Raced one today at track, so I have numbers to prove how you'd do against one:

Me: CAI, pacesetter, udp, springs/shocks
Cavalier: Altezzas, not sure what else, didn't see under the hood and it was stock exhaust.

We raced and cavalier had 16.653@85.42 with a 2.615 60' time
I had 16.199@85.45 with a 2.456 60' time.

It was a great race. The cavalier got the jump on me, but I caught up in first and second gear and passed it. In third gear, the cav slowly caught up to me again.

I got beat in reaction time (.774 to 1.229), so i actually crossed the line .0011 seconds after the cavalier.

I know, bad reaction time, but it kinda threw me off when we lined up and the driver was a girl! :o
Not that there's anything wrong with girl racers. Actually, i was happy that she won, talked to her afterword and it was her first real race... she even had to ask me to help translate the timeslip for her.

In conclusion: Cavaliers can be fast. They pull real hard in third, so you need to get a good jump on one.