well, the Rolla was to much for us to handle. we were given the opportunity to pick up a very nice, clean and potentially very competitve car. this offer couldnt be passed up.

we picked up this 1995 Dodge Neon ACR Coupe DOHC M/T about 3 1/2 weeks ago from a fellow SCCA member. only been owned and raced within the SCCA and we'll make sure it continues that way. we picked it up for $1500, has 128k miles on it.

the night we picked it up




had a some unfortunate events happen. someone broke into the car about 2 1/2 weeks ago, broke the passenger side window and stole the wheels with R-Compounds on them and cut out the lightweight battery that wasnt even ours(previous owner wanted it back). picked up a window from a junk yard and got another battery and relocated it to the trunk.

since i had the car in the garage because of the broken window, i decided to really get this project started.

degreased the engine/trans a little bit. took out the A/C compressor and condensor. installed the fancy "carbon fiber" strut bar which was given to us with the car. we kinda custom made a new intake to replace the one that's seen in the picture below. the new intake routes right into the big hole next to the throttle body, about as close to a cold air intake we'll get without worry when plowing thru some "little" puddles


if u didnt notice, theres no battery in the above picture. when the theives stole the battery, they cut the wires insted of unbolting the battery...soo we were going to have to buy new wires and this gave us the opportunity to move the battery to the trunk. still need to get a battery box and figure out how to bolt it down securely. also bolted up the other fancy "carbon fiber" strut bar.


heres what took up most of my time last week. we were given a brand new clutch/flywheel kit along with the car. nothing special, just OE replacement flywheel with Exedy OE clutch/pressure plate. as u can see in the pictures, the old clutch def was in need of replacing




aaand today we got around to squeezing the 4 point Autopower roll bar, that was given to us with the car, in




we were also given some Energy Suspension bushings with the car so i decided to put some stuff on today.


i just did the front sway bar bushings and endlinks and the rear sway bar bushings and endlink bushings.




stock ones were a bit worn but not horrible. though a couple of the metal collars were seized to the bolts and on a couple of the bushings the outter edge was tearing off.



this week we'll probably custom fab up some covers for the center console and dash to protect cables/wires and whatnot. also need to go out and get a battery box and bolt that down securely.

theres an AutoX event this saturday we hope to run the car at. at the event we'll do a little test with the beefy rear swaybar that was given to us with the car. we'll do 3 runs with the stock rear swaybar and then put the larger rear sway for the last 3 runs and see how it handles.

we hope to have the Neon ready for the last WDCR RallyX event on October 12th(3 weeks away). car needs new brakes, tires, passenger seat, and a few other small things then we'll be good to go. were hella excited

 

I enjoy seeing builds like these. Thanks for sharing!! Keep it up!! And as always, more pics or ban!!

 

well we got the Neon out to its first AutoX with us behind the wheel. last night we were doing some last minute preperations. we got a new Taylor sealed battery box mounted in the trunk along with a new, smaller battery. had to put a new alternator belt on since the old one snapped. my co-driver couldn't stand driving around with no music playing so he picked up a small AM/FM handheld radio and zip-tied it to the roll bar. it works great.

todays event was pretty fun. little crazy because of some rain but we managed. was raining on and off allll day. some got lucky with a few "dry" runs while others got poured on when running. my co-driver got 5 runs in on the Neon and i got 1 run on it. this was my co-drivers first time in a loooong time really racing a FWD car. did alright, had to remind him the techniques are opposite of RWD a couple times but no biggie. the car had some understeer but if u could slow it down a bit entering the turn, u can really pull out of the turn quick. i noticed this car really puts down the tq when exiting which is perfect. in dry conditions it should be much better.

anyways here some pics and vids.

we had to wait a while before our runs...co-driver somehow passed out in that horribly uncomfy seat haha


waiting in grid








my one run in the Neon. listening to that fancy little radio
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...03975475097804

here my co-drivers runs. got vid of his first 3 runs and his last run of the day. i just about died of laughter when i saw the part at about 1:30 lmao
http://video.google.com/videoplay?do...51653610035558

we have 2 weeks to get this car ready for the last RallyX of this year. will be the first RallyX on this car and for us in a FWD car. can't freakin wait!

 

Nice vids and looks like it coming along well.

That part at 1:30 was pretty funny..