ZX2Fast

So I drove up to help Brian take some wiring out of the Del Sol he bought. Trying to make a daily driver out of it so he can get the ZX2 back on the road. After I figured out what wires could come out I mentioned that I would like to know if the raggedy ass ZX2 I'm driving can take that supercharged Cobalt he has.

So, we went out to a nicely kept backroad and had at it. We figured we should race from a 25-30 mph roll since neither of us have traction in 1st at all. The first race he honked 3 times and started about half a car back (at my door) and by 90 I had him by another half car. We turned around and tried it again. This time I tried shifting a bit higher. Starting from 25 we ran up to 105 and I had a good solid car on him. We were a bit even (I pulled slowly) in 2nd gear and in 3rd I got the whole car length and held it in 4th.

He is stock except for a modded airbox and straight-thru muffler. I held about 10 psi in 2nd and 3rd and around 8 psi at the top of 3rd and all of 4th. Damn internal gate. Still running the base tune.

Modifications in signature.

Vaughts05ss

Good kill. Thats a hell of an escort you got there. Any pics?

3fo893013L

Believeable, ZX2's actually stock could run mid to low 15's. Respectable. Try racing him after intense or GM Stage upgrade. It will be pretty even. I am going to say your car is a low 14 sec car.

-Mike

ZX2Fast

Thanks guys. My Cardomain is: www.cardomain.com/id/zx2fast

I need to get a fresh engine in there. This poor thing is wore out. It got slower each time I took it to the track and now I boosted it. I was running 15.7 before the turbo.

M-Dub

Sick ride... nice sleeper! I had a buddy with a ZX2 with all the GUDE performance parts on it, and yeah it would make people ???? what just happend!
Welcome aboard!

ZX2Fast

Yeah, you gotta watch that Gude stuff. They have horrible boost creep. You should see the wastegate design. It looks like something a 6 year old would come up with. They don't come with BOV either. Bill Gude told me you don't need it at 6 psi. Compressor backspin anyone? I guess he could have had the Gude head and cams though.

My kit is all custom. It actually uses a JBA header with a custom mid-pipe. I bought the header, mid-pipe, downpipe, and turbo already done from another tuner. He failed to mention it won't clear the radiator so I had to take 7 rows out of the radiator core. JB Weld sure works wonders. I could probably get sponsored by JB Weld. Surprisingly, it only overheats in the summer with my A/C on at a stop. So long as I'm moving or don't sit with the A/C on, it stays in the normal range. I don't have to wait long to get warm in the winter either.

rickyw

i dont know anything about zx2s so i just want to ask are they stock turbo?

NoRemorse

uhh.. they dont come with a turbo at all

ZX2Fast

Nope, 2.0 Zetec, 130 hp factory. It is an Escort, base price $10,995.

vtecduster

whew. didn't know that ford could handle 10psi. Nice sleeper man. With your dedication, i'd love to see what you could do with a more formidable starting setup...like say....a cobalt SS/NA??

Edubs

Looks like you've got a lot of hours into that thing. Great work. Nice to see someone make things work. Sweet ride...

rick1217

nice kill.....werent you the one on streetfire that said your ZX2 would beat a cobalt ss w/ stg2, not tring to start **** with you, just wondering cause you beat a near stock cobalt by only what? one car? good kill otherwise, and welcome to the forum....just wondering if that was you, maybe you never raced one before you posted on streetfire and now you know that the cobalt ss is a pretty quick car and with mods , they can be alot faster. do you plan on turning up the boost?? stock internals?? any future plans??

ZX2Fast

I can't wait to see how much faster it'll be with a fresh engine and a dyno tune. I thought about getting a Cobalt for the wife but neither of us like the boxy look. Not a bad platform to start modding with though. I like the interior of the Cobalt. The ZX2 only weighs in at 2400 pounds. Can't beat a good power-to-weight ratio. Besides, I like being the underdog.

10 psi is about the limit on the stock block with a Super 60. 10 psi on a bigger turbo will eventually blow the rods out. The rods are only sintered metal so they aren't very strong. Tuning is a very big issue with this car. It is 9.6:1 compression so boosting it doesn't cause any loss in low-end power. This car is very easy to drive in town and my wife still drives it on occassion. Aside from that, insurance is very cheap and I can get low milage motors for $250 or less. Can't beat a cheap car.

