2001/2003 neon race car builds

a23dranger · Post by **a23dranger** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 10:59 am

i also have a 26mm pt gt front bar vs that 24 pt/srt you have there.. and for rear sway bar srt and regular neons have 17mm. rt/acr cars had 19mm

Turbo2300 · Post by **Turbo2300** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 11:15 am

Haha the rear sway bar is the size of my pinky, what a waste lol

a23dranger · Post by **a23dranger** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 1:30 pm

yeah the srt and stock neon rear bars are so tiny. the r/t one is least a tad bigger at 19mm. ill have one 19mm rear bar to sell off soon. im putting a hotchkis bar on my brothers car to go with his 26mm front bar

Turbo2300 · Post by **Turbo2300** » Sun Mar 24, 2013 12:22 am

Ok big update. It's about 98% done. Missed first practice today because it was freezing as shit and I didn't do a toe adjustment or finish the rear firewall yet, and I gotta finish the screen over the Windsheild. Anyways here's my update

Had to buy a new fuel cell. The one Mott gave me I must have dropped or something because I filled it and it seeped out of a hole in the front. Well I had to vent the tank anyway so I took a shot of the pickup. It's the same cell so my mounts line up and everything.

Got a new front bumper too, $37 from keystone

Prepping for its temporary paint job, a few weeks in we will give it it's nice paint. Don't want to have to touch up the nice stuff from other new drivers

Custom square side exhaust

During..

After

And I painted the wheels just to spice up the black

And the one car I didn't want to have to race was a mid 90s Honda prelude. Well guess what is in my class...

Sxteve · Post by **Sxteve** » Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:37 pm

The suspence is killing me!

Turbo2300 · Post by **Turbo2300** » Sun Mar 24, 2013 8:53 pm

Currently on the scales right now. It weighs 2,420 with 2 gallons of fuel and me in it. The left front weighs 894 And the right rear weighs 375, so we are trying to figure out how to get more rear weight on it. It has 54% left side weight and the rear is damn near 50/50 left to right. Gonna try and cut some of my extra springs and get the back lower to throw more weight over the rear

Boosted22sxt · Post by **Boosted22sxt** » Sun Mar 24, 2013 9:06 pm

Looks mean as hell... make sure you have some one in your crew take video of you on the track.... I'd like to hear the exhaust..

Sxteve · Post by **Sxteve** » Sun Mar 24, 2013 9:27 pm

hell. i'd like to see video!

Turbo2300 · Post by **Turbo2300** » Sun Mar 24, 2013 11:45 pm

You guys will see video, I'm going to the next practice and I will have two gopro cameras on the car. Ill make sure you can hear it, it sounds rediculous lol

Turbo2300 · Post by **Turbo2300** » Tue Mar 26, 2013 12:00 am

Well, out of nowhere this engine seems to have gained a knock. It sounds like a rod but I haven't let it gain temp long enough to see if it goes away as if it were cold motor piston slap.

In the event this engine has to come out, I may be on the hunt for some magnum parts. Someone messaged me about a magnum cam they had laying around but I accidentally deleted it and I forget who it was. Any help from you guys is appreciated as my Internet browsing doesn't go fast- I don't have a computer so I had to browse on this tiny iphone screen lol

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Tue Mar 26, 2013 12:06 pm

Well that sucks

I have a 2002 Magnum cam with about 110K on it. The lobes have very little wear, but the cam gear alignment dowel pin will need to be extracted and replaced (it is snapped off flush).

From what I hear it's an easy fix, I just haven't messed with it. $30 shipped and it is yours.

Turbo2300 · Post by **Turbo2300** » Tue Mar 26, 2013 2:55 pm

Is it possible to take my dowel out and put it in that cam?

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 12:07 pm

The pins are the same, so as long as you are able to remove it without boogering it up too badly.

Boosted22sxt · Post by **Boosted22sxt** » Wed Mar 27, 2013 2:50 pm

They are not easy at all to remove... I recently sent my crane 14 to crane it cost me 76 bux to have mine repaired... there is a machine shop 5 minutes from me.... his bits couldn't even touch it.

Turbo2300 · Post by **Turbo2300** » Sun Mar 31, 2013 10:36 pm

Well, here she goes

Crappy pics but I zoomed in on my girlfriends videos haha

BlackRoseRacing · Post by **BlackRoseRacing** » Mon Apr 01, 2013 5:53 am

I skimmed to the end, but what does the rules state about engine mods?
FYI:
DOHC pistons in a SOHC raise the compression
R/T head stock out flows a DOHC stock(just grind off the part number and RT badge)
01 R/T cam is the hottest OEM cam although a Crane 14 can also idle like stock so unless they run a compression test through tech, non the wiser...
360deg oiling on the bottom end will let the engine survive high rpm revs longer than stock
RT stock header
Plastic intake is good for low rpms while a butterfly gutted RT intake is good for top end
Gatorback racing belt for the timing wont throw a check engine light at high rpms
PCM, AFX of course
Have fun otherwise

PS - This to me is not "Cheating" since you are using replacement OEM parts to fix the motor so it runs at its peak performance

a23dranger · Post by **a23dranger** » Mon Apr 01, 2013 3:18 pm

brr me and him have already been talking about all that already. sold him a mag header few weeks ago..

as for pcm a kevin syke'd ecu best bet right now..

ill be doing one next year to run in the class after they sorta out any rule issues, how bad they tech things and i see what kind of competition there will be..

