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Guest VoicesVideo: Student Cobalt Project in Action

Editor's note: Last month, FYI brought you daily coverage from the Bonneville Salt Flats, where GM Performance Division and its partners from So-Cal Speed Shop set three new land speed records with Ecotec-powered vehicles during the 58th Annual Speed Week event.

By Phil Colley
GM Performance Division Communications

The team set two records on Aug. 13 in the G/FCC class (G Class/Unblown Fuel Competition Coupe) with the Bonneville Student Project Chevy Cobalt SS and the G/BFALT class (G Class/Blown Fuel Altered Coupe) with the Chevy So-Cal Cobalt SS during the first record return runs of the week.

Running only on E85 ethanol, the Student Project Cobalt SS broke the previous 19-year-old record set by Doc Jeffries in 1987 with a speed of 156.073 mph. The car then upped that record two more times throughout the week using E85 combined with nitrous oxide. Its final top speed was 172.680 mph in the G/FCC class (G Class/Unblown Fuel Competition Coupe). It was the first time E85 ethanol had been used to set a record at Bonneville.

Ecotec-powered vehicles have now set eight records during the past four years with some form of GM engineering involvement. To see the student-developed, E85-powered Cobalt in action, take a look at this video clip, which takes you inside the vehicle with GM Performance Division engineer and driver Mark Dickens as the record is set.

Posted by Editor on September 26, 2006 10:51 AM

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