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Will the Cobalt SS/SC have a governer?

10568 Views 53 Replies 20 Participants Last post by  CoBIZZLE
Will the Cobalt SS/SC have a governer? Someone want to find out? Not talking about the rev limiter either. :)

Did the Ion RL have a governer?
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someone said 145, but that's just hear-say, no definite answer yet to my knowledge.
From what I heard there is no governer, instead they have Z rated tires that go up to 143 mph. Honestly I have no clue whats on the actual production model, have to wait for someone with an SS S/c to tell ya.
Well usually most new cars are suppose to have that in their car now, but if you change the ECU or PCM, then that takes care of the issue. The Z rated tires are just there in case you want to take your car that high, but for our cars stock it cuts off at around 149 mph or so.......
CD'srt said:
Well usually most new cars are suppose to have that in their car now, but if you change the ECU or PCM, then that takes care of the issue. The Z rated tires are just there in case you want to take your car that high, but for our cars stock it cuts off at around 149 mph or so.......
I believe we run outta gear before anything else. I know there is a pic up at the RedlineForums that has someone's speedo at around 130ish and the tach is at 6000ish in 5th gear. So I would assume that if it is limited, it is REAL close to the tranny limit for it.
tires dont matter the Z24 came with H rated tires and topped 108mph
lol, my bald POS tires took me to 115 in mine.... btw, where do i find out about these "-" rated tires?.. i'd just like to read up on it, thats all..

and to answer your question, i say yes, it has to IMO... im guessing in the 140's... :confused:
Almost any tire site/store will have something with all the speed ratings explained. I almost positive the TireRack.com has it posted somewhere.
Sp00ner said:
Almost any tire site/store will have something with all the speed ratings explained. I almost positive the TireRack.com has it posted somewhere.
kool, ill look into it, thanks
I have heard it was a 146
CAVIFL45 said:
tires dont matter the Z24 came with H rated tires and topped 108mph
Actually it does matter, because why would you want to go over the speed limit for the design of the tire, and risk blowing a tire at that high of speed? If you go and ask any tire shop, if it matters or not on what is rated on the tires, I'm sure that they would tell you how important it is to go by what speed is recomended by the rate. There is a reason why they have rated tires.......
CD'srt said:
Actually it does matter, because why would you want to go over the speed limit for the design of the tire, and risk blowing a tire at that high of speed? If you go and ask any tire shop, if it matters or not on what is rated on the tires, I'm sure that they would tell you how important it is to go by what speed is recomended by the rate. There is a reason why they have rated tires.......
Yea really man, and having a tire go out because of too much speed is NOTHING like having a flat at 60. The tire basically explodes, taking alot of the fender with it, and I don't even have to tell you what controling the car would be like at 100+ mph with an explosive blow-out.
When I read in the magazines that the Cobalt ss/sc had Z rated I was skeptical. I was lucky enough to go see one at the courtesy Chevrolet dealership in Phoenix Arizona and it didn’t have the “Z” rated ones that they advertised. They are perils but they are “w” rated which is even better compared to this chart I found which could be wrong but here you guys go.
Q = 99 MPH, 160km/h
S = 112 MPH, 180km/h
T = 118 MPH, 190km/h
U = 124 MPH, 200km/h
H = 130 MPH, 210km/h
V = 149 MPH, 240km/h
Z = 149 MPH, 240km/h and over
W = 168 MPH, 270km/h
Y = 186 MPH, 300km/h
-And on a side note my Cobalt ss/sc has still not been ordered and here it is March 9th WTF GM?
My Ion Redline has ZR rated tires. 186 I believe. The ZR rating can be applied to any tire that exceeds 149mph. That's why your chart says Z = 149 MPH, 240km/h and over. In the literature for the car, it states the top speed for the tires is 186, maybe it says 168, I'll try to check at lunch.
The official word from GM is that the Cobalt SS has a 143 MPH Top Speed and it is NOT electronically limited (governed).

Chevrolet is also notorious for under-rating its high performance cars true abilities.
Yeah Z, Ive heard the 143...
Why cant it go any faster?? Is the tranny topped out??? If so then that sux!!!
I've also heard that its drag limited, what does that mean, I don't think I fully understand. Does it just mean the aerodynamics??? Like how it cant go faster cause how much the air/wind pressure pushes against it???

Hopefully after upgrades it will at least hit 150+mph!!!
I just wanna do that for braggin rights... 150+mph in a 4 cyl is just cool to me! :D
CoBIZZLE said:
Yeah Z, Ive heard the 143...
Why cant it go any faster?? Is the tranny topped out??? If so then that sux!!!
I've also heard that its drag limited, what does that mean, I don't think I fully understand. Does it just mean the aerodynamics??? Like how it cant go faster cause how much the air/wind pressure pushes against it???

Hopefully after upgrades it will at least hit 150+mph!!!
I just wanna do that for braggin rights... 150+mph in a 4 cyl is just cool to me! :D
Somone has a pic of their Redline going 135 with about 600 rpms or so to go on 5th gear. I would guess its gear limited by that, or both. 140+ mph is faster than you're ever going to go on most race tracks, unless it's a plain long oval, and you're never gonna see it on the 1/4 mi track in this car. So short gearing is better to me. If it was geared too tall it would fall out of the supercharger's peak power with every shift.

Drag limited means that the car's horsepower is insufficient to push the car through the air any faster. Easy example, if you're doing 100mph, then you need a certain part of your power push through the wind and keep the same speed up. As the speeds increase, so does the pressure on the car, and the power required to keep steady speed. Let alone the power required to increase speed even more. That's one good reason why SUV's are hard to get going over 100. AVERAGE Suv's that is. Most have such a force to push at 100+ mph that you have to floor it just to keep speed.
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Using some simple math and the figures listed below it’s easy to calculate that an RPM limited top speed for the Cobalt SS is just over 154 MPH so with a few mod’s this top speed could be attainable before the rev-limiter activates.

1. Perilli 215/45R-18 Tire have a 812 revolution per mile or a diameter of almost exactly 6.5’
2. Final Drive Ratio of 4.05
3. 5th Gear Ratio of 0.70
4. Redline is 6,500 RPM
5. 5,280 ft per mile.

The only thing that I was not able to calculate in was tire growth at high-speed but with this size tire it should be minimal and most likely allow for only 1-2 more MPH, I am also assuming new tires as this figure will be reduces slightly as the tires wear and overall diameter is reduced.

To get another 11 MPH out of this car should take in the neighborhood of 40-45 more ponies (estimated) based on the cars horsepower-to-weight ratio and coefficient-of-drag.
At high speeds it takes a lot of horsepower gain to get small MPH improvements.
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