Took delivery of the car on December 30th, 2003 with 12 miles on her total. Within the next few days I swapped on my old wheels from my SC2, which were heavy chrome 15x6.5 wheels that weren't awful, but really weren't fitting or all that great. These are the earliest pics I can find at the moment when the car was mainly stock. Yes that is an xtremesaturn.com sticker on the back window, that should show their age.
Within the first 30 days I removed the intake silencer, I want to say even in the first week, just to free up some breathing. For a free modification it was worth the 20 minutes I felt. At exactly the one month mark, the HKS cat-back exhaust system was installed. Great part, which I think is on it's third car now (AC66BRONCO) and still looks great. Rear emblem was also removed early on to avoid it being a hassle later on.
In an effort to change the visual appearance up front (back when I despised amber lights), I masked off the corner lenses, as well as replaced the turn signals/drls with hyper white bulbs.
Underhood looked dull, so I polished up the valve cover.
AEM intake installed shortly after.
Moroso Motorsports Park with Saturn Motorsports. This was back when Lisa Kubo still drove the Ion drag car, which that day consistantly broke 7 seconds and took the win.
Promo shot at Saturn of Port Richey with Lisa Kubo.
In an effort to practice for Nopinationals, some practice night shots of the car.
Nopinationals for that year was a great success, I took 3rd and received an award from GM.
Attempts for black side markers, which did not contrast well at all.
At long last, new wheels arrived. Falken Hanabis in 15x7, 11lbs each.
Polyurethane filled front lower trans mount. Still is in the car today actually and has helped out greatly.
Then, at roughly 12,000 miles, the fun stuff came. Port & polished head that was also milled .045 was installed, along with a crinkle coat valve cover. Credit goes to S.Bretz and Green Monstah for the work, and Scooter for the assisted labor and FSM usage lol.
Breaking the 15.5X mark with stock suspension. Notice the weight shifting under launch.
Eibach springs were installed.
Shortly after that an Nitrous Xpress IcemanXL Single Fogger Wet Kit was installed.
Original purge location.
Cleanup.
SPS strut bar installed.
Somehow got my hands on one of the two prototype Borla cat-back systems for the Ion (03-04 only). These are what later became the Borla and GM Performance exhausts for the Cobalt. Flow was improved over the HKS slightly, but sound was not the same unfortunately. Still, I am very pleased with it.
The one week if that in which I had a set of 17" wheels. They looked ok, but I was not happy at all with the tires and got rid of them. I won't even go into how bad they were under nitrous use.
Exhaust bypass installed at flange for cat-back and downpipe, right after catalytic converter.
Complete OEM underhood conversion performed.
Car was involved in an accident with an intoxicated/impaired driver. These are the only pictures I have on file anymore. The entire rear suspension was destroyed outside of the springs, along with one wheel, and all body panels and mirror on the passenger side. Collision happened from a dead stop with the at fault travelling ~65mph.
LSJ manifold installed (sorry no pics).
First downpipe version installed. 2.5" piping, one bend, bypass installed in place of catalytic converter. (This did not last very long, actually was blown apart during nitrous testing, which led to the 2nd revision)
QTP electric dump installed (no picture). Unfortunately it was damaged and stopped functioning due to flame damage. A new one is on order.
Powerslot rotors with Hawk HPS pads installed.
LED's changed in cluster (yeah not for power but whatever it still happened lol).
6000K HID system installed.
Raptor shift light installed.
Monroe shocks ordered and installed.
1" spring rubbers installed on rear coils to temporarily alter preload.
Coppertop_01 front subframe brace installed. (no pics)
QTP stainless 2.5" exhaust bypass installed.
More will be updated on this later.
most current pictures:
