Test driving Redline Tomorrow

[OptimalZ06]

Dealership here has finally agreed to allow me to take the sky for several hours tomorrow afternoon.

With that said, I've driven the Redline a few times, but always with a sales guy griping at me. So, my question is, what should my test drive consist of? Should I do the normal everyday driving, and then take it out to some back roads and give it some twists and turns, and maybe a 1/4 run from a dig? I obviously don't want to destroy the car, but if I am going to buy one of these cars I want to know what it will be like in racing situations (I road race, and solo my Z06 quite often).

And one other thing.... If I were to buy this car, is there anyway to make the brakes........................ good? lol. Aside from the brakes I have really enjoyed driving this car and they look real good going down the road!

[Bogie]

Do the twisties.
Skip the 1/4 mile.

I haven't Autocross'd my SKY, so I can't speak to brake fade over a course. But I can speak to three heavy brake events in succession, in which case I can easily initiate an ABS event on the third application. So my brakes are as good as the tires, suspension, and bias through three. And speaking of tires, I love the GS-2s, but there are better grippers out there..which might challenge the brakes sooner.

As for brake latency, they seem very responsive to me. But I also don't drive a Z06

[OptimalZ06]

Originally Posted by Bogie

Do the twisties.
Skip the 1/4 mile.

I haven't Autocross'd my SKY, so I can't speak to brake fade over a course. But I can speak to three heavy brake events in succession, in which case I can easily initiate an ABS event on the third application. So my brakes are as good as the tires, suspension, and bias through three. And speaking of tires, I love the GS-2s, but there are better grippers out there..which might challenge the brakes sooner.

As for brake latency, they seem very responsive to me. But I also don't drive a Z06

Well,i've been driving the car for about 2 hours now. It seems to be a real good car, albeit a few little things here and there that I dislike, but when I take it back I will give a full opinion over it.

[OptimalZ06]

Ok, here goes my honest opinion of the sky...

Yesterday (6/1/08) I test drove a white, with tan top, black interior SKY Redline 5 speed.

Exterior:
First off the car is stunning. I enjoyed looking at it, more so then I enjoy looking at my Z06. It just flat out is a beautiful car. About the only thing I didn't like visually was the brakes, they look pretty bland back behind those nice shiny wheels.

Interior:
The interior looks great, but I was disappointed to find out by touching everything in the car, it either gets dirty (handles are chrome, the shifter is chrome, etc..), or made of plastic. I knocked on every piece of the interior and I swear 90% of it is plastic. This is disappointing as you compare this interiors to a G8, or a GTO, and the SKY holds nothing to them. The seats are very nice, and held me in well around some spirited corners. Another dislike for the interior is the squeaking... The car has less than 100 miles on it and it already had 2 prominent squeaks: The seat, and the Dash. This annoys me because the car is so new, it shouldn't squeak at all.. But this also goes back to the cheap plastic dash they chose to use in this car... If it were a proper interior this would be avoided. The steering wheel was also fairly nice with all the controls sitting on it, and the DIC is also nice to have... I enjoyed the Boost gauge quite a bit!

Brakes:
The brakes on the car work well. The only thing I did not like about them is I had to let them "warm up" before I could trust them. I also wish they were bigger and a color other than silver to offset them in the background. Nice big red calipers would be great.

Performance:
For as small as the car is, and for as little noise as it makes, it truly does get up and go... Once you are in boost. From idle the car is very weak, and doesn't even act like it wants to go, I know me and my passenger were thinking "is it WOT?"... BUT when the turbo comes around, the car gets new life and really gets! Another thing that disappointed me was to see that the turbo was already pushing 20psi! This sucks because it leaves no room to go out, buy a boost controller, up the boost and gain 40-50hp as you can do with many other turbo cars, and still be reliable. We were watching the boost gauge fluctuate between 17 to 20psi wildly, and lead us to believe the turbo is already at its edge, OR that the waste gate is not holding properly. I'm no turbo expert, but I have been in several turbo cars that do not have such wild fluctuations in boost (wild should be used lightly I guess, but 3PSI is a big deal IMO). That being said, I feel this would give a mustang a fair run for its money in a straight line, if you brake boost without spinning the tires, and would absolutely stomp one in the turns.

I took the car out through some turns and twists and it did very well. With a different set of tires I think the car would be even better, as the ones on the car seem to get a bit noisy fairly quickly.

At high speeds the SKY got a bit nervous... Anything over 100mph and a bump felt like a jump. One instance I remember clearly was being WOT and going over a small hump. The car floated sideways a good 3 or 4 feet, and this was only at 60mph. I've taken this hump many of times at the same speed or faster in other cars and in my own car, and have never felt such a thing. Taking it up to 120mph and the road noise was awful, and the car felt like it was getting very nervous.

