CUSTOMIZING THE LOVE FOR COBALTS

By Don Shilling

Shaunna Fonte loves her Chevrolet Cobalt SS and has proved it by spending $15,000 on upgrades. The most visible signs of her passion are the doors that rise up — not out — like a Lamborghini’s.

“As a female, I have to have something that stands out,” said the self-described “motorhead” from Indiana.

The 24-year-old also has pink accents painted around the black car and chose top-of-the-line entertainment and sound systems.

She isn’t the only one who is in love with the car from General Motors’ factory in Lordstown. Though many Americans buy Cobalts for a cheap way to get around, a growing number of people look to the Cobalt as a cheap way to enter the hobby of customizing cars.

GM invited these people —called “tuners” in the industry — to come out Sunday to the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course in Lexington near Mansfield. Owners watched five professionally driven Cobalts race against other small cars, toured pit areas and talked with drivers, engineers and others involved with the race teams.

Cobalt Racing

Video

GM turned to www.CobaltSS.net to announce the event, and the 50 availablespots for observers filled up in less than two days. That didn’t surprise the Web site’s owner, Jonel Zula, 26, of Cleveland, who said the discussion boards are filled daily by people who love their Cobalts. The site has 26,000 registered members.

Fonte said the Web site is a big part of the Cobalt experience, and has turned owners across the country “into one big family.”

“There are so many people into the Cobalt right now. They make it more fun because you can talk about the car more,” she said.

She came to the race track with two other Cobalt owners who spend a lot of time chatting online.

“I’m always online looking for information for my car,” said one of them, Brandon Dunne, 20, of South Chicago Heights, Ill.

Though Fonte was the only woman among the Cobalt owners, another person in their group was one of the few not in his 20s.

“I’m probably the oldest one here,” said Carl Loetz, 53, of Michigan City, Ind.

“But he drives like he’s our age,” Dunne said with a laugh.

Quickness is a big part of the appeal of the supercharged Cobalt SS, which ups the horsepower from 148 in the base Cobalt to 205. Chevy recently replaced the supercharger in the Cobalt SS with a turbocharger that delivers 260 horsepower.

Owners said the Cobalt SS provides them with an economical way to get off the line fast. Many of them take their cars to drag strips, while others admitted to showing off on city streets.

Jeff Perrotta, 30, of Hartford, takes his Cobalt to a track in Ashtabula County, where his best time is 13.85 in the quarter mile. Official Cobalt drag racing teams post times under 10 seconds.

Perrotta, who helps with the operation of CobaltSS.net, said a following of tuners developed around the Chevrolet Cavalier because young people were looking for an affordable, American-made car. There was only so much they could do to boost the performance of that Lordstown-built model, however, he said.

That all changed with the launch of the Cobalt in 2004, he said. GM not only introduced the SS model, but it also marketed the car toward the tuners and offered a line of warranty-backed performance parts.

As part of reaching out to the tuners, GM started holding gatherings for Cobalt owners at race tracks this year. The Mid-Ohio event was the fourth one.

Brandon Rees, 21, of Columbus, said he is trying to save money to take advantage of the performance parts available for his 2006 Cobalt SS that he bought this past January. He would like to spend $20,000 to $30,000 more on the car to rebuild the engine, upgrade the suspension and make other adjustments needed so the car could compete on the track.

“I plan to get 500 horsepower out of it,” he said.

His friend, Justin Stokes, 22, of Columbus, recently bought a Cobalt SS for a less ambitious reason.

“I wanted to get into the tuner scene. I was tired of going to car shows and not having something to show,” he said.

Whether they intend to race their cars or take them to car shows, the owners all have one thing in common — dreaming about improving their cars is just as much fun as working on them.

Some of the owners talk about rebuilding engines or at least adding an upgraded supercharger and shifter. Fonte, who has the Cobalt with vertical doors, is planning to add pink accents to her engine block and her interior.

Despite spending more than $15,000 so far, she gives the same comment about her car that just about every other owner does: “My car is still a work in progress.”

shilling@vindy.com