Rick Kewley, vehicle performance manager, high-performance vehicle operation, GM Performance Division (holy titles, Batman!), says this is because the engine hasn't been durability tested above that engine speed. The engine crashes into its rev limiter at 6450 rpm while it's still building power. Our Dynojet revealed the truth, which is an impressive 197 hp at the wheels at 6450 rpm and 169 lb-ft at 5250 rpm.Īnd it would be more if GM's engineers had more time. The Performance Division destroked the engine, lowered its compression ratio from 10:1 to 9.5:1, bolted on a Roots-type supercharger (making 12.5 pounds of boost), stuffed in a Laminova air-to-water intercooler, and underrated it at 200 hp and 149 lb-ft of torque. That supercharged engine is a 2.0-liter version of the Ecotec four-cylinder, which is now powering all of GM's small cars in normally aspirated 2.2-liter form. They even managed to radically improve the car's electrically assisted steering and keep the price just under $20,000 in the process. They did this by supercharging the Red Line's engine, and tuning its chassis on the famed Nuerburgring circuit in Germany. That job was to transform that hemorrhoid of a car into a more refined machine that performs as good as or better than the Nissan Sentra SE-R Spec V, Acura RSX Type-S, SVT Focus and MINI Cooper S. So if you consider what they had to start with, the engineers in the GM Performance Division should all be commended for a job well done. It's slow and crude, with the worst steering since the 1903 Curved Dash Oldsmobile, which was steered by a tiller. The ION, in its non-Red Line garb, is simply one of the most disappointing cars we've ever driven.
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