This Street Sunfire is a father-son project that my son Adam and I have run for a few seasons. In many ways, it's the direct ancestor of the HHR/Cobalt platform. He was running 11's in it when he was 17...he's 20 now, and he enlisted in the Air Force some weeks back.

As he'll be hitting boot camp soon, I devoted much of my time these last few weeks to finishing what we started. It's been challenging, but very rewarding!

It's been our objective as of late to get it into the 10-second range, where no Ecotec manual-trans street car has ever gone before. This last Tuesday evening, we hit paydirt...BIG TIME!

Video of 10-second pass

Video of 606 WHP dyno run

The car has been an ongoing testbed of high-performance Ecotec development for Hahn RaceCraft.

I dedicated myself to working with Adam to achieve our dream for this unique 'father-son' Eco-car before he begins his journey to serve our nation. Time has been short, so we've been working hard on it for the last few weeks. We are now very proud of the car...and the best part is, there's way more left on the table!

We're going to do a full feature on our website soon on this fascinating car. Originally prepared as a SEMA show car back in 2002 (hence the flamboyant paint!), this current iteration was conceived to show that Ecotec power can result in impressive times while staying within the budget constraints of the average enthusiast. GM Racing has built 'street' cars of considerably more performance than this, but they've always featured megabuck engines and very altered drivelines built around a conversion to the 4T65 automatic transaxle.

We set out to prove that a stock transmission and engine location can also get the job done nicely, and with a fraction of the budget GM Racing lavished on their FWD cars. I must emphasize that this is not meant to take anything away from what GM Racing has accomplished, for they've done an outstanding job of showing the Ecotec engine's capabilities. This car is instead a 'bridge' from those well-financed efforts to the average Joe!

Overall, the car weighs 2475 pounds, and still sports a complete interior, stock window glass, stock body panels, and is street legal and plated (well, we DO put different wheels on for the street!).

Here's the timeslip numbers:

60': 1.712
330': 4.665
1/8 ET: 6.982
1/8 MPH: 109.39
1000': 8.954
1/4 ET: 10.583
1/4 MPH: 139.23

I must take a moment to thank the companies who have helped out with this effort. They all support the Ecotec mission faithfully, and are worthy of your patronage!

ClutchMasters
The DriveShaft Shop
ACCEL-DFI
Random Technologies
Keizer Wheels
Competition Cams
Wiseco Pistons
AllEcotec.com

 

WOW thats impressive good job

 

That cannot be stock.

Very nice videos.

 

very nice!

 

Dam , Those videos gave me an adrenaline rush. Great team effort. And one day (hopefully soon) i,ll be placing some orders.

But,
Most important -
Thanks to your son and men like him, for serving this great country. Safe passages to all of them !

 

Do you think we might be able to adapt the 4T65 in the HHR SS to swap for the 4T45???

 

Great job Bill!!
Can't wai to see some of that technology trickle down to the HHR.
And please thank your son for his service! I appreciate it.

 

cant wait to see some 11/10 sec hhr's.

Good luck to your son. I will be heading off soon to be a USMC DI.

 

And thank you too Blackout.

 

First, thanks to everyone for the congrats and good wishes

The 4T65 is a very involved conversion....it's about as different as can be vs. the 4T45. Not impossible, but significant surgery and fabrication involved. This is one of the primary reasons we pursued a stock 5-speed in this Sunfire, so as to better understand and formulate a template for others to gain confidence in, and perhaps then emulate. It was imperative that this template follow the economy of keeping a stock-type driveline, for a 4T65 conversion would have made this car unaffordable for all but a few.

We always strive to create project vehicles that represent reasonable, attainable results, for 'no-holds-barred' extravaganzas do not fulfill our company mission of demonstrating that customers can use our components and techniques on real-world vehicles. Expensive one-offs may impress, but they fail to prove our products' or chosen vehicles' capabilities for the typical user.

There has been some effort to upgrade the 4T45 for higher power, but I am unaware as to the extent of the program to date.