Generally, the HHR-SS is Gerrrrrrrrrrrate, good road feel, wonderful handling, and extreme acceleration, in an easy shifting package.

Yesterday, I crossed the 600 mile make and thought I'd start opening baby up. I have noticed an bit of torque steer with a medium acceleration in hard turns. I was surprised because the articles I've read said Chevy solved the torque steer problem and in was "...torque steer was largely absent.." Saturday I got to do some back road farm country driving and like they said it can pull out and pass anything in a very short distance, much like my Vette. It is very shore footed at speed on any surface, and a smoother ride that the Vette. The steering is much quicker but easy to get used to. Early Sunday morning I pulled out onto US1 with a slow Suburban on the access ramp, I just popped out (no traffic) into the passing lane and opened her up. In a blink I crossed the 100mph mark and ran it up to 110, it maintained a very stable feel all the way. I was at 5500 RPM in 4 gear when I lifted and shifted to 5th and let it slow back to 80.

Today with over 750 miles on the clock I played a little WOW!!!!!!!!! Is this little car wild, keep it away from your teenagers and Ralph Nader (that for you guys that remember the Corvair)

I've been thinking First gear might be a little low, It gets to the redline a little faster than I like. I tried from a stop, let the clutch out normally then a full throttle acceleration. At apx 10mph and full throttle all the front wheel do is spin, the motor just over powers the grip. THe trick is like with any overpowered car is throttle modulation.

Has any SS owner tried the "Launch Control" yet, I'm waiting till I cross the 1000 mark.

Now for Torque Steer as I've said I'm a RWD guy, the rear wheels are meant to push and the front to steer. As I said earlier I noticed some torque steer while accelerating in tight turns. Today I tried shifting into 2nd gear at 20mph and trying a full throttle acceleration to the redline in 2nd. If you try that make sure you have a tight grip on the wheel. The gyro effect jerks the wheel from one side to the other. With an un-expecting or inexperienced drive it would pull the wheel out of there hands and be in a lot of trouble. I don’t know what the press was talking about "...torque steer was largely absent.." Not in my car it is very present. I need to find a safe parking lot to play some more.

Auto Week said "..Software mitigates torque steer without masking road feel.." Maybe I've got a software bug, scarrrrry.

What are other owners experiencing with full throttle accelerations?

 

This article you wrote makes me to even forget about the LT HHR and just go straight for the SS.

 

There is a fair amount of torque steer on non SS's. How is it taking off from a stop? Mine wants to weave a bit, especially when shifting like you said, and I've got 100 less hp. Guess wheel spin could play a part as well.

Sounds like you're having fun with it though!

 

It would also be good to hear whether you've got the LSD. Reviewers in some of the reviews I've read mentioned they drove one with LSD, which could make a big difference. I've yet to drive the SS. My dealer had the 2.4L with AT, and 2.2L with MT5 available to drive. The 2.2L MT5 felt much more responsive, just cuz of the trannie. Looking forward to finding out what it's like having 100 hp over that. I ordered the LSD cuz I figured it would be more fun coming out of turns. I've been driving AWD for a long time, and this will be my first FWD in over a decade.

 

I get torque steer also with my 2.4. I find it hard to believe with more torque in an SS that there would be none. I've been waiting for someone to confirm that. Thanks.

 

Maybe the definition of "torque steer" needs some discussion. I have always thought that torque steer meant the car had a definite tendancy to pull to one side under hard acceleration, and required constant steering input opposite that, I have experienced that with other front drive cars. What I see in the SS is simply that when you are in lower gears, the substantial torque causes the front tires to search for traction, which will by the nature of road surfaces never be exactly equal. Have to face the fact that with this much hp, you can't simply stomp the throttle wide open in the first three gears without regard to road conditions or where you are "pointed". Certainly this is not the only car this is true for, just maybe the first HHR, that requires a bit of thought before you mash the throttle.

 

I'm pretty new to FWD but as I understand torque steer it is as said above an unequal pulling from side to side which is not present in the SS. However with FWD I surly find that when the loud pedal is stomped while in a turn it wants to pull in a straight line in an understeer fashion and you'd better be ready to fight the wheel. You ain't gonna "drift" a SS very easily!

 

I agree here with c2vette about what I am feeling in the car and calling it
torque steer. The weather around here is crappy but when I do find what
appears to be a clear road and do a hard 2nd gear accel, I do feel the car
pull left or right. If it was really all torque steer, it would pull just one way.
Therfore what I am feeling, I believe to be the tires seeing limited traction
in different parts of road and the limited slip is changing power from side to side trying to maintain maxium traction.

I would ask others (like fastedSS) whether they see a max of 10 psi boost
in first gear. Again it has been hard to find good traction with crappy
winter weather but I see a max of 10 psi in first gear, then 15-17 in
2nd -5 th gears. What have others seen???

turbofreak

 

Most Definate Torque Steer. My SS wants to go like hell and if you don't have your hands on the wheel you will get random pulling to the right or left.

 

I hate torque steer, but in order to eliminate it the GM engineer would probably have to rework the suspension to the point where the car will be un-fun to drive. My friend is a sales manager at Nissan and i got to drive her loaner brand new 3.5 Maxima and it torque steered everywhere. If you happened to hit a bad spot in the road and accelerating at the same time, car would feel like it was on marbles. FWD is just a terrible design IMO. The HHR SS is probably one of the best attempts and limiting its flaws. It seems Nissan didn't do anything to their flagship sedan and that car was sticker for $35K.