There's always this one, if somebody wants an almost entirely SCCA legal IT car..
There's always this one, if somebody wants an almost entirely SCCA legal IT car..
wae said:A couple months ago, when the first 1gn Neon showed up in a yard since forever ago, I basically dropped everything I was doing to run out there as quickly as possible to pull the transmission to have a spare. I'm hoarding dash pads like a dragon, and I even have a set of Koni blacks that are blown and I won't really ever need. But I keep them just because you can't get them.
The 2 local-ish yards here have 20.
I have only come across a couple 5sp in my RallyX search
Streetwiseguy said:There's always this one, if somebody wants an almost entirely SCCA legal IT car..
Tell me more about it.
Appleseed said:Around here, they all returned back to the Errff.
Same thing here in Minneapolis, although I did see a guy this last winter driving around in the salt and slush in an SRT-4. 
L5wolvesf said:wae said:A couple months ago, when the first 1gn Neon showed up in a yard since forever ago, I basically dropped everything I was doing to run out there as quickly as possible to pull the transmission to have a spare. I'm hoarding dash pads like a dragon, and I even have a set of Koni blacks that are blown and I won't really ever need. But I keep them just because you can't get them.
The 2 local-ish yards here have 20.
I have only come across a couple 5sp in my RallyX search
I'm betting I am not the only one who clicked on your name to see the location in your profile.
In reply to eastsideTim :
No kidding. I had to drive a few hours into Michigan just to get the closest set of Neon wheels from a junkyard
I raced Showroom Stock in the 90s (NA Miata) and also used it as a daily.
I raced against Alex Gurney who was driving a Neon
(raced against as in on the track at the same time......Mr Gurney was 3-4 tenths quicker than me).
Also raced against John Fernandez (he was with Chrysler then) and he showed me all the updates they'd been doing for the Neons
There are 5-10 of them running in the mini stock class at my local circle track on a Saturday night, but I haven't seen one on the street in a bit.
eastsideTim said:L5wolvesf said:wae said:A couple months ago, when the first 1gn Neon showed up in a yard since forever ago, I basically dropped everything I was doing to run out there as quickly as possible to pull the transmission to have a spare. I'm hoarding dash pads like a dragon, and I even have a set of Koni blacks that are blown and I won't really ever need. But I keep them just because you can't get them.
The 2 local-ish yards here have 20.
I have only come across a couple 5sp in my RallyX search
I'm betting I am not the only one who clicked on your name to see the location in your profile.
I thought I heard a clicking in my head :)
Maybe this will help - http://harryhansen.com/upaz/chosmake.php
In reply to pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) :
Doh!
There was a 1997 Plymouth Neon Coupe in that bright purple for sale recently near me. 3000 miles, manual trans, one owner. They wanted $13k and apparently it sold
Here's the archived web page if you want to take a look
Someone brought out a 4 door R/T to a track night last fall, and it got just as much attention in the paddock, if not more, as anything else there. Was super cool to see.
In reply to L5wolvesf :
Championship winning Western Canada Motorsports Association IT2 car. Fresh stock twincam, 3.92 5 speed, revalved Konis, bushings, Coil overs, Ground control turn plates, Accusump because right hand turns at Edmonton, 8- 15" slipstreams, ancient Rivals, illegal oversized throttle body
, Pretty much rust free. It was a fancy one, and its now pretty much an RT spec because I deleted the ABS after the second time it tried desperately to kill me on a trail braking left transitioning into a hard left.
Cage probably needs a couple of tubes added, which I would do, because specs have changed a bit since I built it 15 years ago. Has a Kirkey 17" road race seat on a double lock slider. Cover is a bit sun faded. Belts are way out of date.
I'd sell it for quite a bit less than the sum of it's parts...
Was the Neon easy to get into prolonged oversteer?
The instructors at Skip Barber took us on a tour of the track in 4 or 5 cars, all loaded with 4 people and were drifting them, 4 cars abreast through almost every turn. All while narrating the whole thing to us. It was incredible.