Turbo2300 · Post by **Turbo2300** » Mon Apr 01, 2013 4:14 pm

All in all, I was totally blown away. I thought this thing was gonna be tight and push or it was going to want to snap around when I lifted. It did neither. It was so sure footed I intentionally tested the waters by ripping the wheel hard from the top line to the bottom and start off at the bottom and drift up and catch it before it gets out of the groove and it did exactly what I asked for, every bit of steering input was happily greeted with what I wanted. No funny business at all!

For the first few laps.....

A few laps in I noticed the tires were starting to chirp on entry, and I attributed it to me pushing the car harder till I lifted. Only after I pulled off the track and talked to Rachel's dad who was watching on the fence, did I notice what was wrong. It was chirping because I had to put more effort into the wheel than I did the few laps before. As soon as we looked at the front wheels we knew why. We have the left front cambered out, and the right front cambered in. When I got back to the pits, both tires are cambered in! Turns out the way we gained camber was put a smaller bolt in the top hole of the knuckle to strut and leaned the knuckle in or out according to side, and the left front (oddly not the right being it has the hardest job) is walking in. In a control arm/coil spring car the wont make a huge difference- in a strut/lower arm configuration, when the top of the left front cambers in, it forces over a quarter inch of toe in! So I needed more steering input to counter the left fronts toe in, thus making the tires chirp harder. But it never pushed even in the toe in condition.

packfan88 · Post by **packfan88** » Tue Apr 09, 2013 2:56 pm

great thread.

looks like fun driving tha thing. like a large gokart!

Turbo2300 · Post by **Turbo2300** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 1:10 am

Yeah it's alright. I made Sundays practice, and I was really disappointed. I fixed the issue with the left fronts camber, and now I got to push it hard enough to make the right rear rub and the right front camber out now!

Look how bad this got..

Mind you, it started like this..

It flexed out so bad, it was running on the side wall..

It was so bad, the damn lead tech official came over to my friend (and I later went and clarified with him personally) and told me I need more camber, and after explaining that I can't because it's maxed out. He told me to make it work however I can, and asking what exactly he will limit me on, and we settled on them allowing me to make my own lower control arm to add to my camber.

By comparison, this is the street stock class camber

It was a slaughter. I met the other kid running that day in my class, turns out he's 13 and they had to teach him how to drive stick to run the race car. Ok, that's fine. So I wanted to compare my car to the only competition there. I lined up behind him in practice, and in 2-3 laps he had half a lap lead on me. I think, how the hell can that be? It's a 13yr old in a 88/89 Honda prelude. Oh wait, then I learn, huh, that car was last years pro 4 fwd champion, and they sold it. At some point it was turned back to "stock" Apparently. Well, I let the track know that guy might think he has a stock motor Honda but there's no way in hell it's stock. They tell me don't worry once mine handles better ill be able to keep up. Well, sorry buddy, I was flat out to the floor on the start and be WALKED me. So, ill keep my mouth shut till my car handles perfect and he shows it's not stock. I'm not pointing fingers at him, he may not know what he has. Time will tell

smallblockfreak · Post by **smallblockfreak** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 7:21 am

That's a great example of why I quit racing. It's no longer about skill it's about reading between lines on the rule book and cheating without being caught. If your not cheating your not winning.

Turbo2300 · Post by **Turbo2300** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 9:18 am

smallblockfreak wrote:That's a great example of why I quit racing. It's no longer about skill it's about reading between lines on the rule book and cheating without being caught. If your not cheating your not winning.

Normally you are right. But the track guys told me to fix it, it's not me tryin to hide it lol

INVUJerry · Post by **INVUJerry** » Wed Apr 10, 2013 5:12 pm

Be careful, if you push too much camber you'll start tearing up the axles.

Turbo2300 · Post by **Turbo2300** » Sat Apr 13, 2013 8:47 am

Well I have been awaiting this day patiently.

It's race day, bitches

Turbo2300 · Post by **Turbo2300** » Sun Apr 21, 2013 9:08 pm

Ok two weeks of racing in the books, and so far it's been rough but good.

Week one.

We are the front four, the rear ones are pro4 pintos

Heyyyyooooooooo

Week two......

