Dubspeed Driven First Drive – 2007 Saturn Sky Red Line
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Photos and Text by Zerin Dube
General Motors put on its 2007 GM Collection media program in San Antonio, TX yesterday, and brought out nearly all of it’s new for 2007 models. Of all the vehicles available for us to drive (Everything from the Aveo to the XLR-V), I was most excited to get behind the wheel of the brand new 2007 Saturn Sky Red Line. While I only had 45 minutes or so to drive the car this time around, it was enough to get a good impression of what the car has to offer.
Most of the Sky Red Line’s changes occur under the hood by way of a new Ecotec turbocharged 2.0-liter, direct injection engine. This engine is GM’s first direct injection engine offering in North America, and produces a very respectable 260 horsepower at 5300 rpm, and 260lb-ft of torque at 2500 rpm.
There are a few visual elements that help the Sky Red Line differentiate itself from the standard Sky Roadster, including dual chrome exhaust tips in the rear diffuser, 18-inch polished aluminum wheels, a new lower front fascia with brake cooling vents, and black headlamp bezels. Simple as these changes might sound, they really do make an already great looking vehicle look even better.
Of course what I was most interested in was how the Sky Red Line’s driving dynamics felt, and to be honest I was somewhat skeptical going into it. It’s easy to throw a turbocharged engine in a car and produce big horsepower numbers, but it isn’t so easy to make the chassis and engine work together harmoniously.
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The back roads of San Antonio provided me with the perfect place to stretch the Sky Red Line out and see what it could do in both straight line sprints, as well as technical roads with tight switchbacks and some elevation changes. In a straight line, the Sky Red Line isn’t the fastest thing I’ve driven, but it definitely is quick.
GM claims a 0-60 time of 5.5 seconds, and a ¼ mile time of 13.9 seconds. If you can get the tires to hook up, I think the Sky Red Line will actually be a little faster in the real world than even their estimates. And while GM PR likes to claim there is no turbo lag, it is somewhat noticeable. Full boost seems to come on at about 3250 rpm and tapers off right around the 5500 rpm mark. I also felt like the car could really benefit from a lighter flywheel since it didn’t seem to rev as quickly as I’d like. That said, downshifts require quite a bit of finesse to get the rev’s matched perfectly.
Rolling out from a stop light and putting the pedal to the floor will result in a “LOW TRACTION” warning flashing from the LED computer display as the rear tires fight for traction. Despite having a limited-slip rear differential, the poor Goodyear F1 Supercar tires just couldn’t overcome the torque being transmitted to them. Once out of first gear though, the Sky Red Line hooks and goes. And while we’re on the subject of shifting, I have to mention that the Sky Red Line manual transmisssion really needs a lot of work. It’s vague, it’s notchy, and the ratios are all over the place. Luckily the Sky Red Line has enough mid-range torque that you can get away with leaving it in third gear for most city driving duties without lugging the engine.
Around the corners, the Sky Red Line felt balanced, and extremely neutral. No matter how hard I pushed the car, it never displayed any understeer, and complied perfectly with my input from the steering wheel. The car’s suspension was not easily upset over rough roads, and cornered nearly flat. I was able to induce oversteer by feeding the car a little bit of throttle mid-corner, which of course can be corrected by a little steering input and more throttle. Speaking of steering, the Sky Red Line’s steering is extremely responsive, and has very little play when turning the wheel.
Though the Sky Red Line got up to speed with little fuss, I was a little disappointed with the way it stopped. The brake pedal was extremely mushy, and gave me very little feedback as to what they were doing. As a result, I found myself getting on the brakes a little harder than I wanted to, and ended up locking up the rear brakes almost on demand.
With anti-lock brake systems as advanced as they are, there is almost no reason that I should experience full brake lock up under any circumstances. My feeling is that the brake proportioning needs a little work, and needs to be biased more towards the front to eliminate the tendancy to lock up.
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Being the owner of a modified turbo car in everyday life, I wondered how well the Sky Red Line would take to the basic modifications that nearly every turbo car owning enthusiast does to their cars. That is, ECU flashes for more boost, larger exhausts to get those gasses flowing more freely, and intercooler upgrades.
As I was messing around with the trip computer, I found that Saturn has included a digital boost gauge as part of the computer. What I discovered was that the Sky Red Line’s boost peaked at 17psi and sustained 16psi to about the 5500rpm mark as I mentioned earlier. What does this mean to the turbo tuner? Well, as small as the Red Line’s turbo is, I don’t think it will take well to more boost than it’s already making, but we’ll see what the tuners come up with by way of big turbo kits.
The intercooler and associated piping looked excellent. There is plenty of surface area to draw in cooler air, and boost side piping of the intercooler is all hard piping. No chance of boost robbing flex here! I do think a larger exhaust will definitely free up some horsepower, and give the Sky Red Line a bit more of a growl.
Hopefully that gives some of you who were waiting to hear impressions about the Red Line a little bit of an idea of how it performs. As I mentioned earlier, anyone can take a car and throw a more powerful engine in it. I’m happy to say that from the short amount of time I had with the Sky Red Line I was able to tell that the additional power adds to the driving experience rather than detracting from it. We should have a Sky Red Line to test in the next couple of months, so stay tuned for a full blown review!
