Chevy Aveo

Any autocross potential? at all?

How about the toyota echo?

i know a guy whose engine fell out on the highway with under 20k miles on it - gm bought it back from him.

whats wrong with the miata?

I'm thinking 2-digit horsepower numbers and tire sections in the 135mm range are not going to do much for your times, but I've been wrong before.

You can have fun autoxing anything.

They are built by Daewoo, but IIRC share the same platform as the Suzuki Swift that's sold in Canada. As I also remember, there was some type of spec-rally series for the Swift, so I'd suppose there's some performance parts out there.

Beyond that, I crawled underneath the front of one when they were first released & I can tell you the front strut assembly is setup just like the Rabbit/Neon/Protege/etc. with 2-lower bolts holding the strut to the carrier, so I'd think you could find something that would work, even if a bit of modification was involved.

toyota echos are banned by some autox sanctioning bodies aren't they because of their rollover potential?

Aveo's are turds, big ones, you can buy my girlfriends for $5k though, it's got less than 50k on the clock. I just recently mounted and balanced four new tires, oil change with mobil juan, and swapped out the ATF with some fresh fluid. ........oh did I mention timing chains go right around 60k as well.

I drive an Echo as my DD (hate the car but it's reliable and paid for)

I wouldn't auto-x it. It doesn't handle at all and it's top heavy because it's real tall for a small car.

I'd avoid anything built by Daewoo like the plague...

A manual Echo with wider wheels could make a decent autocross car. I wouldn't worry about rollovers, I'd worry about being able to see where you're going, especially if you're tall.

There was a magazine that put a supercharged Ecotec in one.... they were prepping it for time attack.

It made me happy in wierd places.

My mom has a Daewoo and it is the worst car they've owned, and they had many 80's Chevys and Fords. The latest is that the imitation dog skin cover is peeling off the dashboard around the defroster vents, but it has had a number of bad sensors and other parts, each needing to be smuggled into the states packed inside frozen Kim Chi dinners causing the car to smell like bad cole slaw.

And that ^^^ should make it into print!!!

the bottom line is that they would be great cars with an ecotec, instead they get the Daewoo 1.6 E-TEC.....but that magazine that put the ecotec in one had to cut the front rad support, build half of a freakin tube framed chassis, nothing simple about the swap.

But the Ecotec is friggin huge when compared to the engine the Aveo got. With the Ecotec in the nose the car would stand on end when sitting still.

Now I was impressed with the Aveo we had at NAPA for about 12 miles... then the numbness in my leg from the dashboard jutting into my shin started and I decided it was getting old.

A gutted Aveo with a real racing seat would be fun as a track car but that is as far as I would throw one.

from GM's website, the Aveo is rockin' some sort of Ecotec derivitive....maybe that is just marketing speak....

besides, a Front heavy vehicle doesnt always handle terribly...the orriginal mini had a 62/38 Front to rear ratio....and they are fun as hell.

I figure a Cobalt SS supercharged 2.0 would be a blast in that thing.

it is no ecotec derivative! It's a got dang Daewooooooooooo Piece of f'ing CHIT!

Its a Daewoo Lanos, if I recall. The Swift+ rally cars did well, were mostly stock, and according to the drivers, and mechanics, reliable. I don't think I would buy one, but as a used car, you can probably get one for a song. There are 'tuner' boards for the cars, and I have done a number of custom cams, and some headwork, so somebody is building them up.

You can have fun autoxing anything.

Thats true. I once saw a pic of my car in a magazine with that caption below it. I wasn't sure how to take it.

The e-Tec engine in the Aveo is the same block as the engine in the new Suzuki Reno and Forenza (sp?) and appears to be based on the old Opel red-top motors. It is made by Daewoo, but that's just another branch of GM pretty much now anyway.

I think the real HP swap would be to start out with the Reno's 2.0L motor and go from there. They can be had on e-vil-bay for under $500, and even today the old adage holds true: There's no replacement for displacement.

And they're complaining about the Accent on GRM side. The Aveo should be classed with it. My wife had one as a rental when her Camry was in the bodyshop. What a gutless POS, not to mention the cheapness it exuded.

oldopelguy wrote: The e-Tec engine in the Aveo is the same block as the engine in the new Suzuki Reno and Forenza (sp?) and appears to be based on the old Opel red-top motors. It is made by Daewoo, but that's just another branch of GM pretty much now anyway. I think the real HP swap would be to start out with the Reno's 2.0L motor and go from there. They can be had on e-vil-bay for under $500, and even today the old adage holds true: There's no replacement for displacement.

the story i heard was that GM bought daewoo's operations outside of the US, then began importing the cars built elswhere into the US. this didn't make daewoo very happy i'm sure you can imagine

I'm not sure it would be all that fast, but I drove one at the Auto Show in Motion and my impression was it was fun in a twisted beater abuse way.