Slobalt

[Ellis V Buth]

Alright, I probably won't get rolling full steam on the documentation of this build until this winter but I figured I'd go ahead and get it started now while some of the early details are still fresh in my mind.

Ever since I met my wife in 2015, she had a 2005 Cobalt. Manual windows, manual seats, electric locks. 4 door. Nothing special, just a fuel efficient work beater with low miles and very little rust. I had joked with her about turning it into a racecar since the first time she came to the track and she always laughed at me. At the time, I hadn't researched the combination for stock eliminator.

In 2019, a buddy needed something to race and the Cobalt happened to be sitting at the track so I told him to get in it and run sportsman. Car ran 10.99 best and 11.05 worst that day. That got my wheels turning and I came home and researched the combination. At that time, DF/S was a 19 lb class (I think) and EF/S was a 25 lb class so at the end of the day I didn't think it was a viable solution to try with the ET's it ran on the 1/8th mile and the car being a natural 20 lb car. I ended up purchasing my Ranger a few weeks later and spent the time and money making it better.

Fast forward to this spring, the car now has 150,000 miles on it and we are starting to consider replacing it as a daily driver. I took it to the track on June 24 and ran between 11.00 and 11.06 the whole day. 4 years later, same ETs. That got my wheels spinning. CF/S is now 19 lbs and DF/S is now 22 lbs which means I can add a little weight to the car and it'll have a 16.50 index. I take it to the local elevator and weigh it to get an idea...it's roughly 100 lbs light with 1/4 tank of fuel. Awesome...those runs are viable data and 16.50 isn't too far from reach.

Another buddy is starting a stocker build but dealing with parts on back order and can't seem to make any headway. He had to take my brothers street car to Norwalk to tech and get a grade point...but that car isn't remotely close to the index. My brother, Travis, mentions that we've been talking about the Cobalt and think it should be about 5 tenths above the index as it sits in street trim. It's somewhere around the 1st of July, and we decide its worth going down this path. Let's get the car to a 1/4 mile track and test it before Columbus and try to get that .5 out of it!

July 3rd, 2023 the car is loaded on a trailer and headed to Indiana to start its stock eliminator journey. Here is the picture from that evening and the beginning of the build I'm calling "SLOBALT"

[Billy Nees]

Hurray!

[doglover44]

This will be a interesting build !

[Cglrcng]

I was really praying we could read 1 from a man named Buth!

[KendallGillespie]

Great bracket cars. as ive chatted with you before ellis regarding these. my g5 is killer deepstaging, going 1125ish. cant wait to see what ya do with it!

[Ellis V Buth]

When we last left, the car was headed to Indiana for the build to start. So far...the only investment we've made into the car is marrying the beautiful lady who owned it (and we are still happily married even after deciding to take her street car and turn it into a racecar) so we are calling it $0 initial investment since we had the car. For argument sake...you could find a car basically like this one for $1500-2000 running and driving etc. This car has just under 160,000 miles on the odometer when we started the build.

IRP had a Wednesday night test and tune/street car night (Wild Wednesday) 2 days after the car was picked up. Andrew Fidler, our buddy who is building the car, and my brother Travis decided to take the car and get some baseline 1/4 mile runs to see what it does. They make no changes to the car before going and run it as a pure street car. It runs a best of 16.80s which gives us a solid starting point. They played around with launch RPMs and a few other little things they could do without wrenching or anything. Air cleaner in vs no air cleaner, letting some oil out, tried a pair of slicks. Gained 2 tenths in the initial test session roughly so we have some hope and a plan to get the car ready for 7 days later...the Jegs Sportsnationals and Divisional at Columbus. We need 3 tenths to make the index before then!

Our plan is simple...change transmission fluid to something lighter, put in 0 weight oil, change the brakes to something smaller on the front so we can make a 13 inch wheel fit. We have a pair of 22x8 M&H slicks that came with my Ranger that are a couple inches shorter than the stock street tires, but if we can get a 13 inch rim we have a pair of Hoosier 20.5x7 slicks that a buddy uses on his Honda from time to time that are already mounted on rims that'll work with our car but won't clear the stock calipers. We also bought a header that we found online to try. As long as our initial weight for the car from the local elevator is close to correct, we'll be able to run under the index with these changes we are confident!

It is now July 10th and we are filling out our first tech card for the Cobalt. Below are a couple pictures of the visible changes to the car for testing and then for the first race. So far, we've got calipers, rotors, pads, trans fluid, header, and a couple of oil changes for testing totaling just under $400 invested in the car.