It's hard to believe (for me, at least) that May 1st 2010 was the twentieth anniversary of Pirate Press Publications. Pirate Press began life in the Computer Science lab at South Alabama where I toiled away creating the article on a word processor and printing it off on a dot-matrix printer. Despite that milestone, I'm afraid I have to admit that Pirate Press is a victim of the old adage, "The more things change, the more they stay the same". Two decades ago, the first issue of Pirate Press was devoted to a test drive of a 1991 Toyota MR2 Turbo. It was a complete redesign from the first generation MR2 and as such boasted an all-new 2.0-liter turbo four-cylinder generating 200hp. It was quite a sports car for that time period, but I was sure (like most of Generation X) that by 2010 we would have flying cars. Unfortunately, the concept of flying cars is laughable now as our future utopia never materialized and the global economy is on the verge of collapse. As such, and completely without intention, my new car ended up being remarkably similar to the one that launched Pirate Press a fifth-century ago.
I decided on another Saturn primarily because the Ion Red Line is the car I always desired my 1997 Saturn SC2 to be. Early on, I wanted to add a supercharger or turbocharger to the SC2 but it wasn't feasible from a practicality or expense standpoint. A full custom turbo kit could run as high as $4000 and require near daily ministrations to prevent an oil spill similar to BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. On the other hand, a supercharger was only slightly less expensive and necessitated removing the air-conditioning, something not acceptable during half of the year in Mississippi. Furthermore, the stock 1.9-liter LL0 motor was not built to withstand more than 5 lbs of boost or two hundred horsepower (whichever occurred first).
Sure, GM killed Saturn along with Hummer, Oldsmobile and Pontiac last year but I have a history with Saturn, unmatched by any other car brand, that stretches back to 1992 when we purchased our first one. In that time, my family and I have accumulated over half-a-million miles in Saturns. We accrued nearly half that amount on our 1992 SL1 which was sold to a family friend in 2002 with 220,000 miles on its odometer. Next up, was a 1997 SL2 which we sold with 125,000 miles, and following that was my wife's 2001 L300 which we traded-in with 110,000 miles on it. Finally, there's my SC2 daily-driver that is fourteen-years old and has 167,000 miles on it.
In fact, the whole weekend of driving to Daytona Beach on May 1st to pickup my Red Line after purchasing it on Ebay was eerily similar to how we procured our Saturn L300 from nearby Jacksonville, Florida six years earlier. And in fact, it almost didn't happen because I nearly pulled the trigger on a 2004 Red Line in Las Vegas last year. Now, I'm glad I waited as the Red Line I bought has to be one of the nicest in the country. It was purchased new at Saturn of Daytona Beach and was registered in nearby New Smyrna Beach. With a total production run of just 5,827 vehicles between 2004-2007, there are actually fewer Ion Red Lines than Ferrari Testarossas. My silver one-owner example has a low 29,000 miles on it and is one of only 274 built in 2006. The '06 model is actually the most desirable, as the 2004-2005 cars had the wiring reversed on the intercooler pump causing it to malfunction or burnout, and the 2007 lineup did not have the Recaro seats. The Red Line was in concours condition and still even had the original 215/45-ZR17 Dunlop tires. Normally, I wouldn't be thrilled about the factory rubber but in this case it proved that the car wasn't abused. As it stands, I think the former owner was probably a little neurotic and possibly obsessive-compulsive as well. I base this assumption on evidence I gathered while stranded in a deserted Daytona Beach Industrial park. You see, MapQuest steered us wrong on Tomoka Farms road so we were the recipients of an unwanted twenty-five mile urban sightseeing tour of downtown Daytona that culminated at the dead end of a dirt road that looked like something out of Resident Evil. It was here that I discovered that I could not engage the reverse gear so I dutifully retrieved the owner's manual from the glove box. Upon so doing, I discovered a Da Vinci code of highlighted passages in the owner's manual. Sentences and sometimes entire paragraphs were swathed in vivid marker colors such as sky blue, fluorescent pink, day-glo orange and bright yellow. Clearly, the previous owner had some system of correlation between the colors and the subject matter but I never did crack the code, nor did I figure out how to back the Saturn out of there. Fortunately, I was able to pull forward and we escaped the abandoned area before the seemingly imminent horde of zombies arrived.
Once back at the hotel, I called my salesman to inquire about the reverse gear problem. As soon as I told him I couldn't get the vehicle into reverse, he erupted into uproarious laughter which was somewhat comforting, but also a little disturbing. "I thought you had owned a Saturn!?!" he blurted out before instructing me on how to disengage the reverse-gear lockout. I informed him that I had owned four other Saturns, and had driven many performance cars including several Ferraris, and had never come across such an issue. Despite that, the Gary Yeomans Ford dealership we visited is actually one of the largest in the U.S. as well as the top-selling Roush Mustang dealer in the nation. This is somewhat paradoxical because despite Daytona's reputation as the most popular beach in the world, it's pretty small as far as Florida's metro cities are concerned. With a population of just 65,000, that's scarcely grown any in twenty years; it's larger than Panama City but smaller than Pompano Beach. And with a median family income of $33,000, most of the residents cannot even afford one of Gary Yeomans' best-selling $50,000 Roush 427R Mustangs. Due to that, a large amount of the business the dealership does is out-of-state and overseas. In fact, the very first Ford GT was delivered to Gary Yeomans and promptly shipped to the Middle East. The same goes for their initial allotment of 2011 Shelby GT500s which also were all sold abroad.