If I was to ever buy another car for a project, it would be a 92 Toyota MR-2 T-bar. I really love the way that car looks. I'll never have the money for it, but I would really like to get my hands on a Cosworth Escort.

ZX2Fast

This is the first Cobalt I've raced. So, that wasn't me on Streetfire.

Arguing about how you can do upgrades to x car to make it faster then y car is retarded. I can make a Festiva run 10's for about $3000. So that argument doesn't work. There is a guy that has his ZX2 in the mid-11's. He has about $2500 in the motor and maybe $1500 in the turbo. Still running the stock transmission and axles. Just welded the diff together. Not much of a street car though. He has some vids on YouTube I think. The thing is a beast.

As for future plans, I need to get a lower milage engine. This one has 150,000 miles on it. I would like to get some forged rods and pistons and maybe run 9:1 compression and 15 psi. But money is always an issue. It took me 7 years to get this car to where it is now and I'm still not even done with the pipes or the tuning for it.

Thanks for all the comments guys, I appreciate it.

NoRemorse

Want an 'underdog' car, get an ION redline.

I dynod 223whp stock... and for about $500, in the 270whp range. And it's a saturn

martinsmu

haha yeah those things have some get up and go stock. I think his 15.7 is spot on stock. Right around what a stock balt would run. But I bet that thinkg with a fresh motor could run high 13's with good traction/driver/good day @ the track!

hatrickstu

iTrader: (1)

ok so what kinda times have you run stock

NoRemorse

Never took it to the track stock.
And only took it to the track 2 times modded. 1 of which I had a problem with my TQ managment, the second time I only got 3 runs in, so mid 13's now.

what exactly are you getting at anyways?

martinsmu

[QUOTE=hatrickstu;737558]

What modds did u get for 500$ that gave you 45WHP??

D4u2s0t

hell of a sleeper, nice work! don't let the haters get you down, some people think the cobalt is untouchable! your car is nicely put together... keep us updated with the engine and the tune, i'm curious to see how it comes out

Blainestang

Justin Starkey has a 3.8L V6 Mustang that's been making 450whp+ @ 17psi with the stock LONGBLOCK (stock rods, pistons, heads, cam, etc) for several years, now, and it's not even built for boost.

rick1217

ohhh...ok yeah, i though it might have been you....same name.....
"Arguing about how you can do upgrades to x car to make it faster then y car is retarded." i agree with you, it is retarded, where did that come from?? i said if that was you on streetfire, then maybe now that you raced a cobalt, you know that they arnt slow....cause you beat a near stock one by a car, and the guy with the same name as you on streetfire was bashing the cobalt ss, with stg 2 w/ 2.8" pulley, saying how his zx2 would kill it.....
sorry if that wasn't you, just sounded like the same guy.....
anyways, good luck with the future mods.....

ZX2Fast

I wasn't pointing the comment about making a car faster by pouring money into it you really. Just trying to keep that out of here. Because it would come to that if we let it. I'm hoping I'll have a fresh engine and a dyno tune before the track opens this spring. I'm expecting high 13's out of it.

Supersleeper

props to the escort bro. My first car was a 98 escort lx hatch. I dropped to much money into that thing probably about 8 grand over the time i had it. Mainly all apperance stuff though it was more of a show car. It was taken away from me due to an old guy who doesnt know what stop means grrrr

ZX2Fast

I looked at my comments on Streetfire. I did make a comment on a Mustang GT versus Stage 2 CSS. I didn't say I could outrun the stage 2, I said I could outrun a stock one. I didn't tell any lies there did I? It was obvious in that vid that there was something very wrong with the Mustang. By all means, it should have been a good race but the CSS shouldn't have pulled that hard on the Mustang. The guy was being an ass about it. Wasn't you was it? lol Here is the video. http://videos.streetfire.net/video/8...4e001f7efc.htm

Now, after a dyno tune, keeping up with the stage 2 shouldn't be a problem. A lower mileage engine and I should be able to make a decent pull on a stage 2. Another ZXTuner running the same setup I'm running made some 14.0 passes on just 7 psi. So, stage 2's shouldn't be a problem on 10 psi.