I have two Neon race cars, because one car and race series isn't quite enough to kill me.
Anyway, my sub driver in my ministock car, while I was away with my roadrace car, got tagged pretty hard on the right rear wheel, thereby turning it into the front straight wall, and creating a not-so-valuable flatnose Neon. Hit hard enough to buckle the cowl, and make the trunklid pins hard to remove. Good cage, good seat, Hans, etc and Shawn was ready within a couple of minutes to find and kill the other driver.....
Not great video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xl3HMZ9-eK0&feature=related
Now to the point of the story. I went to insurance salvage, paid $200 for a gently hit Neon, stripped it, caged it, transferred engine, trans, all the suspension except the right rear knuckle, and set it up with the baseline settings from the old car. The only change was the addition of a "Petty bar" Took it to practice, and on the third lap the car had ever run, it was a tenth faster than I have been able to get the old car for a couple of years. And, it ran 7 laps within 5 hundredths.
I had been thinking about re-tubbing, as there are two cracks growing in the firewall radiating away from what would be the trans tunnel in a normal car. I think the old girl was just soft after 5 years of turning left on a 1/3 mile banked oval.
