Bargain-Priced Sleeper: 690 Horsepower Neon!
Unassuming compact could eat your lunch unless you snap it up first.
The Dodge Neon is a woefully underrated car. Continuing in the footsteps of the K-Car lineup, they were an American-made, affordable compact alternative to Japanese imports. And, just like the K-Car before, there was a surprising amount of horsepower that could be extracted from the turbocharged four-cylinder nestled between the front fenders.
Most of that attention is drawn to the SRT-4 Neon, which is well-known and well-respected in the tuner car world for the reasons listed above. However, the big wing and hood scoop give a bit too much of the game away. Meanwhile, first-gen Neons get limited attention, with the still-potent but normally-aspirated ACR sitting at the top of the heap.
It appears that the builder of this particular Neon, which we found on Craigslist in Albuquerque, New Mexico, wanted to fly under the radar a bit. From the outside, there’s next to nothing that would give this away as a high-horsepower monster. It sits a bit lower than stock, of course, but it’s even riding on stock wheels, albeit spray-painted an eye-searing shade of green.