Daytona is a sleepy beach town that just happens to host a NASCAR Speedway and the infamous Bike Week. But what really attracted me was the copper-streaked sand, which stands in stark contrast to Florida's typical sugar-white beaches. However, the unusual sand is what makes Daytona Beach one of the few places in the world where a car can be driven on an ocean beach without fear of getting stuck. This was the impetus for the original Daytona Beach Road Course and is what spawned the Daytona Speedway in 1959. We drove by the Speedway and you just can't miss it. It's a foregone conclusion that it has to be big for race cars to circulate at 200 mph, but television coverage simply doesn't do it justice. Honestly, the size of it reminds me of Downtown Disney.
DELTA FORCE
The 2003 Saturn Ion was the first car to debut with GM's all-new Delta platform. Obviously, it's a tremendous improvement over my 1997 SC2's tired Z platform which (unbelievably) traces its roots all the way back to the 1965 Corvair. Furthermore, the structural integrity of the Delta platform allowed the engineers to eschew any type of strut-tower brace which is usually necessary in such high-performance applications. The Red Line's wheelbase is only an inch wider than my SC2 but the extra five inches in length gives a lot more legroom and luggage space. And where the SC2 feels cramped and claustrophobic, the Red Line's cabin is positively cavernous in comparison. Adding to the driving comfort is a pair of grey leather Recaro sport seats which are hands down the best seats I've ever used. The deep side bolsters fit snugly and the firm lumbar support was a godsend for my lower back on the 550-mile trip. It's no wonder Recaros are standard equipment on both the new Ferrari 599 and Lamborghini Gallardo.
With the Red Line being the first vehicle I've owned that came from the factory with a CD player (I know-- I'm an audiophile luddite) I'm a little ashamed to admit that I haven't so much as turned on the radio. And it even has a factory amp mounted in the trunk which is another first for me. I can pretty much cop to using everything else during the 8-hour trip like the cruise-control, headlights, turn signals and windshield wipers which I painfully discovered were in dire need of replacing. Eventually, I suppose I'll have to turn on the radio if for no other reason than to change the clock from Eastern to Central time.
The Delta frame's front-strut and torsion-beam rear suspension provides a lot more stiffness over my SC2 without a harsh ride. Larger antiroll bars, heavier springs and firmer damping work in conjunction with the aggressive Dunlop 215/45 Z-rated tires on 17x7-inch forged wheels. GM engineers lowered the ride height by 10 millimeters over the regular Ion while raising the braking performance. Bosch 4-channel, 11.6-inch anti-lock vented front rotors replaced the 10-inch stock units while the rear drums are swapped out for 10.6-inch solid rear rotors. The brakes work so well that they halt the Red Line from a 70 mph panic stop in a scant 165-feet. In contrast, my SC2 needs another twenty feet to stop from the same speed. And as anybody who's ever been in an accident can attest, sometimes even a few inches can be the difference between danger and disaster.
RED WHINE
The Red Line's raison d'être is the Eaton M62 supercharger. If that names sounds vaguely familiar, it's because the M62 has been used in a variety of applications from the pedestrian Pontiac Bonneville SSEi to the exotic Lotus Exige. It's a real workhorse that doesn't even require a fluid change until 100,000 miles and is still going strong on several Red Lines with mileage's north of 150,000. To make the standard Ion's mild-mannered 2.2-liter Ecotec capable of handling the forced induction, GM's Performance Division destroked the engine to 2.0-liters and fitted new oil jet-cooled pistons with larger connecting rods that dropped the compression from 10.0:1 to a more supercharger-friendly 9.5:1. The Ecotec was also beefed-up in other areas too: A new 8-bolt steel crank protects the bottom-end while bigger intake valves enhance the breathing up top. A heavy-duty alternator helps cope with the extra power demands and the Red Line also gets Electronic Throttle Control (ECT) which utilizes an electronic signal, rather than a traditional cable, for immediate throttle response. Lastly, the engineers even borrowed the old drag-racer's trick of moving the battery to the trunk for better weight distribution.
To keep the Red Line out of the redline, a factory air intake with a cone-shaped filter was designed and it flowed so well that Chevrolet adopted it for the Trailblazer SS's 400hp LS2. Further cooling takes place courtesy of a Laminova air-to-liquid intercooler that circulates engine coolant through a heavy-duty radiator with larger fans. Maximum boost is limited to 12 psi which generates 205 hp and 200 lb-ft of torque for increases of 60 hp and 55 lb-ft over the standard Ion. The Red Line also benefits from a lighter flywheel and a stronger F25 five-speed transmission with one-inch shorter throws. Additionally, the driveline has a higher torque capacity and thicker, equal-length half shafts are used to minimize torque steer. Finally, to expedite delivery of the spent gasses, the narrow 1.75-inch factory exhaust was scrapped for a larger 2.5-inch system with a high-flow catalytic-converter and low-restriction muffler.
