This car has gone through a few phases, starting as less than stock when I was 16 years old in 2011, leading all the way to becoming a SEMA build for Toyo Tires in 2024.
This was initially purchased as my first daily in high school as the rally yellow spec with black and yellow interior. It was about half the price of what these cars were going for at the time since it had front end damage and a base model front bumper installed.
From there, the build began to slowly spiral out of control. I’ve always loved the idea of throwing a sort of JDM flare at American cars, which is exactly the path I’ve pursued on this car from the start, including when it was just lowered and cambered with Hellaflush and Canibeat stickers down the side of the back window.
The spiral continued when I went to college and had the chance to convert to a 5x114.3 bolt pattern from the dreaded 5x110 and throw some SSR D5R wheels and coilovers. When the car got hailed on outside of my college apartment, we decided to go to town on the body work and take advantage of the opportunity to change the color to a custom blue-greenish pearl color. Along with that came switching out the interior to the factory Recaros out of a Saturn Ion Redline and converting to a custom bag over coil setup, airing out fender to lip.
After college came the fun part of being able to park the car for about 4-1/2 years to create the current form of the car, which became a feature vehicle for Toyo Tires at SEMA in 2024. This phase includes a full custom tuck and shave, cantilever rear suspension, custom paint, custom interior, with an overall color scheme, sponsors, and custom touches that I could only have dreamed of having all come together when I first got the car 15 years ago.
The best part about it all is being able to say that the car was built almost completely in the garage with only the help of some close friends and family. The only time the car left the garage was for final paint, which we took it to a booth that was rented from another friend of mine where we spent the weekend getting the car painted, exactly 1 week before needing to be checked into the convention center in Las Vegas. There are so many details in the car that I can spend hours flipping through progress photos and explaining every piece that was put in the car, both visible and out of sight. The best way I can put it, is every angle of every area of the car has parts that have been painted, polished, or powder coated, and more than likely has some cool or funny story about a friend or family member that contributed in one way or another.
I get asked all the time why I would put so much time, effort, and money into a Cobalt, and the honest answer is that it just happened to be the car that I ended up with as a teenager and I made the best with what I had, but I would change absolutely nothing about the way things worked out with now being able to have such a unique build platform that sparks so much conversation and has provided such cool experiences for myself and many of my loved ones!
