Well, I will give a bit of a back story to this question. A guy I know just got a 2009 Cobalt SS. I mentioned that I have about 100 more hp than he does, and he says "yeah, but your car weighs about 1,000 more lbs.". I point out that this is not true by asking him what his car weighs, and he says 2900lbs, to which I say mine is about 3400. Well, come to find out, the Cobalt SS weighs 2975lbs. Too much for a shitbox, IMHO. My registration says my car was 3200lbs when new, which I find amusing since 225lbs gets you a much bigger car. Plus, he has a 60/40 weight distribution and I think a V8 G body is around 55/45. Anyhow, I wanted to see what the real weight difference is and also, what the handling difference would be. My car is far from stock and has had weight taken off the nose (about 50-100lbs so far). Both cars have solid axle rear suspensions, but the Cobalt has a Mac Phearson strut front while the Cutlass has a double A arm front with revised geometry. The Cutlass also wears wider tires and will have 12 in front and 11 in rear disc brakes. The Cobalt will have a braking advantage, but maybe not a handling advantage. He also weighs about 100lbs more than me. Oh, and yes...there is a possible friendly race coming from this... If it is at the drag strip, I may be sporting a concealed nitrous system with the solenoids hidden in the A/C box and the lines concealed with black convoluted tubing.
He says the Cobalt SS runs a 13.6, but I saw figures of 14.0 in the quarter. Also it pulls a 0.9g on the skidpad and 60-0 in 115 feet. I know I can beat all but the braking numbers, but I don't know the transient handling difference.