QUICKSILVER
With more mechanical upgrades than Iron Man, the Ion Red Line leaves my hot-rodded SC2 in the dust. A standard Ion with the 2.2-liter 140hp engine pokes along with a 0-60 time of 8.4 seconds and a quarter-mile in 16.5 seconds at 85 mph. My modified SC2 with an Injen intake, JG Big-Bore throttle-body, high-performance motor mounts, Hotshot header, test pipe and Thermal R&D Exhaust has run a 7.1-second 0-60 and a 15.8 at 91 mph. The Red Line rips to 60mph in 5.9 seconds and speeds through the quarter in 14.4 seconds at 100 mph. That performance even puts it ahead of the 15.2 at 96 mph I recorded in my modified Mustang GT at Gulfport Dragway. And it will match the Mustang in top speed also by charging up to 145 mph.
But while the Mustang was a one-trick pony, the Red Line is as adept on a race track as it is on a drag strip. GM's Performance Division spent months tuning the Red Line's suspension and handling characteristics at Germany's famed Nürburgring. According to Performance Division chief Mark Reuss, the Ion's much-maligned electronically-assisted steering has been tightened from 3.5 turn’s lock-to-lock to 2.9 which results in much more realistic feedback. The result is a stock Red Line covered the 33 left turns, 40 right turns and 170 bends of the Nürburgring’s 14-mile-plus Nordschleife circuit in a tick over nine minutes. By comparison, a Corvette C5 does it only twenty seconds faster.
THE DAWN PATROL
Determined to get an early start for the eight-hour drive ahead of us, we left Daytona Beach at 6 a.m. Unwittingly, my route to I-95 had us taking A1A through Ormond Beach to Flagler Beach. Granted, it wasn't the most efficient path but the scenic thirty-mile drive between the sand dunes and yucca bushes as the sun rose over the Atlantic was absolutely breathtaking. On that early Sunday morning, there wasn't any other traffic and it gave the experience a strangely surreal quality. Every car enthusiast has a mental list of their unforgettable drives and it ranks right up there with a trip I'd taken down Pacific Coast Highway from Monterey to Pfeiffer Beach in 1994.
Flagler Beach is split in two by the Intracoastal Waterway and sits on the Atlantic Ocean. It's also the only place I even remotely dipped into the boost for the length of the trip. We had been caught by a red light at the bottom of the Flagler Beach Bridge and I was beside a small Audi that looked maybe to be an A4 or A6. As the light turned green, we both accelerated away briskly and I short-shifted into third at around 40mph. I then flat-footed the throttle and the Red Line's demeanor immediately changed. It surged ahead with a startling urgency and I could hear the intoxicating whine of the supercharger. Within a couple seconds the speedometer was passing 80 mph and I was hard on the brakes. Hard to believe, but it's been 18 years since I've had that kind of a rush behind the wheel of a car I owned.
LIFE IS A HIGHWAY
Once on I-95, I settled in for the long haul with the cruise-control on 75 mph. The a/c was blowing a steady stream of cool air and it was a welcome relief from Florida's famous humidity, particularly since the air-conditioner hasn't worked in my SC2 for the past two summers. The interior of the Ion features a styling exercise that leaves people fiercely divided-- they either love or hate the McLaren F1-style center-mounted dash. Granted, to a casual observer the placement looks awkward, but I found it to be remarkably intuitive and after a few minutes I completely forgot it was there. The Red Line's euro-influences are abundant in the chrome-rimmed instrumentation where the gas gauge doesn't have a traditional "F" for full and "E" for empty. Instead, a full tank is denoted by a full-circle and an empty tank is a quarter-full (or some would argue, quarter-empty) circle. When the needle completely drops to empty, a "Low Fuel" warning message is activated and I've deduced that exactly one gallon remains in the tank. Depending on driving style, I've heard of owners averaging 22 mpg with a heavy foot while I managed 27.75 mpg from the combination of city and highway driving. The Red Line's gearing has been leveraged so that the supercharged motor turns fewer revolutions per minute than the one in my SC2. At 70 mph, the Red Line is loafing along at 2750 rpm while the higher-strung SC2 hits 3100 rpm. Obviously, this is favorable for fuel-economy as well as reduced engine wear, but I still can't expect the Ion to match the SC2's fuel economy since it carries more mass and has more horses to feed.
By sheer coincidence, we ended up at the same Florida Mile Marker 162 rest area that we had stopped at on our trip back from Jacksonville in 2004. I evangelized the thrills of it then in my Pirate Press review, and was pleased that it had not changed any. Looking like it was designed by an out-of-work Formula 1 architect, the asphalt snakes around with elevation changes and sweeping turns on both the entrance and exit. The stock Dunlops were not in the best condition for such an exercise but it did give me a brief opportunity to probe the Red Line's performance envelope. On one of the heavily-radiused turns, I began dialing in more speed, feeling what the car was doing. The speed-sensitive steering was nicely-weighted, with just the right amount of communication. The harder I pushed, the more the Red Line flattened out into a very neutral arc with safe and predictable handling. As the speed climbed, I heard the tires start to squeal in protest so I knew the limit was very close and backed off. Unlike a legitimate road course, there wasn't the safety of a run-off area if I overcooked a corner.
