Saturn: faster and better; Having been starved for good product for far too long, this division of General Motors is finally getting the kind of design and engineering that can make it a real contender, not the "coulda been" that has been its plight for the past several years
Fully dressed, the engine comes in at just 305 lb.
Number-one relates to the current product initiative, which really started with the Sky, although some could argue that the Vue, introduced as a model year 2002, was really the first domestic small(ish) SUV that was ahead of its time (particularly if you take into account the fact that GM and Honda collaborated on a deal whereby the Vue is being fitted with 3.5 liter V6s sourced from Honda–an alliance, of sorts, way ahead of anything even proposed or thought about with Nissan, as the engine was first offered in the ‘04 model year). Still, overall, Saturn hasn’t had a whole lot going for it, with the mainly forgotten L-Series (though in some ways, it was a harbinger of things to come when introduced in 2000), the Ion (saved from the axe recently by $3/gallon gas), and the Relay, vehicles that don’t overwhelm in the design and/or engineering categories. But now not only is there the Sky roadster, but the Sky Red Line, a version of the base model that takes something that is already a grand execution of the Kappa platform (which is also used for the Pontiac Solstice) and, essentially via some rather impressive powertrain engineering, takes the car to a new level of performance, something that’s not only been sorely lacking at Saturn for some time (some might argue since approximately Day One), but at GM as a whole (taking into account the number of nameplates it has in its portfolio and comparing it with those that make the market sit up and take notice in a positive way; there are, for example, the Chevy Corvette and the Cadillac XLR, but then the pickin’s become rather slim).
1. Good things come to those who wait
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2. Practice makes perfect
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What is the real factor of the Sky Red Line that makes a discernable difference? It’s under the hood. It features a first for GM in North America: a direct-injection engine, a 2.0-liter turbocharged Ecotec. The engine is mated to either a Hydra-Matic 5L40 five-speed automatic or an Aisin AR5 five-speed manual. The importance of direct injection is that by injecting the fuel right into the combustion chamber, there is a more complete burn; one consequence is that it takes less fuel to get the same amount of horsepower achieved by a conventional port-injection system. As regards the horsepower, it provides 260 hp @ 5,300 rpm and 260 lb-ft of torque at 2,500 rpm. This makes it GM’s highest specific horsepower engine ever–2.1 hp/in.[.sup.3] of displacement. A reason why direct injection isn’t more widely deployed is because it is tricky. That is, they can be prone to timing issues (i.e., combusting when not wanted) and it is necessary to have a fuel system that can reliably and repeatably operate at high pressures. In the case of this engine, the pressure is as high as 2,250 psi.