GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

I don't know what turbo was in this XRS if it was the one on MO or a custom job but i met a guy on my way to physical therapy yesterday with a NICE Matrix that was turbo'd and extremelly fast. He pulled into the Car Audio place I always hang out at when I went in to see whats up so the manager made him take me and him for a ride and wow. we left together and he took the SS Silverado off the line at the stop light ahead. At that very moment all I could do was give him a thumbs up and say wow...

yeah if I could make up my mind about keeping my car in a few years or getting something else... a turbo is what I'd like on my car.

wow a turbo took your ss silverado OFF the line from a dead stop? i want to know what kind of turbo he has if he doesn't have turbo lag on the low end! lol.

spool up the turbo and launch.

Quote, originally posted by Mavrik »spool up the turbo and launch. indeed not to mention, the Silverado is gonna have traction issues at launch.

Silverado SS is AWD though, isn't it?

Unless GM switched that one from the regular 2 wheel with electric 4H and 4L it should be rear wheel... but I really don't know for sure.

after reading about his SS, it is indeed AWD. strange, it doesn't seem like he would win then...

launch in an awd truck would be hard... he couldn't even light up the rear wheels a little for better grip on take off...

i don't know. i remember trying to take on an SS in my vibe GT and got my (removed) handed to me. that was launching from about 5500 rpm's. but yes, i guess in a non-auto you can easily spool up the turbo. i forget that now since i can't on mine (at least not currently......)

You don't want to launch a turbo car at very high rpms anyways. I find with my car, anything over 2000 rpms, and the wheels just spin all the way through first and second gear. It's quite amusing...but not very good for getting going! Learning to launch a turbo car well is a challenge.

i need to work on my launch. it sucks. i need mods..... lol

Quote, originally posted by VibeChick »Learning to launch a turbo car well is a challenge.It's all about your suspension and tires. Funny how when the S.C. came out the whole turbo kit idea faded away. Perhaps the stock motor and trans just wouldn't handle it well.

Quote, originally posted by VibeChick »You don't want to launch a turbo car at very high rpms anyways. I find with my car, anything over 2000 rpms, and the wheels just spin all the way through first and second gear. It's quite amusing...but not very good for getting going! Learning to launch a turbo car well is a challenge.I guess I am still learning, because getting my car to hook is very hard! FWD cars with turbos are horrible for launching. I am not sure why, but it seems to be conventional knowledge. I know from experience that my turbo spools up at a certain point. You need throttle to get it goinng but its hard that when it hits, you either spin, or you let up. If you let up too much you fall out of boost. Trying to feather it in with the clutch is not easy, you still have a hard time controlling the power. Launching well is frustrating....but its the best problem to have I have recently installed a dual stage boost controller. The low setting is 6psi, the high setting is adjustable, right now it is at 10psi. When I go to the track next time, I will launch at 6psi, where it is more controllable, then after I shift , I will hit the button and go up to 12psi or something.Hopefully I will do good. I still want to wait till I get a LSD in the tranny..Vibe chick, dont you have a factory LSD in your srt-4??? doesnt that help you from spinning thru 1st gear???

Quote, originally posted by Flip-Side »It's all about your suspension and tires. Funny how when the S.C. came out the whole turbo kit idea faded away. Perhaps the stock motor and trans just wouldn't handle it well. I know someone in a turbo matrix that broke an axle in first gear doing wheel hop. I have motormount inserts that took away most of my wheel hop, but so did the guy who broke his axle I stlill would not trade my turbo kit for the sc, whatever risks, it is still a blast ,and although I drive fast, I try not to beat the snot out of my car (No crazy power shifting and such)...I got to make it all last ya know!!!!

you should twin turbo the vibe with a small turbo for low end and big one for the high end!!

Quote, originally posted by Faultline »I guess I am still learning, because getting my car to hook is very hard! FWD cars with turbos are horrible for launching. I am not sure why, but it seems to be conventional knowledge. I know from experience that my turbo spools up at a certain point. You need throttle to get it goinng but its hard that when it hits, you either spin, or you let up. If you let up too much you fall out of boost. Trying to feather it in with the clutch is not easy, you still have a hard time controlling the power. Launching well is frustrating....but its the best problem to have I have recently installed a dual stage boost controller. The low setting is 6psi, the high setting is adjustable, right now it is at 10psi. When I go to the track next time, I will launch at 6psi, where it is more controllable, then after I shift , I will hit the button and go up to 12psi or something.Hopefully I will do good. I still want to wait till I get a LSD in the tranny..Vibe chick, dont you have a factory LSD in your srt-4??? doesnt that help you from spinning thru 1st gear??? I do have an LSD...if I'm careful not to put my foot down too much until I'm in second gear, I can manage to avoid the wheelspin. I believe the level of boost is also controlled - you won't get full boost in 1st gear.Maybe some better tires would help too, haven't tried. It sounds like your car is coming along! The LSD would help for sure. Hope has an advantage over us FWD with her Subie for launches, that's for sure.