The boot:
There really isn't one. That simple.

Conclusion:
I know it must sound like I hated the car, but in the 4-5 hours I was driving I really was enjoying it. It has a few little things here and there that I don't like, but in a nutshell I think it is a very enjoyable, nice, respectable car. I do not plan to buy one for my self, however; the misses will soon be the owner of an 08 or an 09 SKY Redline.

[cfjara]

you can do more with the boost . Get the car ECM tuned and it will feel a whole lot different. Some popular ones are BSR and Wester's Tune.

[SkyBaby]

WOW........ If you get one.... have fun.. I didnt test drive my first Sky... and not my second one until we signed and I drove them off the lot.... I am not disappointed in the least.... SkyBaby

[Rob the Elder]

I have a stock Sky and a slightly modified Sol. The difference is night and day.

I put the DDM beam on the rear end because every time I hit a bump at speed the rear end got all twitchie. The DDM beam solved that problem. Its very solid now.

I added the DeJon pipes (still waiting on delivery of the intercooler) and CAI. That matches up very well with the Magnaflow Catback. The difference between 2500 and 5000 when measured against the stock Sky is HUGE. The Sky will go but has little to offer down low. When you get it up to 2700 or higher it will start to go pretty well. with the Sol, if I put my foot into it in 2nd gear at 2000 rpm, bu 3000 rpm the rear end is starting to walk sideways and the little "low traction" warning comes on. I have only seen 19 PSI once. Most of the time I see 17 or occasionally 18 PSI. The boost is a function of air temp and demand. I am at 6500 feet and still seeing 18PSI on occasion. The black box is adjusting for optimum torque. Once you open up the motor so it can spend less energy sucking and blowing you get a much happier motor.

It took me less than an hour to turn my calipers from stock to beautiful shiny red. And 20 minutes to apply the GXP to the fronts. Now they show up beautifully thorugh my black spoke racing wheels.



I have no squeaks in the dast and your comment about cheap plastic dash is pretty much crap in my opinion. With the CAFE standards the biggest impact on mileage is weight. Getting the poundage off is key and plastic is one way to do that quickly and easily. Its also a hell of a lot easier to manufacture complex shapes as plastic castings. Personally give me all the cheap plastic you can so I can go faster more quickly.

I cant say how the car handles at sustained high speeds, Ive only done a few runs at 130 so will have to wait to see how it does at high speeds. But I can tell you this, its worth the look on the face of the Corvette driver in front of you when he muscles up to blow you away and looks in the mirror to see you smiling back at him three gears and 100 mph later.

[saab9-3]

yea i plan to do the ddm beam as well very soon and the sanner sway bars!

[lorennerol]

I don't like all the hard plastic in the interior either. Oh, except the radio faceplate, which is so soft that a fingernail will scratch it (and has on mine).

Having said that, I'm glad they sacrificed the interior rather than performance or the exterior. The car is beautiful, is fast and fun to drive, and as such, I'll deal with the poorly placed window controls, seat tilt controls, cup holders, a radio display that's impossible to read in direct sun, and the aforementioned abundance of chintzy-feeling plastic.

[OptimalZ06]

Originally Posted by Rob the Elder

But I can tell you this, its worth the look on the face of the Corvette
driver in front of you when he muscles up to blow you away and looks in
the mirror to see you smiling back at him three gears and 100 mph
later.

Not this corvette you wouldn't :P.

And I wasn't talking about "what could be done" to the car, I am talking about out of the box performance. I don't buy a sports car to get great gas mileage, I buy a sports car to drive the crap out of it and enjoy. If it had a 6th gear the use of a plastic interior would be void. My vette has 4 more cylinders, 200 more horsepower (atleast), and is modified, and I STILL get over 30mpg highway... and the interior is not plastic. To say that GM does not put good interiors in ALL of its car's is crap IMO because they do it in several cars, and I doubt one bit that any of them would get any better gas mileage with a plastic interior. I would happily sacrifice 50-100 pounds in weight for a better interior, as that weight can be saved elsewhere.

If you guys are under the impression that I am attacking these cars, that is simply untrue. I'm giving the car a fair opinion as to what I thought of it while driving it. I stated in the writeup that I enjoyed the car, and I enjoyed it a lot. I plan to own one of these cars, and I was simply stating what I thought of the car from the moment I got in it. I think they are a fantastic car, there are just a few things I did not like. Once this engine has matured a little more, there will be an incredible after market for this car, and I can't hardly wait.

There is a lot of potential in this car and that makes me excited (like a school girl lol), but again, just a few things I wish were different out of the box.

It's all good here .

