Before I get into the aspects of it -- I bought my first car a couple months ago; A dodge neon. I passed up all other cars and choose this one because well, someone already did work on the engine, its a 1998 with 95k miles for $1,500. Headman headers, MSD ignition and a couple other things I can't remember off the top of my head. The flaws with the car were; Horribly done body lip to the bumper which was misaligned. It was some mugen look-alike lip that was screwed right onto the bumper and the bumper itself is sagging down a bit. A little messy inside but nothing a vacuum and soapy water won't clean up. Drives awesome.

Onto my plan;

I've been thinking of improvements and fixes I could do. I noticed the gasket needs changed since it's bleeding oil. I definately need to replace the timing chain, change the oil and one of the wheels screw thingies was over-torqued which resulted in the bolt being broke off so I might want to replace all the wheel thingies, they're a tad rusty too. (I didnt break off the thread thing you bolt the wheels rims to, it was like that. It had cheap 'ricer' stick on chrome hubcaps which kept flying off on the road so i threw em away.) I plan to get the break pads replaced too. I got a couple ideas from a site -

17x7 inch aluminum rims to lighten up the car. According to the article they're about 17 lbs each equiped with Bridgestone potenza s-03. The article says the tires are pretty much the best ones that have a mix of grip and tread.

Koni sport adjustable shocks.
Coil over spring conversion kit from ground control
Camber plates (the article said it needed them for serious suspension tuning)
Eibach front and rear anti-roll bars
Replace the energy suspension bushing with stiffer/harder bushing.
Strut tower braces
http://www.sportcompactcarweb.com/pr...t_1/index.html Here's the article

After all that I was thinking about some serious weight reduction without making the intieror resemble optimus prime's guts.

I assume carborn fiber, almost always is lighter than stock side skirts/hood/panels/trunk so in this aspect I'd replace those.
I like power steering so it's a toss-up whether I'd rip that or not. I never drove a car without PS so I don't know how hard it is to turn at slow speeds without PS. The AC can go, I can downsize the stereo system with an ipod. I hear the carpet of neons are especially heavy -- about 30 pounds off total. Backseats can go too, theres probably places I can trim excess metal although I'm worried about weakening the frame so I thought why take off a lot here and there and weld steel tubes to the chassis to strengthen but then it'd look a little odd. I also get this idea of altering the neons body. Like completely remove the aspect of it even having a trunk and give it more of a porsche backside (I get the feeling some purists are going to kill me for considering this) another idea was to impliment a plexiglass sunroof to shave a couple more pounds off and perhaps replace the dash with a lighter compound and different trim. About the sunroof, i'd have to make it tinted to avoid frying my head and the intieror. I also want to like make this ram-air on the hood and put pins on it, kinda worried about water getting into my CAI though.

Now moving onto the engine. What's the point of a good looking car if your grandma can outrun it on a quarter mile in a kia compact? I really have no idea where to really begin, but I do want to put an intercooler infront of the engine to keep it runnin icy. I mean, the guy already had added the mods that I planned to put on a car if I bought it, the most basic ones. I'm here to learn, so... educate me please ?

Edit; the idea of cutting the trunk away is starting to seem like it'd become an ugly backside for a car.. at least in paintshop. It's really hard to tell without physically seeing it. I've tried to find plastic model kits of dodge neons to screw around with and alter their body but it seems nobody sells them because its a generic compact car, not a GT40... some people are so biased... -sigh-

Edit2; forgot to mention the back door's intieror panels, can replace em with thin light aluminum and, and take off the side rub strips. They're about 5-6 pounds off total right? It'd be really great if I could get 400-600 pounds off my neon for more power and better gas mileage.

 

*17" rims will slow down acceleration, no matter how light they are. 15's is the biggest for speed and acceleration.
*Strut bars don't do much for the car, but do look nice.
*You don't need an intercooler unless you have a turbo.
*Not having P/S isn't bad at all in a neon. It's very easy to drive and you do get a better feel for the road.
*See the weight reduction thread for ideas and pros/cons.

 

your young arn't you

and das your soooo stupid 17' rims will speed you up and a ic is a very needed part in a n/a car......how dare you dis strut bars too with the strut bar i got now i can drift and take corners at speeds of 120mphi was j/k

btwthey don't make cf sideskirts theres not even stock sideskirts

 

By skirt I'm referring to the side panels just behind the bumper. I came across plenty of carbon fiber sets for those panels. I guess I meant to say fenders... Mind you I'm still learning and I thought an intercooler would be a good idea for power gains cause of cool air in the engine. CAI's are right between the engine and firewall which is like a major heat zone, also why I thought of venting the hood -- but thats where the water issues came in.....rain and all.

 

the intakes that fit between the engine and the firewall are warm air intakes not cold air intakes
with the intakes you are talking about you don't have to worry about water at all since the intake is located where the stock air box is

for the cold air intakes they fit under the battery next to the tranny
with those you will only have to really worry about big puddles
people on the forum have stated that they have driven through storms and have not had any problems

so it's up to you man!

 

estneon, did you really have to ask if he was young? he said "wheel screw thingys"!!!

 

I laughed out loud pretty hard a couple times at your post jack, dude ,uh I'm like.... 24. I just never got into cars and always rode a bike around. At the time it exluded me... but I actually know what theyre called.... lug nuts I think..... It just... didn't dawn on me..... major blonde moment and sleep deprivation.

 

too funny man, that made me laugh so hard!