My thoughts...

crowd00control · Post by **crowd00control** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:47 pm

So, for the longest time (since I started driving my car again in the winter) I've wanted to get rid of my neon and get something luxerious like an audi A4. After a bit of advertising my car, I've pretty much come to the conclusion that I'm not going to get anywhere near enough to get a used 2002 A4 (about $14,000) or something similar.

Since I've come to that conclusion, I've been looking at my car and thinking of ways to improve it. I want to make it comfortable to drive, luxerious, sporty and CLEAN everyday driver again.

With the 18" rims, thin tires, body kit and air ride, the car pretty much rides like shit. I can feel every bump/crack/pebble on the road. (Air ride is supposed to be driven at somewhere close to 0psi; I am forced to drive at 40/40/40/60 psi because of tire/body clearance issues) Most of my friends don't even like to ride with me when I drive my car because it's so damn bumpy. No bueno.

I'm thinking of getting rid of the body kit and going back to some stock bumpers. I don't re-call what happened to my stock bumpers, all I know is that I'll need to find some new ones to replace my kit (plus it will save me the money to have to fix the current body damage) If anyone knows where I can find some stock bumpers, or have some laying around, let me know!

Second on the list is rims. It's time to get rid of the 18" rims and get something smaller and weighing less. 16's will probably work, I might be able to stick some drag tires on them too. I'd be willing to trade my rims for some smaller, light weight rims.

Next on the list to get rid of is the air ride. It adds a lot of excess weight on my car. I've posted it on the for sale section on this site, so hopefully I can get rid of it soon. I'm looking forward to putting all of my performance suspention mods back on and was wondering if there's a better set up than my current one. Before the air ride I had kyb struts and progressive springs, urethane bushings, and a rear sway bar from modern performance. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

There are a ton of other smaller things I'd like to get to enhance the comfortability of the car, but these are the big ones that I'd like to take care of first! Thanks for reading, and thanks for your input!

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:52 pm

i'd say, do everything you just listed.

you're right, having a show car, isn't going to make the thing comfortable to ride in. bumps, road noise, and the fact you'll have to worry about being able to get up inclines or not... yea, not really the best thing.

i'd say do JUST what you said.

(and sell me your air ride.

)

Oh, and the suspension that you have, will make the ride stiff. You want close to OEM comfort, get a set of springs like mine. They're rated with OEM specs.

Ment to look good, not increase handling really.

half_twisted · Post by **half_twisted** » Mon Mar 05, 2007 5:37 pm

most guys here sport the stock r/t body and it looks great.. you might want to look into that or look up some pics of the r/t body.. and smoothest ride with nice rims would be 17s with 215-45-17 its smooth and the tightest fit without rubbing.. thats what im sporting now.. ..post some pics of your car and here out some ideas

OB · Post by OB » Tue Mar 06, 2007 12:20 am

aside from the airbags, theres nothing else about a "show" car that should make the ride uncomfortable. it's actually race cars that ride like shit. well, ride quality is in the eye of the beholder it seems, because I personally enjoy a stiff ride, and am willing to sacrifice some comfort anyday to improve performance.

having said that, try getting rid of the body kit and air ride if you want to go for a more performance oriented ride. keep in mind that if youre gonna keep modify your neon, luxurious is basically outta the picture. The most luxurious riding neon is a stock one.

half_twisted · Post by **half_twisted** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 3:41 pm

or you can get a srt4 wich has a nice interior and exterior with the performance..

crowd00control · Post by **crowd00control** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 3:46 pm

I'm pretty sure my car would eat an srt4 alive in about $1000

A have no problems with a stiff suspention set up, the bouncyness of air ride just kills me though. The luxeriousness I wanted was simple things like automatic windows and locks, and more clean looking interior design?... Lol

half_twisted · Post by **half_twisted** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 5:47 pm

yeah i feel you on the power luxeries.. some guy told me that you can go to the local yard and pull out the power door panel off a 1st gen stratus and it was a direct plug and play thing.. i really havent looked into it but now that i think about it im making a stop this weekend to the yard..

dblsg · Post by **dblsg** » Tue Mar 06, 2007 10:13 pm

me personally, i love my air ride. i was running coilover sleeves prior to the bags and that was a stiff ride. i don't have any gauges so i cant tell you at what psi i usually drive in. if anything, i would just get rid of the kit and go with the r/t, srt, mopar, or avs... being that those sit a little bit higher. that would allow you to bring your psi lower and give you a more cofortable ride.

i've never had 18s... and only rode on my firends accord (with 18s) a couple of times, so i can't really tell you anything on that except for 17s still look good and you can fit more rubber on them. more rubber = more cushion.

crowd00control · Post by **crowd00control** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 1:34 pm

