Okay, as promised, I'm going to get into a limited technical discussion about my car of choice, the Saturn Ion Red Line. Few people have seen one, fewer people have heard of it, and even fewer have driven one.

I originally got into the Saturn brand back in 1998, I bought a slightly used SL1 and proceeded to put 205,000 miles on it. It was still running when I sold it for $600 about ten years later. Sure, it had breakdowns, but I fixed everything myself, and it was a solid running car that got over 35 MPG. I actually learned how to drive it in SCCA autocrossing, which was both scary and exhilirating.

Pop quiz: Anybody remember what the Cannonball One Lap of America economy class winners were in 2001, 2002, and 2003? Yup, all Saturns. I've personally met the guys who ran them, and they're the ones who helped design the Ion Red Line in 2004. Seriously.

Ion Red Lines were built from 2004 to 2007, around 5800 total. Of those, about 1100 had the "Competition Package" option, which included an LSD, and a ladder tach and boost gauge on the steering column. You can spot them by the grey wheels (regular ones had silver wheels).

The heart of the car is a specially designed Ecotec 4-banger. Unlike the TRD kits, it's not a regular engine with a supercharger slapped on. It's been de-stroked, has oil-jet-cooled pistons, a 6-quart oil pan (taken from a turbo Saab), a water/air intercooler integrated into the intake manifold, and a host of other goodies.

GM also sells stage kits for the LSJ (supercharged) Ions and Cobalts. Just bigger injectors, a smaller supercharger pulley, and a retune bumps the power output to 265+ HP. Add some intercooler plumbing, and a smaller pulley, and it breaks 280HP. The GM stage 3 ECU adds features like a user-adjustable rev limiter, on-the-fly 100 octane mode, and ECU programming and trigger for a dry 50-shot of nitrous... all from GM.

More to come.