1.49.50 from a standing start on our warm-up lap. The coupler broke on the 1st hot lap. On a hot lap, you pass the start finish line at 110+. Assuming our L/28 goes Zero to 110 in 4 seconds flat... That and $3.50 will get yu a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Shoulda, coulda, woulda...
The reason we ran the Sonic was to prove a point. The Sonic is an AUTOMATIC. With careful coil selection and ride height adjustment we had the Sonic running faster than 30 of the fastest street cars in America at the Autocross. We beat the Lambo, Shelby 500, CTS-V and more in the Speed Stop Challenge on OEM Brakes. On the road course we were faster than 16 other cars.
Suspension, setup and driver are the keys to high performance. We ran the event to prove that a Pedderised car is the fastest a car can be. Who would of thought a 150 HP Sonic could hang with the Fastest Street Cars in America, beside myself and John Buttermore?
We brought our Lingenfelter / Pedders L/28 Camaro. It is 600 at the rear wheels. We finished 3rd in the AC and 5th in the Road Course. We broke on the road course. The OE rubber driveshaft coupler failed. The fastes Road Course time was 1.46 and change. That is a flying lap time. We ran a 1.49.50 from a standing start on our warm-up lap. The coupler broke on the 1st hot lap. On a hot lap, you pass the start finish line at 110+. Assuming our L/28 goes Zero to 110 in 4 seconds flat... That and $3.50 will get yu a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Shoulda, coulda, woulda...
The reason we ran the Sonic was to prove a point. The Sonic is an AUTOMATIC. With careful coil selection and ride height adjustment we had the Sonic running faster than 30 of the fastest street cars in America at the Autocross. We beat the Lambo, Shelby 500, CTS-V and more in the Speed Stop Challenge on OEM Brakes. On the road course we were faster than 16 other cars.
Suspension, setup and driver are the keys to high performance. We ran the event to prove that a Pedderised car is the fastest a car can be. Who would of thought a 150 HP Sonic could hang with the Fastest Street Cars in America, beside myself and John Buttermore?