NEGATIVE IONS
At a dry weight of around 2,800 lbs, the Red Line outweighs my SC2 by a whopping 500-lbs and the additional high-performance parts bump it 100-lbs over an Ion 3 Quad-Coupe. Despite Saturn's celebrated use of plastic for the ground-effects, spoiler and many interior pieces, it's a heavy car. Of course, heavy is relative when most new performance cars tip the scales close to 4,000 lbs. A decade of engineering separates my SC2 from the Red Line and it's no secret that those intervening years of safety-Nazi features and watchdog electronics have ballooned the weight. A drive-by-wire throttle is great until the sensor jams and the cruise control doesn't work for the two-hundred miles between Jacksonville and Tallahassee. With my sciatica flaring up, I began to ruminate about the simplicity and effectiveness of my SC2's ancient, cable-actuated throttle linkage. It also developed a check-engine code, P01189, when I got to Alabama that turned out to be for the supercharger inlet pressure sensor. Apparently, this is a common malady among Red Lines and I had Joe Bullard Cadillac (my nearest authorized Saturn repair facility) replace it for $250. They also found a leaking front axle seal that was fixed for an additional $300.
The first owner was obviously not a gear head because he opted for the fog lights in the $1,375 Competition Package over the boost gauge and Quaife limited-slip differential. I like to see that I'm getting what I paid for, and as such would appreciate knowing how many pounds of boost the blower is generating. Also, it seems GM purposely underrated the motor as Sport Compact Car measured 197 hp at 6450 rpm at the wheels on their Dynojet, which works out to 217 flywheel horsepower given a conservative 10-percent drive train loss. The bad news is that research and development constraints kept the car from being even better: The 6450 rpm rev-limiter abruptly cuts the fuel to the cylinders even though the engine is still building power and the ECU artificially limits the supercharger's boost to 12 psi. Rick Kewley, GM Performance Division Manager, cites a truncated durability cycle as the reason for scaling back the Red Line's power.
Also, some interior materials don't seem to be as sturdy as in my 1997 SC2 which is three times as old and has over five times the mileage. The Red Line's black vinyl shifter boot is worn at the top and pieces began flaking off around the seams. The Saab-sourced five-speed is surprisingly notchy and the rubber clutch and brake pedal pads also need replacing as they are pretty filed down from use. Funny thing is, GM wants $50 for another vinyl replacement shifter boot or I can order an aftermarket handmade leather one with custom stitching for the same amount. Checking the cabin air filter behind the glove box revealed that it had never been changed and explained why the air flow felt weak. It also proved that virtually nothing on the car is easily accessed as I sliced my index finger on the sharp plastic edges. Such doesn't bode well for my maintenance plans of changing the fuel filter, oil filter and air filter. I've read comments that just changing the air filter is a two-hour job as it's tucked under the supercharger. In the Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not category, our seven-seater Freestyle SUV boasts a dead-pedal but the performance-oriented Ion does not. Additionally, rearward visibility is crippled by the optional Ferrari F40-style deck lid spoiler and the exemplary Recaros seem very vulnerable to stains; I spilled some water on the driver seat and it left a nasty spot. However, a Recaro representative suggested that I use Blue Coral's Dry Cleaning Foam to remove such blemishes.
Saturn recommends 91 octane for the Red Line, but I doubt the Ford dealer sprang for premium fuel so I was conscious not to exercise it too hard until I had a chance to fill-up with Chevron's 93 octane which was $3.35/gallon in Tallahassee. And speaking of expensive fluids, the Red Line, like the Dodge Viper, Nissan GT-R, and entire Porsche lineup ships from the factory with Mobil 1 synthetic oil. Furthermore, the Red Line requires a staggering seven quarts for its small 122 cubic-inch motor which is more than was required by my Mustang's 302 cubic-inch V8. At around $7 per quart, it looks like I may have to take out a small loan for each oil change.
CONCLUSION
Aside from the 550-mile trip back from Daytona Beach and the 60-mile trip to the dealer, I've only driven the Red Line a handful of times in the first two months of ownership. However, I did manage to run it once down my legendary test strip, which is a stretch of pavement near my home. If I had to guess, I'd say it's roughly 1000-feet, as it's longer than an eighth-mile but shorter than a quarter-mile and I've tested every vehicle I've owned (and even some I haven't) since 1990 on it. My SC2 consistently pulls 79 mph through it and my Red Line's one run yielded 90 mph which is right in line with expectations. Tack on another 10 mph for the last 320-feet and it has my Red Line clearing the quarter-mile at 100 mph. Regrettably, prior to that run I tagged the rev-limiter when I discovered that the motor revs so furiously that the tachometer lags behind the actual engine revolutions by about 500 rpms. As such, I have to shift at an indicated 6000 rpm to match the 6500 rpm redline on the instrument cluster.
