Filed under: Motorsports, Hybrids/Alternative, Chevrolet, GM
Chevy Cobalt aims to set E85 record at Bonneville
A Chevrolet Cobalt SS racecar engineered in part by three female students is heading for the Bonneville Salt Flats this week, in an attempt to set speed records using both E85 and gasoline.
If the student's Cobalt project is successful, it will be the first vehicle to set a record at Bonneville using E85 fuel, racing in the G Class/Unblown Fuel Competition Coupe class. Running gasoline, the car will also run in G CLass/Unblown Gas Competition Coupe class.
GM Co-op students Lauren Zimmer, Sandra Saldivar and Heather Chemistruck are part of GM Performance Division's Student Bonneville Program.
The fuel-injected "Go Yellow" Cobalt will be joined by a trio of GM Performance Bonneville entries powered by blown versions of the General's Ecotec four-banger: the Chevy So-Cal Bonneville HHR, the Chevy So-Cal Cobalt SS, and the Ecotec Lakester.
[Source: GM]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
chewy 7:54PM (8/09/2006)
E85 has been hyped up very well by the manufacturers, the reason. E85 lets the manufacturers go through a loophole and save millions. (GM will avoid 200 million dollars in fines because of the loophole)
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/11174/tech-stuff-ethanol-promises-page7.html#flex
It kills your milage by a lot:
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/11174/tech-stuff-ethanol-promises-page7.html
Here is the whole article:
http://www.caranddriver.com/features/11174/tech-stuff-ethanol-promises.html
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Tad 8:08PM (8/09/2006)
no wonder this thing was built by women, it looks like crap.
women really have bad taste in cars.
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nzw8qr 8:31PM (8/09/2006)
A Suburban with E85 uses less traditional fuel than a Toyota Prius. That seems pretty impressive.
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cowboy bob 8:58PM (8/09/2006)
All the talk about fuel is fine. I like to keep informed. However, who is telling the truth? What are the trade-offs between costs, economy, and power? Show me a chart. Just a simple chart. That's all I ASK. Please, just a simple, ( BUT ACCURATE AND VERIFIABLE ) chart. No chart? Imagine that! Plus, my pet peeve is the placement of the fuel filler door on the right side of the vehicle. Yea, Yea, Yea, I know it's supposed to be safer, but how many accidents are caused by pulling into a gas station the wrong direction to fill up? Also, as I think about it, I have never heard of a car burning up because it got hit in the left side fill door. Rear-ended into the tank, yes, (Pinto, Crown Vic.) but the left hand fill door? Old Chevy trucks were hit in the side tank, the door was irrelevent. I really get pissed off when people pull into the gas station and screw everyone up going the wrong way. I WILL NOT buy a car with the fill door on the wrong side. Plus, I want to kill the sonofa'bit*h who designed it that way.
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chewy 9:22PM (8/09/2006)
cowboy bob
Mostly Asian (Japanese) cars have fuel filler doors on the left, which is "the right" side for them. Logic at work.
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Phydeaux 10:44PM (8/09/2006)
Hmm another article when people bash GM or E85 instead of commenting on the article...
Kills your mileage alot... yeah most race cars that are designed for speed are also designed for fuel economy.. like the Prius Nascar LOL! I guess the land speed record should change to "land speed record on a xxx gallons of gas"
Of course the second dumb comment is looks of a land speed car... the woman comment is ironic.. "sure it may make the speed record... but I don't like the way it looks" LOL!
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cowboy bob 4:47AM (8/10/2006)
Chewy at post #5- You may not know your left from your right. The left side IS the correct side. You might rethink your "logic". I don't care if it's made in Japan or not. We drive it here. They make it left hand drive for this market for Gods sake, so changing the fill door should'nt be that difficult. Besides, look at Cobalt, Eqinox, and many others. I don't know where they are "made" but they still go into the gas station the WRONG direction. Caos at the pump. I just want to punch their idiot as*es out.
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JB 7:14AM (8/10/2006)
Some European (if not all) cars have a right side filler. If everyone else puts it there, why can't we. Most of Europe drives on the right side too.
It isn't easy to move the fuel filler from one side to the other. Or move it even a bit. Remember the Windstar? Ford didn't offer a driver side sliding door because the fuel filler was in the way. The cost of retooling and moving the door was (in their opinion) too much, so it drove people to the Chrysler van, which either anticipated the dual sliding door, or was just lucky.
