Saturn ION RedLine Forums banner

Hows everyone like the....

2105 Views 17 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  shaneathan
Handling of the Red Line?

I went back roading about a month and a half ago with 2 Heavily modified FD RX-7s, a Bolt on Z28 Camaro, and a Stock Legacy GT.

I kept up with all of them in the hardest position when doing a follow the leader style back road cruise, the rear. I was also the lowest displacement and only FWD car there. I had a great time. Was awesome keeping up with the faster cars in the corners.

One of the people riding in the RX-7 got a little video of my Red Line. DvD Quality stuff. I'll talk to him and see if I can get him to guve me the clip of it.
1 - 18 of 18 Posts
Best handling car I've owned. (Not driven) The best handling car I've driven would be an Acura NSX.


Dude, get the vid and post it here! :D
Hey, Aeain. Where abouts in Centerville do you live? I'm in Dayton, just north around Vandalia.
I love my Redline's Handling.

This is where our car shines! Yeah it's good in the straight line, but where I live, everyone has a srt-4. I can beat some of them, since they can't launch their cars well, but they will catch up on me.

However, I own the back roads around here. (It's called piketown, and for a reason). Maybe it's not that my car can out handle the other's I've raced. Maybe I'm just crazy! Seeing as I am probably the first to have wrecked a redline. :-(

Don't worry. It wasn't even scratched or dented, no chips in the paint. Just needed a new radiator. (don't ask) They didn't even know how to order the parts, lol, they screwed up the order. This was over a month ago, mind you.

If you do a lot of highly aggressive back road driving, beware. This car is amazing till it's limit. If you step over, It's hard to contain. The steering gets to be shady, braking... if not in a straight line... your end will sway.. alot, which will make the steering issuses even worse. Of couse, this is all in my own opionion. I don't know how many of you have pushed your car more than it can handle, but it's always good to know the limits of a car ahead of time.
See less See more
yes, the car handles amazing to it's limits, but you better be able to throttle adjust once you get there because if you're not carefull, it could send you in a ditch or up that curb real quick. hasn't happened yet, but i've been at the limits, and tried to keep pushing them, and they are dangerous if not carefull. otherwise, this car is great to take off on those curvy onramps that the minivan behind you believes can take as fast as you!!! they love that...
I love on ramps in this car, it handles great... just wish i had a lil more traction when the road is wet.
me too, i think i'll be taking the bus in the winter here... oh well, good to keep the miles off of my car!
Vita said:
me too, i think i'll be taking the bus in the winter here... oh well, good to keep the miles off of my car!
That would so suck. If that was the case I would have bought a 4x4 truck instead of the RL. Since this is my daily beater, lol... I love having no snow.

Tom
Own the back roads of hershey eh? I guess that's cuz I'm too far away to qualify as competition being in harrisburg :p

:cool:

Anyways, I found in terms of lateral grip and turning speed, the car is less capable than my se-r spec v stock for stock. However, the major difference is in the experience. While the redline is slightly less capable in terms of overall grip, it is vastly more competent in the corners.

The spec v if you drive it at 9/10th's will scare you in ways I can't even describe. It's part of the reason I've wrecked it twice. The differential will throw fits, the suspension will hop, you'll go up on 2-3 wheels, be flinging the wheel around like a madman all while having a white knuckle death grip on the wheel to avoid that dreaded torque steer.

The saturn, on the other hand, is vastly easier to drive at speed. I drove the balls off the tester doing 70 in a 25 and feeling perfectly comfortable. The steering is very precise, the brakes are flat and neutral with no fade, the power very linear in output so it's extremely easy to modulate, the car is level and flat in corners with no hopping around due to under-dampened springs, and really I didn't even break a sweat. Overall, it's considerably easier for the driver to manage without wondering if they are going to put it into a tree.

The saturn's composure under hard driving is THE reason (coupled with the incentives) that I bought the car. I had *0* idea that it would drive that nice at ridiculously illegal speeds. It's just.. a phenomenally well balanced car. Much like a mazda.
See less See more
Aeain said:
I was also the lowest displacement and only FWD car there. I had a great time. Was awesome keeping up with the faster cars in the corners.

aren't FD's like 1.3L's?
garland said:
Own the back roads of hershey eh? I guess that's cuz I'm too far away to qualify as competition being in harrisburg :p
Harrisburg is like 10-15 Minutes away. :p

I challegene you to a road race (timed)!At night to make it more interesting! Know where 743 or 443 are at? Piketown road?

Try this road course sometime:

Parenthitical numbers = minimun speed

Linglestown Road(Also route 39) to the new CD High school. Left onto Piketown Road (60mph) . Follow to the top of the moutain. Straight onto Fishing Creek Valley Road (70mph), follow that to the elementary school. Turn right onto 443(70mph), follow to Penn National. Turn right on 743(80mph) follow about 2 miles to Route 22. Turn right on 22 and cannonball it back to Route 39.

I'll post my best time either tonight or tommorrow between 9-11pm

Sorry, I'm crazy. LoL
See less See more
glad you're doing it at night, passing by two schools and all...


sounds like a fun set of roads though if you actually go out of your way to time it all!
Sounds fun. Maybe I'll con the woman into letting me do it or next time I get the car I'll "accidentally" make a wrong turn down a set of roads.
Of course, I wouldn't speed in a school zone. It's alot of fun, if you know the area. About 14-18 miles is my rough estimate. I'm going to track the mileage also. I am bringing my friend along to record it on video. Then I'll have to wait for another friend to come back from college before he can transfer it on his computer since it's not digital, then edit it for me etc. So expect footage a little before christmas, if it will even work. Does anyone know the limit of mb you can post in the media section? I HATE technology.

I still can't wait for spring. So many plans for my car :). I'm going to try to make plans to head to a road track to compete next summer, thing is I don't know where and what all is open to the public in the Northeast here.
I was telling my little brother about my car, and I mentioned the .85 g it pulled on the skidpad. His exact words were "Are you F*cking serious? And it's stock?"
HersheyRedLine said:
Of course, I wouldn't speed in a school zone. It's alot of fun, if you know the area. About 14-18 miles is my rough estimate. I'm going to track the mileage also. I am bringing my friend along to record it on video. Then I'll have to wait for another friend to come back from college before he can transfer it on his computer since it's not digital, then edit it for me etc. So expect footage a little before christmas, if it will even work. Does anyone know the limit of mb you can post in the media section? I HATE technology.

I still can't wait for spring. So many plans for my car :). I'm going to try to make plans to head to a road track to compete next summer, thing is I don't know where and what all is open to the public in the Northeast here.
Hmm. Be careful. Maybe we should just meet at an auto-x or something :p

That's alot of ground to cover in ANY car. But I'm still interested in seeing you run it ;P
garland said:
Hmm. Be careful. Maybe we should just meet at an auto-x or something :p

That's alot of ground to cover in ANY car. But I'm still interested in seeing you run it ;P
That's what I'm thinking Mike. I'm up for taking on people's challenges, but that is way to long. Let's see you two go at it in auto xing...

Tom
handling

I like the handling. I liked the Focus SVT's handling more though. But the redline does handle well, definitely better than the SRT-4 which handles like a wet dog. But the SVT needed a supercharger. . . The redline's tail does seem to slide out on turns sometimes though. . .
1 - 18 of 18 Posts
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top