Regardless, the build and ride quality makes the Ion feel like a Cadillac in comparison to my SC2. And GM offers three different Stage kits with such things as larger fuel injectors and a smaller supercharger pulley to significantly increase the Red Line's horsepower. In fact, Eaton even makes a bigger, direct-replacement supercharger that's good for 300 horsepower. With the SC2, the addition of the header, off-road pipe and Thermal R&D exhaust made for a very raspy, ear-ringing exhaust. So as much as I'd like to get rid of the catalytic converter on the Red Line, I'm going to resist the temptation. I'm determined to upgrade it but not at the expense of the daily driveability. That notwithstanding, I'm looking forward to a lot more seat time and even a trip to the dyno this fall.
I decided on another Saturn primarily because the Ion Red Line is the car I always desired my 1997 Saturn SC2 to be. Early on, I wanted to add a supercharger or turbocharger to the SC2 but it wasn't feasible from a practicality or expense standpoint. A full custom turbo kit could run as high as $4000 and require near daily ministrations to prevent an oil spill similar to BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig. On the other hand, a supercharger was only slightly less expensive and necessitated removing the air-conditioning, something not acceptable during half of the year in Mississippi. Furthermore, the stock 1.9-liter LL0 motor was not built to withstand more than 5 lbs of boost or two hundred horsepower (whichever occurred first).
Sure, GM killed Saturn along with Hummer, Oldsmobile and Pontiac last year but I have a history with Saturn, unmatched by any other car brand, that stretches back to 1992 when we purchased our first one. In that time, my family and I have accumulated over half-a-million miles in Saturns. We accrued nearly half that amount on our 1992 SL1 which was sold to a family friend in 2002 with 220,000 miles on its odometer. Next up, was a 1997 SL2 which we sold with 125,000 miles, and following that was my wife's 2001 L300 which we traded-in with 110,000 miles on it. Finally, there's my SC2 daily-driver that is fourteen-years old and has 167,000 miles on it.
In fact, the whole weekend of driving to Daytona Beach on May 1st to pickup my Red Line after purchasing it on Ebay was eerily similar to how we procured our Saturn L300 from nearby Jacksonville, Florida six years earlier. And in fact, it almost didn't happen because I nearly pulled the trigger on a 2004 Red Line in Las Vegas last year. Now, I'm glad I waited as the Red Line I bought has to be one of the nicest in the country. It was purchased new at Saturn of Daytona Beach and was registered in nearby New Smyrna Beach. With a total production run of just 5,827 vehicles between 2004-2007, there are actually fewer Ion Red Lines than Ferrari Testarossas. My silver one-owner example has a low 29,000 miles on it and is one of only 274 built in 2006. The '06 model is actually the most desirable, as the 2004-2005 cars had the wiring reversed on the intercooler pump causing it to malfunction or burnout, and the 2007 lineup did not have the Recaro seats. The Red Line was in concours condition and still even had the original 215/45-ZR17 Dunlop tires. Normally, I wouldn't be thrilled about the factory rubber but in this case it proved that the car wasn't abused. As it stands, I think the former owner was probably a little neurotic and possibly obsessive-compulsive as well. I base this assumption on evidence I gathered while stranded in a deserted Daytona Beach Industrial park. You see, MapQuest steered us wrong on Tomoka Farms road so we were the recipients of an unwanted twenty-five mile urban sightseeing tour of downtown Daytona that culminated at the dead end of a dirt road that looked like something out of Resident Evil. It was here that I discovered that I could not engage the reverse gear so I dutifully retrieved the owner's manual from the glove box. Upon so doing, I discovered a Da Vinci code of highlighted passages in the owner's manual. Sentences and sometimes entire paragraphs were swathed in vivid marker colors such as sky blue, fluorescent pink, day-glo orange and bright yellow. Clearly, the previous owner had some system of correlation between the colors and the subject matter but I never did crack the code, nor did I figure out how to back the Saturn out of there. Fortunately, I was able to pull forward and we escaped the abandoned area before the seemingly imminent horde of zombies arrived.
Once back at the hotel, I called my salesman to inquire about the reverse gear problem. As soon as I told him I couldn't get the vehicle into reverse, he erupted into uproarious laughter which was somewhat comforting, but also a little disturbing. "I thought you had owned a Saturn!?!" he blurted out before instructing me on how to disengage the reverse-gear lockout. I informed him that I had owned four other Saturns, and had driven many performance cars including several Ferraris, and had never come across such an issue. Despite that, the Gary Yeomans Ford dealership we visited is actually one of the largest in the U.S. as well as the top-selling Roush Mustang dealer in the nation. This is somewhat paradoxical because despite Daytona's reputation as the most popular beach in the world, it's pretty small as far as Florida's metro cities are concerned. With a population of just 65,000, that's scarcely grown any in twenty years; it's larger than Panama City but smaller than Pompano Beach. And with a median family income of $33,000, most of the residents cannot even afford one of Gary Yeomans' best-selling $50,000 Roush 427R Mustangs. Due to that, a large amount of the business the dealership does is out-of-state and overseas. In fact, the very first Ford GT was delivered to Gary Yeomans and promptly shipped to the Middle East. The same goes for their initial allotment of 2011 Shelby GT500s which also were all sold abroad.
Daytona is a sleepy beach town that just happens to host a NASCAR Speedway and the infamous Bike Week. But what really attracted me was the copper-streaked sand, which stands in stark contrast to Florida's typical sugar-white beaches. However, the unusual sand is what makes Daytona Beach one of the few places in the world where a car can be driven on an ocean beach without fear of getting stuck. This was the impetus for the original Daytona Beach Road Course and is what spawned the Daytona Speedway in 1959. We drove by the Speedway and you just can't miss it. It's a foregone conclusion that it has to be big for race cars to circulate at 200 mph, but television coverage simply doesn't do it justice. Honestly, the size of it reminds me of Downtown Disney.
DELTA FORCE
The 2003 Saturn Ion was the first car to debut with GM's all-new Delta platform. Obviously, it's a tremendous improvement over my 1997 SC2's tired Z platform which (unbelievably) traces its roots all the way back to the 1965 Corvair. Furthermore, the structural integrity of the Delta platform allowed the engineers to eschew any type of strut-tower brace which is usually necessary in such high-performance applications. The Red Line's wheelbase is only an inch wider than my SC2 but the extra five inches in length gives a lot more legroom and luggage space. And where the SC2 feels cramped and claustrophobic, the Red Line's cabin is positively cavernous in comparison. Adding to the driving comfort is a pair of grey leather Recaro sport seats which are hands down the best seats I've ever used. The deep side bolsters fit snugly and the firm lumbar support was a godsend for my lower back on the 550-mile trip. It's no wonder Recaros are standard equipment on both the new Ferrari 599 and Lamborghini Gallardo.
With the Red Line being the first vehicle I've owned that came from the factory with a CD player (I know-- I'm an audiophile luddite) I'm a little ashamed to admit that I haven't so much as turned on the radio. And it even has a factory amp mounted in the trunk which is another first for me. I can pretty much cop to using everything else during the 8-hour trip like the cruise-control, headlights, turn signals and windshield wipers which I painfully discovered were in dire need of replacing. Eventually, I suppose I'll have to turn on the radio if for no other reason than to change the clock from Eastern to Central time.
The Delta frame's front-strut and torsion-beam rear suspension provides a lot more stiffness over my SC2 without a harsh ride. Larger antiroll bars, heavier springs and firmer damping work in conjunction with the aggressive Dunlop 215/45 Z-rated tires on 17x7-inch forged wheels. GM engineers lowered the ride height by 10 millimeters over the regular Ion while raising the braking performance. Bosch 4-channel, 11.6-inch anti-lock vented front rotors replaced the 10-inch stock units while the rear drums are swapped out for 10.6-inch solid rear rotors. The brakes work so well that they halt the Red Line from a 70 mph panic stop in a scant 165-feet. In contrast, my SC2 needs another twenty feet to stop from the same speed. And as anybody who's ever been in an accident can attest, sometimes even a few inches can be the difference between danger and disaster.
RED WHINE
The Red Line's raison d'être is the Eaton M62 supercharger. If that names sounds vaguely familiar, it's because the M62 has been used in a variety of applications from the pedestrian Pontiac Bonneville SSEi to the exotic Lotus Exige. It's a real workhorse that doesn't even require a fluid change until 100,000 miles and is still going strong on several Red Lines with mileage's north of 150,000. To make the standard Ion's mild-mannered 2.2-liter Ecotec capable of handling the forced induction, GM's Performance Division destroked the engine to 2.0-liters and fitted new oil jet-cooled pistons with larger connecting rods that dropped the compression from 10.0:1 to a more supercharger-friendly 9.5:1. The Ecotec was also beefed-up in other areas too: A new 8-bolt steel crank protects the bottom-end while bigger intake valves enhance the breathing up top. A heavy-duty alternator helps cope with the extra power demands and the Red Line also gets Electronic Throttle Control (ECT) which utilizes an electronic signal, rather than a traditional cable, for immediate throttle response. Lastly, the engineers even borrowed the old drag-racer's trick of moving the battery to the trunk for better weight distribution.
To keep the Red Line out of the redline, a factory air intake with a cone-shaped filter was designed and it flowed so well that Chevrolet adopted it for the Trailblazer SS's 400hp LS2. Further cooling takes place courtesy of a Laminova air-to-liquid intercooler that circulates engine coolant through a heavy-duty radiator with larger fans. Maximum boost is limited to 12 psi which generates 205 hp and 200 lb-ft of torque for increases of 60 hp and 55 lb-ft over the standard Ion. The Red Line also benefits from a lighter flywheel and a stronger F25 five-speed transmission with one-inch shorter throws. Additionally, the driveline has a higher torque capacity and thicker, equal-length half shafts are used to minimize torque steer. Finally, to expedite delivery of the spent gasses, the narrow 1.75-inch factory exhaust was scrapped for a larger 2.5-inch system with a high-flow catalytic-converter and low-restriction muffler.
QUICKSILVER
With more mechanical upgrades than Iron Man, the Ion Red Line leaves my hot-rodded SC2 in the dust. A standard Ion with the 2.2-liter 140hp engine pokes along with a 0-60 time of 8.4 seconds and a quarter-mile in 16.5 seconds at 85 mph. My modified SC2 with an Injen intake, JG Big-Bore throttle-body, high-performance motor mounts, Hotshot header, test pipe and Thermal R&D Exhaust has run a 7.1-second 0-60 and a 15.8 at 91 mph. The Red Line rips to 60mph in 5.9 seconds and speeds through the quarter in 14.4 seconds at 100 mph. That performance even puts it ahead of the 15.2 at 96 mph I recorded in my modified Mustang GT at Gulfport Dragway. And it will match the Mustang in top speed also by charging up to 145 mph.