Jaguar used to offer fuel doors on both sides, so a "Y" pipe was in the trunk to route the fuel to the tank. But that was an expensive car, and Jag never sold very many of any model. Usually, the exhaust and fuel are kept on different sides, so switching sides would involve a lot of other work, crash testing, etc., for something most people don't even notice. Would pay 3K more for a left side filler door? Maybe more than that?
Take a look under your car and you will likely see that the bottom is not a mirror image. A lot of parts would have to be retooled, carrying different inventories at the plant, etc. It's amazing how a change like this can ripple through the engineering and manufacturing process.
I have not seen chaos at fuel pumps, unless the person isn't familiar with the car they are driving, which is another issue. A lot of cars even have an arrow pointing to where the fuel door is, which is a lot cheaper than moving the fuel filler.
I'm done.
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5 watt 7:25AM (8/10/2006)
Wouldn’t this significantly more relevant if GM actually sold an E85 Cobalt.
As far as E85 is concerned as a fuel, it always amazes me how many people are anti energy (oil) diversification. Is E85 a silver bullet that will solve the world’s energy problems? No. Producing ethanol from corn is not hugely efficient and has a minimal energy gain. We are getting close to where we can get ethanol from any plant matter and prices will come down and energy efficiencies will go up.
In the next five years you can expect oil to go up in price and supply to stay flat. Ethanol should go down in price and up in supply. The availability of E85 will also remain mostly region specific. How people on the coasts don’t understand that people in the midwest using ethanol instead of oil is good for there oil prices is beyond me.
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cowboy bob 7:54AM (8/10/2006)
JB at post #8- I do not propose that re-tooling be done for the filler door. What I said was DESIGN. FROM THE START. This does not require a rocket scientist. As for the problems at the pump- I have personally been cut off three times this month by these A-holes driving into the fuel pump on the wrong side. After they get there they pose problems for the next fueler as well, causing nose to nose parking, backing up, and just generally being a road block. Here in NY we see this all the time. If there is an addittion of another pump for E85, this will further complicate these problems. This does not have to be this way if designers were looking at practicality. A filler door such as in the Corvette where it is up on the center deck lid would cure everything. Probably never occurred to some snot nosed 23 year old engineer just out of college. ( I am a retired engineer myself ).
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MikeW 9:40AM (8/10/2006)
As a consolation, Ford offer that 'coupe' sized driver door for 2nd row access.
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Whydrive 10:12AM (8/10/2006)
Based on previous poster's logic about E85, the automobile should've never gotten popular since horses were much more "efficient" than the first automobiles.
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Richard Warren 10:31AM (8/10/2006)
cowboy bob,
It's what you get used to and the orignal idea was sideswipe protection, as to chaos at the pump get the F**K over it, the only chaos is yours. Personally, damn the safety bullshit and put it back in the middle. Problem????? solved. You can go anyway you damn well please.
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Fabulo 4:49PM (8/10/2006)
Mmm... I did not think there was a logic about what side the fuel door is placed (read: logic where it actually makes a difference)
My wife Nissan has its fuel door on the left of the car. My Chevy's (malibu... mmm... malibu) is on the right. My wife's previous car, a Chrysler Cirrus, had it on the left also.
Any logic? no.
"A Suburban with E85 uses less traditional fuel than a Toyota Prius. That seems pretty impressive."
Think how little 'traditional' gas a Prius would use on E85. Making E85 capable vehicle is ridiculously simple: Alcohol resistant fuel tank, lines and pump, updated PCM ignition maps and off you go. $14 for the hardware, $0 for the software.
E85 as a solution is so retarded it's not even funny. 0.000003% of all consumption of gas is E85. 0.0000007% of gas stations carry it. All in the (unpopulated) mid-america. This is a total joke.
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cowboy bob 7:57PM (8/10/2006)
Richard Warren at post 13- You think this is no problem? You want me to "get the fu** over it"? I hope you feel the same when the towelheads make gas lines like I remember in '74. In the USA we are supposed to "keep right". Oh, by the way, eat me.
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racerchic20 1:22PM (11/12/2006)
I think the whole point of this project is to show that the car can run on E85 and then GM can start producing E85 Cobalt's. Also, who says girls have a poor taste in cars if this was their project? These girls did a damn good job with what they were given.
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