We’ve put a few thousand miles on our Neon and honestly, we love it. It’s a great car for chuffing back and forth from work, and it’s an awesome rallycross car. So, we’re now wondering if we should invest a few more bucks and get the Neon that we really want…a sedan (preferably an ACR) in better shape. Decisions, Decisions.
There’s a rallycross next weekend (5/17) at European Rally School over in Starke FL….8 stages, 24 miles total and you can run your street car! The closest you can come to real rally…without the expenses…
We’ll be entering the Project Neon, as well as a Subaru Outback and a Mazda RX-7.
Go to GoRally.com for more information……
Per
Scott and Per took the Neon to Tampa Rally’s April rallycross this past weekend. The car is still in the Stock Front class and we finished first and second in this class, as well as third and fourth overall.
The car survived all 16 runs and made it back home in one piece. The only issues that we noticed were some exhaust leaks and a coolant gauge that tended to run hot after a run or two. We’ve got a new radiator on the way, as well as a short-tube exhaust header from eBay.com
We replaced the headlights on the Neon last night. We bought some “Crystal Clear” lights on eBay for about $140 shipped. While we could have spent several hours polishing the stock ones, they were so pitted and aged that completely new ones would the most time- and cost-effective measure.
Both the headlights and the turn signals were pitted and age-cracked.
The new lights are, as the name suggests, crystal clear. Plus, they give the front of the Neon a more modern look without, in our opinion, looking too ricey.
The real benefit is that the lights now throw much more powerful beams down the road.
The makeover is coming along for our Neon project car; we recently painted the hood and new front bumper. Before we covered it in mud and dirt at a local rallycross, we managed to have the car lookin’ pretty good.
We first scraped off the old, flaking paint with a razor blade.
After a quick sand and prime, we used this Preval disposable airbrush to paint the base coat and clear coat.
Here’s a shot from yesterday’s TampaRally.Com rallycross. The car was pretty good out on the two-and-a-half-minute long layout, but it didn’t have a lot of forward bite thanks to its nearly bald all-season tires. Although we wound up leaving early, our times on the first five runs would have us at the top of RSF (Rally Stock Front Wheel Drive). Our future plans have us going to Rally Prepared Front Wheel Drive so we can change springs and tires, among other things.
Nor did it have a lot of rear bite, as the rear stepped out pretty easily on the gravel. That’s OK, that’s what makes Rallycross so much fun.
Shortly after we left the site, the battery died completely. We took it to a (thankfully) nearby auto parts store where it was tested at 46 cranking amps–considerably less than the 650 the battery had when we bought it new. Our guess is that heat and vibration shorted out the battery’s internals. Whatever it was, we’re out another 80-something bucks.
Tom and Per spent Saturday at several junkyards in the central Florida area. We heard rumors that there was a Nitro Yellow Green Neon at the LKQ in Orlando, but that turned out to be false. We did, however, get a good front bumper cover as well as just about everything we need to convert the car to a manual transmission.
And here’s a look at our budget thus far. Although we’re not explicitly planning on having this car meet the $2008 Challenge budget, we’re not explicitly not planning on it, either. In other words, “Let’s see how this goes.”
1995 Plymouth Neon: 100.00
transmission: 59.99
console cover: 4.99
cables: 12.99
axle shaft: 20.99
starter: 16.99
pedal assembly: 14.99
bumper cover: 39.99
computer ecm: 39.99
total spent: 310.92
We’ve now gotten a chance to photo document our $100 Plymouth Neon. It’s in surprisingly good condition, but we’ve got a long way to go–the perfect starting point for a project.
It cuts a not-so-mean figure.
The hood suffers from the Neon-Pox, a condition where the factory primer doesn’t adhere to the steel underneath.
It’s sporty.
The right portion of the front bumper isn’t what it was cracked up to be.
But, it’s only got 135,000 miles on it. That’s low mileage for a 1995–after all, it’s 13 years old!
The engine doesn’t appear to be in that bad a shape. There are a few minor oil leaks, but that’s about it. Oh, and the check engine light is on.
And there are those fancy factory leather seats.
We’ve taken possession of our newest project car. It’s a 1995 Plymouth Neon Sport Coupe in that particularly awesome factory color of Nitro Yellow Green (or NYG for the NeonNerds out there). The Neon has 135,000 miles on the ticker and it runs just fine, despite the fact that the purchase price was just one Benjamin. That’s right, $100.
A hundred bucks won’t buy you much these days, but it did buy us a car that drove down here to Florida from Maryland just fine. It used about a half-quart of oil and it’s got some paint issues, but otherwise, this Neon is a nice, solid car that we just had to save from the crusher (literally).
This particular Sport Coupe is loaded with every option that Plymouth offered, including an automatic transmission, leather interior and cruise control. Our plan is to convert it to a manual transmission and take it to the track, whether that’s the dirt track of a rallycross or the pavement of an autocross or track day.
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