But while the Mustang was a one-trick pony, the Red Line is as adept on a race track as it is on a drag strip. GM's Performance Division spent months tuning the Red Line's suspension and handling characteristics at Germany's famed Nürburgring. According to Performance Division chief Mark Reuss, the Ion's much-maligned electronically-assisted steering has been tightened from 3.5 turn’s lock-to-lock to 2.9 which results in much more realistic feedback. The result is a stock Red Line covered the 33 left turns, 40 right turns and 170 bends of the Nürburgring’s 14-mile-plus Nordschleife circuit in a tick over nine minutes. By comparison, a Corvette C5 does it only twenty seconds faster.
THE DAWN PATROL
Determined to get an early start for the eight-hour drive ahead of us, we left Daytona Beach at 6 a.m. Unwittingly, my route to I-95 had us taking A1A through Ormond Beach to Flagler Beach. Granted, it wasn't the most efficient path but the scenic thirty-mile drive between the sand dunes and yucca bushes as the sun rose over the Atlantic was absolutely breathtaking. On that early Sunday morning, there wasn't any other traffic and it gave the experience a strangely surreal quality. Every car enthusiast has a mental list of their unforgettable drives and it ranks right up there with a trip I'd taken down Pacific Coast Highway from Monterey to Pfeiffer Beach in 1994.
Flagler Beach is split in two by the Intracoastal Waterway and sits on the Atlantic Ocean. It's also the only place I even remotely dipped into the boost for the length of the trip. We had been caught by a red light at the bottom of the Flagler Beach Bridge and I was beside a small Audi that looked maybe to be an A4 or A6. As the light turned green, we both accelerated away briskly and I short-shifted into third at around 40mph. I then flat-footed the throttle and the Red Line's demeanor immediately changed. It surged ahead with a startling urgency and I could hear the intoxicating whine of the supercharger. Within a couple seconds the speedometer was passing 80 mph and I was hard on the brakes. Hard to believe, but it's been 18 years since I've had that kind of a rush behind the wheel of a car I owned.
LIFE IS A HIGHWAY
Once on I-95, I settled in for the long haul with the cruise-control on 75 mph. The a/c was blowing a steady stream of cool air and it was a welcome relief from Florida's famous humidity, particularly since the air-conditioner hasn't worked in my SC2 for the past two summers. The interior of the Ion features a styling exercise that leaves people fiercely divided-- they either love or hate the McLaren F1-style center-mounted dash. Granted, to a casual observer the placement looks awkward, but I found it to be remarkably intuitive and after a few minutes I completely forgot it was there. The Red Line's euro-influences are abundant in the chrome-rimmed instrumentation where the gas gauge doesn't have a traditional "F" for full and "E" for empty. Instead, a full tank is denoted by a full-circle and an empty tank is a quarter-full (or some would argue, quarter-empty) circle. When the needle completely drops to empty, a "Low Fuel" warning message is activated and I've deduced that exactly one gallon remains in the tank. Depending on driving style, I've heard of owners averaging 22 mpg with a heavy foot while I managed 27.75 mpg from the combination of city and highway driving. The Red Line's gearing has been leveraged so that the supercharged motor turns fewer revolutions per minute than the one in my SC2. At 70 mph, the Red Line is loafing along at 2750 rpm while the higher-strung SC2 hits 3100 rpm. Obviously, this is favorable for fuel-economy as well as reduced engine wear, but I still can't expect the Ion to match the SC2's fuel economy since it carries more mass and has more horses to feed.
By sheer coincidence, we ended up at the same Florida Mile Marker 162 rest area that we had stopped at on our trip back from Jacksonville in 2004. I evangelized the thrills of it then in my Pirate Press review, and was pleased that it had not changed any. Looking like it was designed by an out-of-work Formula 1 architect, the asphalt snakes around with elevation changes and sweeping turns on both the entrance and exit. The stock Dunlops were not in the best condition for such an exercise but it did give me a brief opportunity to probe the Red Line's performance envelope. On one of the heavily-radiused turns, I began dialing in more speed, feeling what the car was doing. The speed-sensitive steering was nicely-weighted, with just the right amount of communication. The harder I pushed, the more the Red Line flattened out into a very neutral arc with safe and predictable handling. As the speed climbed, I heard the tires start to squeal in protest so I knew the limit was very close and backed off. Unlike a legitimate road course, there wasn't the safety of a run-off area if I overcooked a corner.