More axle problems but we got it going again

Annnnnnd it wasn't pretty long

Ended up finishing 2nd later in the feature. Ended up bending two wheels and wrecking the front bumper last night. Still not sure exactly what in the hell he was thinking. Inexperienced 14 year olds making banzai runs to the inside and forgetting to a. Lift and b. turn. He ended up going to the hospital supposedly for a broken leg and they cut the doors off the car to get him out. He hit the wall head on so hard it broke the 2ft thick concrete wall. Never lifted also. His car is junk, it's at least 6" shorter than when it went in.

Danteneon · Post by **Danteneon** » Mon Apr 22, 2013 8:22 am

Wow, got to love running with newbies. Gratz on the win though!

Turbo2300 · Post by **Turbo2300** » Wed Apr 24, 2013 11:09 am

Thanks. Yeah I'm not sure what he was thinking. His sister messaged me on Facebook (they are kinda VERY well known here in the valley) and said he was still in the hospital but he was sorry for wrecking my car. He ended up leaving the hospital Monday night with his shin broken in two spots and needed surgery to fix it. His car is also pretty much junk from what I saw of it too. So he will probably be out of everything except his bed for a bunch of weeks apparently. Sucks for him as fellow racers we all feel for one another.

But I let the win slip from me this past weekend, now I'm out for it this weekend.

Turbo2300 · Post by **Turbo2300** » Tue Oct 15, 2013 2:09 am

Damn, it's been a long, LONG summer. I've learned an absolute ton of information, made friends, and made quite a few enemies. I'll try my best to catch you guys up, as I seen it's been some time since I have filled you guys in.

Since I left you guys, the car has been swapped to a 5 speed and that's really the only mod I have done to it all year. It's spent up until October 5th of this year running 6600-6700rpm in 2nd. Set multiple track records week after week, and till the last race, got it down to a 12.054 @ 74.xx mph. I have averaged 1.5 gallons of 93 a week through it too haha.

Couldn't get enough camber in the right front, and took matters into our own hands.

2" extended control arm, and custom black water pipe 2" longer axle. Also reusing stock knuckle bolts (not smaller size for more camber)

We found ourselves in victory lane a couple of times this year too!!

Even had to hustle in between heat race and feature to change a steering rack

But I learned an extremely hard lesson one particular night, had a quarter track lead on the field, and unfortunately had a minor hub bearing failure

I thought at this point, that this would be the turning point in my season. That this car was done, and my season was over. At this point we were maybe 3/4 of the way through the season. Less than 15 points separated me from the rest of the field, and I had already talked myself into scrapping it and building next seasons car.

After the right rear wheel came off, it spun around backwards and I hit the front stretch wall wide open with the left front. At that point I'm averaging 74mph, and all I remember is spinning like I was pushed, I remember the wall, and I remember sitting in victory lane complaining I can't breathe. I walked to the ambulance and had a concussion. I don't remember the many many fellow racers that stopped by and asked if I was alright. I woke up Sunday morning around 10-10:30 and my girlfriends dad and my buddy had the front end of the neon stripped and port-powered the frame rails back the 10" they both moved to the right. I don't even remember parts of that day, I was still forgetful and had a HUGE headache. In 12 hours, we (they, I only was allowed to touch minor hand tools for fear I would hurt myself. Again, I don't remember most of this day either, so it's probably good I didn't) had the car drive onto the trailer to go home.

Anyway, back to the good parts of the season.

One week after the (what I thought) was a devastating wreck, I landed myself back where I belong, in victory lane- but this week NOT blacking out and sitting in the checkers!!

Turbo2300 · Post by **Turbo2300** » Tue Oct 15, 2013 2:34 am

And my season continued without a hitch!

In fact-- there are so many fans of the neon, I was invited to a make a wish foundation car show, and people absolutely loved it

Which leads me to the best announcement of all........

I am the 2013 points champion for the hobby stock fwd 4cyl class. First year for this class. In the end I didn't miss a single race, I won a total of 9 times, many many 2nd places, and even got the most popular driver award for my class- and I won that by a landslide. I was also the only neon in the field the entire year, and except for an eclipse and an escort, the field is basically Hondas. The fans downright love the neon, and the fellow racers absolutely dread the neon. In fact, there's been so many complaints from other drivers that my car is "illegal" they started teching our class as well. Top 3 drivers every week get teched. I set so many records and broke so many hearts, that even when I finished 7th in the 2nd last race (was taken out by the escort) I was teched- from 7th place! I was also the only one teched weekly that passed tech weekly. All of the complainers either had illegal parts, or their cars can't run long enough to finish a race.

All of our hard work, all of those long hours, all of the time spent in practices playing with setups paid off in the end, and I'm damn proud of what this little junk in the weeds neon has become.

NeonOn19s · Post by **NeonOn19s** » Tue Oct 15, 2013 3:47 pm

congrats bud!!! that is awesome!!