When it comes to performance and motorsports, General Motors is used to being on top. Since the 1950s, when GM introduced the small-block Chevy, the world's largest car company has owned America's streets and drag strips. For decades, going fast meant ordering parts from the GM Performance Parts catalog, bolting them on and putting the hammer down.
Times change, however. When it comes to sport compact performance, GM is way behind the curve and, frankly, its brass is tired of eating Honda's dirt.
Can the General turn around 10 years of sleep walking in five minutes? No. But the company is laying the groundwork for what we're told will be an all-out assault on the sport compact performance market over the next few years. An assault that will include an all-new Chevrolet Cavalier in 2005, and higher horsepower versions of the ECOTEC engine, which just debuted in the 2002 Cavalier and Pontiac Sunfire.
That groundwork began with GM Racing entering the world of front-wheel-drive drag racing with an 800-plus hp Cavalier, which we reported on in the June 2002 issue. So far, that program has been successful. The next step is the release of a supercharger kit for the 2.4-liter Twin Cam engine, which was once called the Quad Four and has powered the Chevy Cavalier and the Pontiac Sunfire for most of the 1990s, up through 2001.
The kit, which we reported on last month, includes an integral roots-type supercharger and manifold design. GM boasts the kit contains all the hardware required for a complete installation in one box, which means all the mounting brackets, fasteners, air ducts, adapters, PCV hoses, baffle and tubes are included. A Gen II MAP sensor, four spark plugs, accessory drive belt and four fuel injectors, which are also required for installation, are also included. GM even throws in the cost of recalibrating the Vehicle Control Module, which must be performed at an authorized GM dealership. GM says an experienced technician can install the kit within a single day.
GM also says the supercharger, which is sold at any GM Performance Parts dealer and makes 4.5 lbs of boost with the supplied pulley, adds over 40 ft-lbs of torque and bumps flywheel horsepower to 190.
We decided to find out if the kit performs as GM claims, or if Dan Garrison, GM Performance Parts product specialist is full of doggy doo.
Without hesitation, Dan brought over a black five-speed equipped 2001 Sunfire with the supercharger kit already installed.
After spending a few minutes snickering at the huge "supercharged" sticker running down the Sunfire's flanks, we opened the hood to find a nicely finished blower housing, good bracketry fitment and a very clean, "from the factory" look.
On the road the system is quiet, some might say too quiet, and really wakes up the Twin Cam engine, which was rated at 150 hp from the factory. Bottom end torque is much improved, and the power is delivered without any hiccups from idle up to the engine's modest 6250 rpm redline.
Our Dynojet chassis dyno then confirmed these impressions. Torque peaked at 167 lb-ft at 3800 rpm, and the curve is flatter than Calista Flockhart. Horsepower peaked at 165 hp at 6200 rpm, which backs GM's claim of 190 hp at the flywheel. At the California Speedway dragstrip, which sits about 1100 ft. above sea level, the Sunfire, on a nice cool May morning, ran from 0-30 mph in 2.7 seconds, from 0-60 mph in 6.9 seconds and through the quarter mile in an impressive 15.0 seconds at 92.7 mph.
Remember, this car is otherwise stock, including its tires. For comparison, we looked up the times performed by the last Acura RSX Type-S we tested, which dyno'd at 168 hp at the wheels.
It ran from 0-30 mph in 3.0 seconds, from 0-60 mph in 6.9 seconds, and ran the quarter mile in 15.0 seconds at 94.5 mph.
Dan Garrison wasn't happy, however. He said the car had run in the mid-14s. Then the check engine light came on. A week later, the phone rang. It was Dan. He said the number one spark plug boot had cracked, which would reduce spark, and ultimately cause the computer to lean out the motor. He asked us to test the car again. We said we would, but Fox's celebrity boxing match with Joey Buttafuco was on that night, which is far more important. We did, however, promise to mention the whole spark plug thing.
The GM Performance Parts supercharger kit is on sale now. It costs about $3,500 and carries a product warranty for defects in material and workmanship for a period of 12 months or 12,000 miles from date of installation. GM will also cover the internally lubricated engine and transmission components for the length of the original factory powertrain warranty. And if the vehicle is already off factory warranty, the additional powertrain warranty that comes with the kit still applies, depending on the age and actual mileage of the vehicle at the time of the blower's installation.
For more parts testing, logon to www.sportcompactcarweb.com