NEGATIVE IONS
At a dry weight of around 2,800 lbs, the Red Line outweighs my SC2 by a whopping 500-lbs and the additional high-performance parts bump it 100-lbs over an Ion 3 Quad-Coupe. Despite Saturn's celebrated use of plastic for the ground-effects, spoiler and many interior pieces, it's a heavy car. Of course, heavy is relative when most new performance cars tip the scales close to 4,000 lbs. A decade of engineering separates my SC2 from the Red Line and it's no secret that those intervening years of safety-Nazi features and watchdog electronics have ballooned the weight. A drive-by-wire throttle is great until the sensor jams and the cruise control doesn't work for the two-hundred miles between Jacksonville and Tallahassee. With my sciatica flaring up, I began to ruminate about the simplicity and effectiveness of my SC2's ancient, cable-actuated throttle linkage. It also developed a check-engine code, P01189, when I got to Alabama that turned out to be for the supercharger inlet pressure sensor. Apparently, this is a common malady among Red Lines and I had Joe Bullard Cadillac (my nearest authorized Saturn repair facility) replace it for $250. They also found a leaking front axle seal that was fixed for an additional $300.
The first owner was obviously not a gear head because he opted for the fog lights in the $1,375 Competition Package over the boost gauge and Quaife limited-slip differential. I like to see that I'm getting what I paid for, and as such would appreciate knowing how many pounds of boost the blower is generating. Also, it seems GM purposely underrated the motor as Sport Compact Car measured 197 hp at 6450 rpm at the wheels on their Dynojet, which works out to 217 flywheel horsepower given a conservative 10-percent drive train loss. The bad news is that research and development constraints kept the car from being even better: The 6450 rpm rev-limiter abruptly cuts the fuel to the cylinders even though the engine is still building power and the ECU artificially limits the supercharger's boost to 12 psi. Rick Kewley, GM Performance Division Manager, cites a truncated durability cycle as the reason for scaling back the Red Line's power.
Also, some interior materials don't seem to be as sturdy as in my 1997 SC2 which is three times as old and has over five times the mileage. The Red Line's black vinyl shifter boot is worn at the top and pieces began flaking off around the seams. The Saab-sourced five-speed is surprisingly notchy and the rubber clutch and brake pedal pads also need replacing as they are pretty filed down from use. Funny thing is, GM wants $50 for another vinyl replacement shifter boot or I can order an aftermarket handmade leather one with custom stitching for the same amount. Checking the cabin air filter behind the glove box revealed that it had never been changed and explained why the air flow felt weak. It also proved that virtually nothing on the car is easily accessed as I sliced my index finger on the sharp plastic edges. Such doesn't bode well for my maintenance plans of changing the fuel filter, oil filter and air filter. I've read comments that just changing the air filter is a two-hour job as it's tucked under the supercharger. In the Ripley's Believe-It-Or-Not category, our seven-seater Freestyle SUV boasts a dead-pedal but the performance-oriented Ion does not. Additionally, rearward visibility is crippled by the optional Ferrari F40-style deck lid spoiler and the exemplary Recaros seem very vulnerable to stains; I spilled some water on the driver seat and it left a nasty spot. However, a Recaro representative suggested that I use Blue Coral's Dry Cleaning Foam to remove such blemishes.
Saturn recommends 91 octane for the Red Line, but I doubt the Ford dealer sprang for premium fuel so I was conscious not to exercise it too hard until I had a chance to fill-up with Chevron's 93 octane which was $3.35/gallon in Tallahassee. And speaking of expensive fluids, the Red Line, like the Dodge Viper, Nissan GT-R, and entire Porsche lineup ships from the factory with Mobil 1 synthetic oil. Furthermore, the Red Line requires a staggering seven quarts for its small 122 cubic-inch motor which is more than was required by my Mustang's 302 cubic-inch V8. At around $7 per quart, it looks like I may have to take out a small loan for each oil change.
CONCLUSION
Aside from the 550-mile trip back from Daytona Beach and the 60-mile trip to the dealer, I've only driven the Red Line a handful of times in the first two months of ownership. However, I did manage to run it once down my legendary test strip, which is a stretch of pavement near my home. If I had to guess, I'd say it's roughly 1000-feet, as it's longer than an eighth-mile but shorter than a quarter-mile and I've tested every vehicle I've owned (and even some I haven't) since 1990 on it. My SC2 consistently pulls 79 mph through it and my Red Line's one run yielded 90 mph which is right in line with expectations. Tack on another 10 mph for the last 320-feet and it has my Red Line clearing the quarter-mile at 100 mph. Regrettably, prior to that run I tagged the rev-limiter when I discovered that the motor revs so furiously that the tachometer lags behind the actual engine revolutions by about 500 rpms. As such, I have to shift at an indicated 6000 rpm to match the 6500 rpm redline on the instrument cluster.
Regardless, the build and ride quality makes the Ion feel like a Cadillac in comparison to my SC2. And GM offers three different Stage kits with such things as larger fuel injectors and a smaller supercharger pulley to significantly increase the Red Line's horsepower. In fact, Eaton even makes a bigger, direct-replacement supercharger that's good for 300 horsepower. With the SC2, the addition of the header, off-road pipe and Thermal R&D exhaust made for a very raspy, ear-ringing exhaust. So as much as I'd like to get rid of the catalytic converter on the Red Line, I'm going to resist the temptation. I'm determined to upgrade it but not at the expense of the daily driveability. That notwithstanding, I'm looking forward to a lot more seat time and even a trip to the dyno this fall.
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