I've made up my mind, I'm going to go with a sleeper look and raise the boost for this summer. Probably back to the stock bumpers, tint the front windows a little bit, get smaller, racier rims with some slicks, go back to my performance suspention and then make the interior of my car look pretty. What other exterior enhancements can be done to make it look more like a really clean sleeper? I'm probably going to keep the carbon fiber trunk and hood on. I'd like to try and hide the intercooler too

koreysxt · Post by **koreysxt** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 1:59 pm

...and this would be why I ignore all comments like:

"drop it"

"Slam it"

"remove moldings"

"buy a hideous kit"

No -- I'm in my upper 30s, and drive it daily.

crowd00control · Post by **crowd00control** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 2:10 pm

koreysxt wrote:...and this would be why I ignore all comments like:

"drop it"

"Slam it"

"remove moldings"

"buy a hideous kit"

No -- I'm in my upper 30s, and drive it daily.

but seriously, wanna buy my kit??

SILVER-ES · Post by **SILVER-ES** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 2:47 pm

crowd00control wrote:I'm pretty sure my car would eat an srt4 alive

Why do you say that?

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 2:52 pm

becuase he has a built 2.0 engine with lots o boost.

SILVER-ES · Post by **SILVER-ES** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 2:54 pm

With a kit, and 18's and air ride = no way in current form.

Without all the above mentioned then maybe.

According to his garage he is putting down 204 hp and 245 ft.lbs. That is stock SRT range. Maybe he could hang with one but I don't know about eating it alive.

crowd00control · Post by **crowd00control** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:07 pm

SILVER-ES wrote:With a kit, and 18's and air ride = no way in current form.

Without all the above mentioned then maybe.

According to his garage he is putting down 204 hp and 245 ft.lbs. That is stock SRT range. Maybe he could hang with one but I don't know about eating it alive.

Give me a month, I promise the numbers will be a little different then what you see. The air ride is going within the next few weeks, smaller rims are going on w/ slicks, and the portfueler is going in.

By kit, do you mean body kit? or turbo kit? I'm going to go out on a limb and assume you're not stupid and say turbo kit.

SILVER-ES · Post by **SILVER-ES** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:13 pm

Actually I was refering to body kit, how does that make me stupid? I was saying that with your BODY kit, 18's, and air ride (your current set up) that you wouldn't take an SRT. Now with what you just mentioned you have planned then yeah, you will be better off.

crowd00control · Post by **crowd00control** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:18 pm

SILVER-ES wrote:Actually I was refering to body kit, how does that make me stupid? I was saying that with your BODY kit, 18's, and air ride (your current set up) that you wouldn't take an SRT. Now with what you just mentioned you have planned then yeah, you will be better off.

Hmmph, my body kit subtracts 30 horsepower!!! But the cool kaminari sticker adds 5!

On a side note, I don't know how a body kit effects this little discussion. Care to explain?

SILVER-ES · Post by **SILVER-ES** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:24 pm

Well in general a bodykit is an antiperformance mod.

But ok fine, without the bodykit being considered we will just factor your 18's, your air ride, and your current power. No way you will "eat an srt alive."

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:26 pm

i don't know about the kaminari's body kit weight.... but i know my BC2 is about half the weight of my stock body parts.

SILVER-ES · Post by **SILVER-ES** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:28 pm

I will admit I forgot for a second that his kit is probably lighter due to it being fiberglass. However, I'm sure that rear bumper creates alot of drag.

Mr Josh Zombie · Post by **Mr Josh Zombie** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:30 pm

true, i just wanted to bring that up that alot of the times, body kits are lighter than stock parts...

altough my razzi was REALLY effing heavy, but that was a lip kit and was made of ABS plastic.... so it's to be expected.

crowd00control · Post by **crowd00control** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:30 pm

SILVER-ES wrote:I will admit I forgot for a second that his kit is probably lighter due to it being fiberglass. However, I'm sure that rear bumper creates alot of drag.

there! I fixed the post for ya

and about that drag... those big ass cracks in my bumper pretty much get rid of it!!

SILVER-ES · Post by **SILVER-ES** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 3:34 pm

Good point about the cracks. It's good to see you have humour about it. I'm actually very curious to see what the car looks like as a sleeper. Should be very clean when you're all done. Good luck with everything and be sure to post progress pics.

dblsg · Post by **dblsg** » Wed Mar 07, 2007 11:17 pm

air ride has been know to help with traction, granite my neon is slow as hell so i really wouldn't know

, but there is some extra weight with the airtank and all... but then he's got some weight redux with the c/f and f/g... hmmmm i don't know, i'm just talking outta my crack

crowd00control · Post by **crowd00control** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 6:56 pm

SILVER-ES wrote:I will admit I forgot for a second that his kit is probably lighter due to it being fiberglass. However, I'm sure that rear bumper creates alot of drag.

you know, i just thought about this, but i'd have to be going pretty damn fast for that drag to even make a difference..

SILVER-ES · Post by **SILVER-ES** » Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:02 pm

Well you would be going pretty damn fast if you are eating srt's alive.