2005 Chevrolet Cobalt SS Supercharged vs. 2005 Dodge SRT4 - Chassis & Suspension - Compact Sport Coupe Comparison

From the helm, however, the cars felt different, and our test drivers came away with several suggestions for chassis improvements. We were convinced the Cobalt's limited-slip diff was AWOL, because the inside wheel kept lighting up in hard cornering. But the fault lies with a too-rigid front anti-roll bar that unloads that tire. The Quaife can only multiply the torque of a slipping wheel and send it to the opposite side, so when a wheel's torque drops to zero (nothing to multiply), the result is tire smoke. Chevrolet says there was no budget for a rear bar that might've better balanced the chassis.

Set up as is, the Cobalt pushed like a dumptruck in slow corners during trackmeister Chris Walton's first session. Then he discovered the chassis responds better to a slow-in/fast-out approach, using careful late braking or trailing-throttle deceleration to rotate the car in certain turns. Pirelli PZero Rosso tires make the most of what grip this chassis setup can deliver, but Walton didn't feel he was receiving all the messages the front tires were sending up through the steering rack. The latest version of the electric power steering system we've carped about in other Delta applications is now tuned to provide excellent weighting and to point the car with perfect accuracy. But the electric motor, mounted between the steering wheel and the rack, seems to filter out the tickles and twitches that tell a driver how close the limits of adhesion are--a sad case of life imitating a video game.

Dodge takes those tire messages and amplifies them, sometimes to the point of objectionable kickback on one-wheel bumps. Unfortunately, after a couple of hard track laps, the only message this rubber has to send is "HELP!" The "W" in BFGoodrich KDW tires stands for wet traction, which is achieved with deep water channels in the tread design. These troughs leave tall rubber blocks that can lean over--a lot. The outboard edge of nearly every block across the tread showed serious shoulder wear after a few hot laps, and lap times fell accordingly as each session went on. An upgrade to Mopar's wider 16-inch tire/wheel package should be considered mandatory for competition-minded drivers in the real or virtual worlds.

Low- and midrange torque (and a chassis setup that keeps front wheels on the ground) tugs the Dodge out of slow corners, but when the corners are close together, a crude driveline lash can upset the chassis or at least the driver's rhythm. The light rear end (which carries way less than 36 percent of the car's weight when decelerating) causes the back tires to skitter disconcertingly and overburdens the front brakes when braking hard for a turn.

Leaving the Streets of Willow circuit for the blind twists and turns of the Angeles Crest Highway, one dials back the intensity to seven tenths and discovers different nuances. The Dodge's driveline lash and wandering rear end disappear, and its shifter's closer gates make it a far more satisfying oar to row than the Cobalt's antiquated stick (the pull-ring reverse lockout and unevenly spaced gates feel like throwbacks to the Ms. Pac-Man era). The SRT4 boasts a slightly more forgiving suspension that absorbs sharp impacts more comfortably and quietly than the Cobalt's does.