[lorennerol]

If you're going to compare to a Vette you cannot omit the $25,000 to $50,000 price difference. $50k buys a lot of carbon fiber and 'rich Corinthian leather' for the dash and door panels, not to mention four more cylinders and 160-250HP or so.

I'm sure they could make some nice improvements across the board if they added $15K-$20k onto the price, but then the boys at Chevrolet would complain about the Sky stealing sales from the Vette.

It's a price-point sports car with great looks, good performance, and decent mileage. It's not meant to be compared to the Vette, but to the Miata, 350z, S2000, etc.

[OptimalZ06]

Originally Posted by lorennerol

If you're going to compare to a Vette you cannot omit the $25,000 to $50,000 price difference. $50k buys a lot of carbon fiber and 'rich Corinthian leather' for the dash and door panels, not to mention four more cylinders and 160-250HP or so.

I'm sure they could make some nice improvements across the board if they added $15K-$20k onto the price, but then the boys at Chevrolet would complain about the Sky stealing sales from the Vette.

It's a price-point sports car with great looks, good performance, and decent mileage. It's not meant to be compared to the Vette, but to the Miata, 350z, S2000, etc.

I'm doing my best to not compare it to the Vette, but it would be really nice to have some more options for the SKY (like a "fancy pants" interior)

[lorennerol]

Originally Posted by OptimalZ06

...it would be really nice to have some more options for the SKY (like a "fancy pants" interior)

Agreed: I'd have paid $1500 more or so for it. As it was I paid an extra $500 for a leather/exterior color override.

Who knows- we may see something like a 'premium interior' as a new option before a new model comes out. I think Chevy started offering something like that ('Custom Leather Wrapped Interior') on the Vette (Oops! Did I just compare the Sky to the Vette??)

They've already tinkered with it: Adding door lock controls, adjustable driver's seat, new interior and exterior color options, etc.

[OptimalZ06]

Originally Posted by lorennerol

Agreed: I'd have paid $1500 more or so for it. As it was I paid an extra $500 for a leather/exterior color override.

Who knows- we may see something like a 'premium interior' as a new option before a new model comes out. I think Chevy started offering something like that ('Custom Leather Wrapped Interior') on the Vette (Oops! Did I just compare the Sky to the Vette??)

They've already tinkered with it: Adding door lock controls, adjustable driver's seat, new interior and exterior color options, etc.

More options would be great, I guess we'll wait and see what GM has to offer

[Bogie]

Originally Posted by OptimalZ06

Ok, here goes my honest opinion of the sky...

Actually, I would say you pretty much hit on the fine points of the SKY. It is by no means a fully refined machine, and it never will be in stock configuration. GM had design trades to make, both in terms refinement as well as performance...all played against the price point. Most of the negatives you mentioned (nothing wrong with mentioning them) are part of the cost/refinement/performance tradespace. Those trades pale in comparison to what I get out of the car for the price I paid.

Even better, most of the things that GM had to trade down are configurable in the after market. Hence, those who don't like the trade down stuff can spend a little extra money and get exactly what they desire. Leather interior? No problem. Beefier brakes? No problem. Stronger turbo? No problem.


Even the turbo is a tradeoff, as you found. The 20psi is pretty much the peak design point (with margin). Some folks have played with the wastegate, and can squeeze out 23 psi. But that's pretty close to the turbo redline, and you're playing with fire at that point. Not to mention the engine computer might see that as a malfunction and knock it off. This turbo (actually, it's intricately combined with the engine design, to include the options DI and dual scroll give you in terms of the VVT and low end torque delivery) is designed to peak low (between 2000 and 2500) and sustain it to the horsepower peak at 5300, with minimal lag. The objective is a highly responsive sub 90 engine/turbo combination, and they met that objective beautifully.

Again, nothing wrong with identifing the negative aspects of the vehicle. Just keep in mind most of those negatives are based on performance or refinement outside the design focus of the vehicle. To illustrate by absurd analogy, the SKY kinda sucks for off roading...it doesn't have four wheel drive and the clearance is stupid low. That was an absurd example. The point being that when the car doesn't meet a certain expectation, its not necessarily becuase the designers failed in that area...rather, it's simply because the car is not designed to perform to that level.

[Rick Tinley Park]

Originally Posted by OptimalZ06

More options would be great, I guess we'll wait and see what GM has to offer

I think you did a good, fair opinion. Glad you liked it and many of the shortcomings you noted have been noted before.
I have, in the past, bristled at the interior being called cheap. I even wonder where all these people see these little marks and scuffs (my interior just does not get them -- different shoes?? I don't know) However, I have always bought "cheap" cars so I don't have much to compare to. All I know is every car I have sat in - In the price range - now, I notice. Don't see or feel much of a difference.
As far as performance the Sky without the redline option is fine with me.