One Man’s Poison: Ken Pochis’ Yellow Fang
 Attractive rolling stock: Dunlop Direzza DZ101 215/35ZR18s on 8-inch High Performance Designs (www.perfectlyround.com) one-piece wheels. Yellow Fang settles on H&R coil springs. |
Ken Pochis cut his teeth on Camaros of all sorts and thought there would never be anything else. When fuel got precious, he rightly swiveled, bought a ’06 Cobalt SS Supercharged and got busy with it. Making trim parts, hoods, deck lids, etc., from carbon fiber is his forte (www.kenscobaltss.com) so his car is wild with them.
That’s what first attracted us to the car, but Pochis passed on the icing and began to tell us about the mechanical deviations he’d vested in the Cobalt. He did the Stage 2 routine more than a year ago, added methanol injection (drops intake charge air at least 30 degrees), installed the
 NOS Sniper 50-shot kit on Pochis’ Cobalt Fang uses solenoids from a V8 installation. |
Extrude Honed OE exhaust manifold (PN19131972), and followed it with the cat-back exhaust (see above). The stock clutch got old real fast and couldn’t provide enough clamping force. A Clutch Masters FX400 (clutchmasters.com) extreme-duty sprung ceramic pressure plate, 6-puck disc, and an aluminum flywheel solved the lost friction issue. At this point, Ken got the HP Tuners (www.hptuners.com) folks involved and the Ecotec was soon putting 260hp to the wheels.
Was Ken Dog satisfied? He called Jesse
 Juice is injected discreetly just prior to the throttle body. Computer re-flash by HP Tuners. Output at the tires is 310hp. All-wheel drive, anyone? Best quarter-mile performance on the motor:13.63/104.9. |
Coulter at NOS for a pow wow. Before he knew it, the techs had their new Sniper wet 50-shot system up and running. This kit includes the Pressure On Demand controller, as well as a remote bottle opener and bottle heating pad. Output at the wheels is now 310hp. When the juice cuts in, the car literally leaps. The engine becomes insanely urgent, its pitch several octaves higher than without the juice. If the Cobalt’s rolling fast enough, the car rockets forward; if it isn’t, the Dunlops spin madly, spewing smoke and venom. Ultimately, Yellow Fang returns a consistent 29 mpg highway.