well, if i had a MT instead of the AT, i think it'd be a different story. until i get that tranny cooler on and hopefully a chip, i'm just afraid that i'm going to damage my transmission by practicing to torque brake. plus, i don't have a boost guage so i have no clue where i'm even at! but one of the guys i know has the same car as me, a few more bolt on mods, but just got a boost guage. he says it's a lot easier to figure out what he's doing just by glancing at the guage. so damn! now i want one! lol. go figure..... mod bug has bitten me.

I did not have a pillar pod , so at first I tried putting the boost guage in a little stuffed bear's belly by the a-pillar, but then I ended up putting it it the a/c vent. Believe it or not the air still makes it around the guage, so it is not too bad. As you can see I was tearin' it up at 12 psi that day! which is around 250whp on my car...(wheel HP!)

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Quote, originally posted by VibeChick » It sounds like your car is coming along! The LSD would help for sure. The quaife LSD is the one that I want, it is not the clutch type, it has a life time warranty, and literlly no maintenance, but they cost 1300.00 for the Vibe then add the install of around 300.00 and that is a lot!If i do it, I may just get a vibe gt 6spd tranny from a salvage yard and put the LSD in there. Then I can just trade it out in one swoop, I am told that it will just bolt right up (the 5spd to 6 spd swap works real easy in the celica's. ) Now I'm up for over 2k if I do all that....I just cant seem to bring my self to do it..

see carrie? 4 wheels hook up better then 2. I have yet to see WRX or STI sitting there spinning through the gears. instant hook up, maybe a little shudder but then the car is GONE twin turbo the Vibe? lol... nah, I'll use that $$$ as a down payment towards something else.

Quote, originally posted by Mavrik »see carrie? 4 wheels hook up better then 2. I have yet to see WRX or STI sitting there spinning through the gears. instant hook up, maybe a little shudder but then the car is GONE towards something else.They sure do, but then there is the trade off of hp loss to the drivetrain in a 4wd. Launching the fwd kinda sucks...but all that wheel spin is kind of fun at the same time. I'm not a hard core drag racer, so I'm not terribly concerned about it.

Quote, originally posted by Faultline »The quaife LSD is the one that I want, it is not the clutch type, it has a life time warranty, and literlly no maintenance, but they cost 1300.00 for the Vibe then add the install of around 300.00 and that is a lot!If i do it, I may just get a vibe gt 6spd tranny from a salvage yard and put the LSD in there. Then I can just trade it out in one swoop, I am told that it will just bolt right up (the 5spd to 6 spd swap works real easy in the celica's. ) Now I'm up for over 2k if I do all that....I just cant seem to bring my self to do it.. Yikes, that is pretty pricey. I can understand why you'd hold off on it. The srt-4 has the Quaife LSD. It's pretty highly rated, from what I've read.

there isn't much of a loss... STI can be changed from 50/50 front and rear to front or rear depending on what performance is required. Only the STI has this though... But a couple simple mods can easily change the HP at the wheels. I have yet to see an awd against a neon but from the time slips I have read, there isn't much of a difference. Loss of HP through the 4 wheels averages out with the amount of wheel hop and trying not to break free the front wheels.The Vibe breaks free so easy though... even without mods...

On a similar note, weirdly enough, I actually found the Vibe to be worse than the srt-4 for torque steer. The Vibe sure turned around in a circle better though.

yeah but you got your new house so that circle issue is gone unless you got others haha. But yes the Vibe is hands down, a very good handling car.I have not had any torque steer yet... but I can spin my right front tire pretty easily... specially when taking tight corners.

Quote, originally posted by VibeChick »On a similar note, weirdly enough, I actually found the Vibe to be worse than the srt-4 for torque steer. The Vibe sure turned around in a circle better though. my VGT was TERRIBLE for torque steer! winter made it even worse. i'm sure that's why i had such a heck of a time driving around in the snow and ice. but yes, i hope the new house doesn't have a turn like that. lol! and perhaps you're better off sticking to the drag racing and not auto-x.