5/01 - 14" R/T Alloys and Kumho V700 Victoracers - I used this combination of alloys and tires helped me two 1st Place victories for the 2001 SCCA Solo II Series. They supply the cornering capability to run through corners as if the car were riding on rails.
5/02 - 15" Borbet Type S Alloys w/ Kumho V700 Victoracer Tires - I have decided to use the 15's I use to use on the street because they are much lighter then the two sets of 14's that are currently on the two Neon's and with 15's I get a larger selection and greater availability of racing tires. Other then the fact that they are 15's the tires should help me get traction when I am boosting around a racetrack.
6/02 - BOOST - The car started making boost June 2, 2002. It runs 11 psi of boost with the fuel system at max pressure and the swing valve adjusted to maximum. No dyno runs yet but I did manage to beat a 2000+ Mustang GT from a 30 punch and at 60mph when I lifted off the throttle I noticed that the Mustang was at least 1-1/2 car lengths behind me. I will be dynoing the car soon and I will be drag racing the car in a week.
BOOST + Autocrossing = One messed up combination. I know how to autocross but for some reason Autocrossing this car is like drag racing between the turns on the course. The boost came up so fast and so violent that I would over shoot my braking points and turn in points and I would have to lock up the brakes just to stay on course and avoid the cones. All of my runs were very rough looking due to the fact that I had to think much faster, brake sooner, and modulate my brakes and gas pedal much better then I did in the runs this past weekend since I am still learning how to race with a more powerful motor in the same weight of vehicle.
This past weekend I took the 2.4L Turbo ACR out for its first real test weekend. I crashed the Impala event, which I got to drive the Road Course, Autocross, and Drag race at the Gateway International Raceway facility in Madison, Illinois.
Road course Results - 81.7 sec. (120mph on the front straight away)
I was beat by a guy that won the road course event 2 years ago at I2K and I tied with an Impala that looked just like a Purple Corvette Indianapolis 500 pace car w/ yellow alloys, cage, graphics, more money invested in his car then me, etc... So basically I beat all of the 100 other cars that raced that day.
Autocross Results - 23.2 sec.
I got the fastest time of the day and I beat the best Impala autocrosses in the group and Viper R/T-10 who both were .1 of a second behind me. After several more runs on the course the Viper finally beat me but for the 3 runs he took I actually had the fastest car on the course.
Drag racing Results -
Well, the oil return line from the turbo came loose some time between Saturday and Sunday which caused the car to loose 1 quart of oil. I spent the morning working on it and missed all of the morning test and tune session. After lunch I got it fixed well enough to make a pass in a bracket race against a V6 RS Camaro. I had never
drag raced the Neon before with a turbo so I had nothing to go on to dial it in so I took our projected number of a 13.5 and went with it. Here is what it looked like on the time slip:
Dial: 13.5
R/T: .637
60': 2.672
330: 6.513
1/8: 0.000
MPH: 0.000
1000: 12.219
1/4: 14.449
MPH: 100.35
I blew the Caravan intake hose apart on the highway going to N2K2, at the Blackhawk Farms road race event, going to see the previous owner, driving the car with the previous owner as a passenger, and leaving N2K2.
The car over heated several times during the entire event, which was probably due to the fact that I had a crappy radiator cap and I was missing the plastic piece that acts as an air grabber for the air traveling under the car to divert it to the radiator.
Drag racing Results -
I was very pleased with the results that I got at N2K2 at GLD. This was the first time I actually got to practice brake torquing the car while giving it about 4 - 6 psi instead of the whole 11psi and it was the first time that I actually got into the 13's. Here is my best 1/4 mile time that I squeaked out on my Bridgestone Potenza RE950's:
R/T: .796
60': 2.244
330: 5.908
1/8: 8.846
MPH: 84.12
1000: 11.374
1/4: 13.542
MPH: 104.28
Road course Results - 93.418 seconds
I pretty much beat everyone that raced that day because the next closest car was like 2.471 seconds behind my fastest lap which was my last lap and most thorough test of the car's handling and my own driving ability. To bad no one was standing at turn 3, which was a decreasing radius turn, to watch me fly through it almost sideways with the back tires in the gravel (rally style) and front tires smoking my Kumho's.
8/02 - NOPI / NDRA / Fast and the Furious Drag racing Series / K&N Gateway Drag Wars
Dennis's Dad Loaned me his 15" American Racing Wheels with the M/T Drag slicks and this is my fastest pass of the day, which was the final round in BR14 class. As you can obviously tell I red lighted and lost the race but I figured I would still see if I could go faster then my previously fastest run which was a 13.2 @ 104mph.
Dial - 13.00
R/T - .287
60' - 2.006
330 - 5.552
1/8 - 8.460
MPH - 85.32
1000 - 10.981
1/4 - 13.137
MPH - 104.26
9/02 - Monster Mopar Weekend
It was hot and humid and the car ran like crap because of it but still managed to eek out a 13.2 @ 102mph. I really impressed a lot of the older Mopar muscle car guys with a Neon that was running faster then some of their beloved V8 muscle cars.