Good review. This has been on my short list of cars, and your writeup jibes with what I’ve read elsewhere; namely, that the dynamics aren’t on par with the Miata, which can be had for cheaper, at the expense of straight line power.
I’ve wondered if a suspension kit wouldn’t help here, but the flaws you point out, such as the braking balance and gear ratios, aren’t so easily remedied.
Either way, it’s obviously an exciting car from GM, and I hope the next iteration will show many improvements. Until then, there is always the S2000, I suppose.
BTW, you know who wants in on the full test.
good write up, I have been waiting to read about these since they were first announced. Much better looking car than it’s sibling the Solstice. I think that couple with the no haggle policy of Saturn should drive sales.
This may be a knit picking but the front end looks all wrong. GM went with a black headlight surround but they should have also done something with those big chrome foglight bezels.
I’m more of a Solstice fan, so I can’t wait until they transplant that engine into it (GXP version I think?). Otherwise, this looks good, not to mention that GM is upping their warrenties for 2007 vehicles to 100k and 5 or so years.
A friend of mine is looking into the Solstice GXP…. he thinks he can get it for $27k out the door. We visited Ernie Guzman Pontiac on I10 last week to look at the base Solstice and right on the windshield is a big sticker that reads “Market Adjustment $3,995.00″. So, a generic Solstice can be had for right at $30k before TT&L. Can’t imagine what they will put on the GXP.
I wonder is Saturn will do to the price… say I spec one out on the Saturn website and walk into the dealer with that page from the website… will I be able to buy the car for that much??? I guess we will have to wait and see.
The good thing about Saturn is their No-Haggle policy. Dealers aren’t allowed to set their own prices, so chance are you will pay what you see on the website.
Great review, I’m definitely looking foward to reading the full review.
I love this car… I’m not a fan of the “bulbous” look of the solstice.
Interesting front visual look with the blacked out head lamps…and bright yellow paint, very C6 ‘vette ish.
Sounds like its a good engine but the rest of the car leaves one wanting more….glad I read the review, that’s as close as I will get to driving it, becuase I can’t fit in it assuming the interior room is about the same as the Solstice!
Pete – Saturn will and is marking the prices up on the SKY.
As far as the SKY Redline goes… it looks nice but if Saturn does indeed try to rape people even with their “no haggle pricing”, I think they will see slow sales and bad press.
Looks like a nice car but the negative things written about (Tranny, brakes, slow rev, etc…) would be a huge turn off for me.
I saw this car in person and loved it accept the rear taillights which where ugly as sin.
Damn, it’s pushing 17 PSI from the factory, that seems like poor engineering to me. I’d be more interested if it produced those numbers with different turbos running around 10PSI.
Amir, I disagree with you. The twin-scroll turbocharger makes a ton of power while keeping lag down. Look at the 2.0T for instance. With stock boost around 8-9psi, it makes 200hp. Even with a chip that puts it around 14 – 15psi, the 2.0T makes around 230 – 240hp. This is 260hp with 16psi with very little lag. This keeps the car from being managable around the track without the sudden surge of boost you find in cars with bigger turbos, or even programming modifications. I think GM powertrain engineers did a wonderful job of balancing power without sacrificing driveablity.
I love the Sky! Make mine, silver, black or red! Great for these winding canyon roads in CA!
looks nice! too much chorme for my taste though. GM is looking good now!
We have a car club for enthusiasts of the Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice in Phoenix Arizona and we currently have two dozen members. We do rides and car shows every month, and I can attest to the fact that we are LOVING these cars — a real automotive phenomenon. Check us out at http://www.sky-sol.com.
pero se la pela al mustangg pendejosss
just buy the non turbo version and check out hahnracecraft turbokits they have one running under 12 seconds.
HMMM, GIVE ME AN S2000 AND I WILL BE HAPPY.
I purchasaed my Sky Redline (black with red and black leather interior) on April 30th from the Saturn dealership on the SW Freeway in Houston. I should take possession mid June or the first week of July. AWSOME car.
Sounds like a cool car; but, you can’t top the S2000 for me. Gimme-Gimme any day!! ;-D
Sounds like a cool car; but, you can’t top the S2000 for me. Gimme-Gimme any day!! ;-D On top of that, you never hear anything negative about it. That’s a Honda.
Cheaper then a Z4 and a S2000 and looks better?
I’ll take one!
Do the math. 130 HP & 130 Torque per liter! Try and find that anywhere else.
The Redline is $4000 less than the base S2000, makes 100 more pounds of torque and 23 more HP.
I drove both and although not perfect, bought the Redline, .
gotta have this one in black, all chrome , wrap them up in some Giovanni socks and Pirelli Shoes and hit the streets.
I was looking for a great commuter car for winding canyon roads, think the Red Line will suffice and work as a #3 car. Thought the Pontiac was too curvy and looks too much like an old Cobra but without the extra OOMPH, so I’ll wait and buy a Cobra down the road and keep the Sky RL as well. Ordered it in black with red initerior, car just arrived and am waiting for the cold air take, catback turbo exhaust and performance suspension. Like the style over any Miata/ or newer Mazda(3rd Gen RX-7 excluded) and think the S2000 is too bland. Used to race cars so I’m hoping only 300 HP will not be too much of a disppointment, but at over 20MPG it should be fun and economical.