Everyone walked away more blown away by the Neon than the Vipers we got to drive. The staff said they sold a ton of Neons that way.
In reply to CyberEric :
Trailing throttle oversteer is certainly a thing. The dude in the video probably tried to lose a bit of speed there, when he should have planted the throttle and steered like a madman.
One of the ways in which Neons ruled for stock class rallycross was their ability to change direction or rotate at will. Not necessarily "oversteer", just the ability to play the chassis like a musical instrument.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:One of the ways in which Neons ruled for stock class rallycross was their ability to change direction or rotate at will. Not necessarily "oversteer", just the ability to play the chassis like a musical instrument.
Mine wasn't so great at that, until I installed the R/T rear sway bar, then it was so easy to dial in just the right amount of rotation.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:One of the ways in which Neons ruled for stock class rallycross was their ability to change direction or rotate at will. Not necessarily "oversteer", just the ability to play the chassis like a musical instrument.
And I always fought that in mine, because I was racing against double wishbone Civics and Integras. I could absolutely yard them on the straights, though.
In reply to pinchvalve (Forum Supporter) :
I was just reading through registration and competition requirements for this hillclimb.
Its local and registration opened earlier this week but sadly my car won't meet the safety requirements.
Watching this was a good reminder to make those safety investments.
Pete. (l33t FS) said:From reading neons.org back in the day, they had a design life of 80k miles and Chrysler engineers are very good. The wiring harnesses and chassis would last about that long on the street. Racing, people were reporting getting about a year out of a shell and keeping spare engine harnesses on the trailer.
I got 450k miles out of my first one. I was hoping for 500k but the oil light started to flicker at idle. The other one I sold with 350K miles still going strong. I think it was cheap car syndrome. People that buy cheap cars don't usually like to pony up for maintenance. For me the weak link was alternators but I think that's the fault of Oreilly remans. The original went about 150k, the remans were an annual replacement.
Streetwiseguy said:In reply to L5wolvesf :
I'd sell it for quite a bit less than the sum of it's parts...
Sounds good to me but my wallet just had a grand mal. Then I'd have to get there and back. Tell me anyway I can take it.
Had a couple of friends who raced them in Showroom Stock back in the day. One of those friends also street drove it into Boston on her daily commute. She used magnets for numbers and other decals that were stowed inside on the trunk lid, so the thing just looked like a stock Neon on the street (well, except for the roll cage).
Don't forget the Celebrity Challenge races they used to run, too. B-list celebrities in a fleet of identically prepared Neons as support races to some of the pro series. One of my Neon-racing friends did a Neon Pro race at Lime Rock, that was run along with the celebrity race at a Trans Am weekend. Got to see Alfonso Ribeiro (famous as Carlton in The Fresh Prince) barrel roll his Neon down the front straight. He was fine, and the Chrysler PR guys had the wreck cleaned up and out of sight in no time...
I spent an inordinate amount of time on the .org in the early 2000's. Around that time I had a stock sohc sedan, then a NYG DOHC coupe, then black ACR coupe, and a black DOHC espresso coupe.
Various combinations of 2.0, stock 2.4, 2.4 w/cams, srt4 2.4 on mega squirt. Fun cars, very underrated in their time. I recognise some of this threads posters from that era.
My dad reckons the 2.4 turbo was the first car that scared him. Would comfortably spin the 195 section Azenis at surprising speeds on a cold day.
Every once and a while I'll try to find a 1g for sale, but it's probably best to leave it as a 'good memory'. If I'm going to struggle with parts availability, it had better be worth it!
Streetwiseguy said:In reply to CyberEric :
Trailing throttle oversteer is certainly a thing. The dude in the video probably tried to lose a bit of speed there, when he should have planted the throttle and steered like a madman.
Duryea hill climb. I used to compete in that. That corner has a nickname that escapes me. It's a slight bend in the road but has a dip in it. The brave/crazy keep their foot planted through there but it leads to a hairpin left just out of camera shot. Lifting, combined with the dip and a overly stiff suspension, can get you that result.
I went through there without lifting in a fwd Audi. It's a bit terrifying.
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