Mallard

That couldn't be farther from the truth. That can be one aspect of the engineering field, but that's not everything. I have a friend that has his EE degree and he travels to hospitals diagnosing and fixing medical equipment. I have my ME degree and I drive prototype cars all day, as do some of my college friends. It all depends on what you want to do, where you want to end up, and who you know.

He claimed to have gone 12.38 @ 109 with a cat-less downpipe, 3" exhaust, K&N filter, water/meth, 94 octane, Stock turbo, stock, intercooler, and stock tires.

He's running 12's on a stock turbo, stock intercooler, HPTuners, and water injection.

Piece of shit. Even if he didn't wreck he could have seriously hurt that baby's neck.

Nice times. Congrats.

The simpe answer is government regulations. That's what drives the minimum weight of a vehicle of a given size. Crash test standards and mandated safety equipment add a lot of weight that can't be stripped off for production. Sure, Joe Blow could build a P.O.S. in his garage that gets him to work and back, but mass markets would never buy it because it's a giant death trap. The Volt may only be rated to 40 mpg OVERALL, but for that first 40 miles it's not using any gas (which is good enough for most people). Batteries are both heavy and expensive. So if you want to increase the electric range of the vehicle you're going to make it a lot heavier. The Volt is more like a full electric vehicle than any of the hybrids on the market today. That will make the jump to full EV's a small one, but also allows the technology developed for the Volt to filter through the rest of the product line-up. The Chevy Cruize (Future Cobalt replacement) isn't a hybrid and it should be getting mid-40 mpg. Now you just have to convince everyone in America that they only need a commuter vehicle.

We've actually had some really loud (for OEM) 5.7L cars through my work. I drove a manual 6.1L last week that was pretty throaty too.

The good news is the Volt will spawn lots of new technology that will find its was into more and more vehicles over time. Lithium Ion batteries are expensive. Think of it this way: the Volt is less than half the price of a Tesla Roadster, it's a larger car, and your range is unlimited (if you don't mind running the gas engine to charge the batteries). The Volt is a giant test/development-bed for new tech that can extend the range/improve mpg of vehicles. That tech will be assimilated into over GM vehicles over time, but the Volt is the 'extreme.' Look up info on the GM Precept if you want to see another high MPG hybrid development vehicle. It got 90 mpg in real world testing...but it also had something like 14 micro-processors and a lot of heat exchangers to manage everything.

If I were 175 lbs I would have a giant gut (unless I were weight training).

30 lbs? Are you serious? Unless you're weight training, 175 lbs and 5'10" is overweight.

There are a lot of 'hand made' engine's in OEM vehicles. That should not be the issue. All the parts are still manufacturered by the same machines, these are just assembled by a person.

Unless you vote for Ron Paul. *puts flame suit on*

Half the price? The drag pack cars cost in the neighborhood of $30k. That's cheaper than a stock SRT8.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/citizen.asp

Berto, You missed that it's actually a 17 year loan. You pay it back over 15 years, but don't make your first payment for two years.

Like the 450 hp Ecotec (Solstice GXP) that's completely stock except for a turbo swap? Nice numbers for the Cobra though. That's one of the few mustangs I'd be ok with owning.

Looking good Berto.

Anyone that is truely into cars should be there.

Mmm, a Ron Fellows Edition.

http://www.ema-usa.com/images/bow/bow_craig_rc51_lf_qu.jpg

That's called SCCA Club Racing.

The same way every other race series does it; a restrictor before the throttle body. I would love to see NASCAR turn into something more like the Aussie V8 Supercar Series, but I don't think they could ever do that for oval racing. The safety of a "stock car" is probably far above what you could do with converting a car off the showroom floor. I'm not saying it's not possible, but that would be the major hurdle to get over.

Did you just say that aerodynamics doesn't apply in turns?

Cool. 17psi would be in the range of stock boost. Although, since they control to a torque it would bepend on what the atmospheric conditions were for it to hit 17 psi. But they'll see up to about 20 psi stock. Thorne - They weigh aroun 3000-3100 lbs.

The MS3's ECU will start to close the throttle to control torque. Similar to how difficult the GM 2.0L DI Turbo ECU is to work with, but has more aftermarket support at the moment. CP-E has a reflash that removes the throttle body control and they sell a piggyback that seems to work. A guy I went to school with works at Cobb and supposedly the MS3 ECU is the hardest thing they have ever tried to crack. It will take some time, but when they release a product you know it's been fully tested and validated. On the Solstice/Sky turbos the ECU will control to a torque and will do everything it can to pull back gains from mods. An intake or exhaust may net gains for the first couple dyno pulls, but the ECU will compensate over time and the car won't make any more power than stock. Without a reflash there's not much to be had from mods. I'm not sure if the MS3 ECU goes to this extreme, but I know it will close the throttle to reduce power.