With Taylor and I deciding to do the 2023 Runoffs, I needed a car. The search was narrowed to FWD but
not HP.
While at Windsor Customs, Chris told me about a Neon for sale a few miles away. A quick phone call and drive and I’m looking at a 2002 Dodge Neon that started its life in Showroom but progressed to STL. I gave it the once over. Jeff Liller gave me a great deal as we are repeat family customers. I was headed to Summit in the Mazda2 to go a Time Trails but made arraignment to stop Sunday to get the wife’s approval. The following Wednesday the whole team went and brought the Neon home.
A few things to make it mine like number change, fluids, etc., and off to the July MARRS we went. It was a great weekend and I realized how much I missed road racing and how rusty my skills had gotten.
Typical HART luck for our next outing at NJMP. Old tires and old bearings kept us from having a perfect
weekend. Bringing an old car back to life struck once again at VRG’s TurkeyBowl as the power steering rack decided to vent thru a seal.
Over the winter, we have replaced the rack and tie rods, started some weight reduction, and replaced the hand-help fire bottle with a system. We’ve also sorted and set up a spare parts program to keep brakes, spindles, and tires under the car.
We have big plans to continue the upgrade to FP but don’t want to make the car unreliable with a compressed schedule. Some of the projects include wiring in a start button and removing the key, glass swapping to Lexan in the rear, lots of metal removal in the doors and truck, battery relocation and light removal.
Come see us at Summit, VIR, and PittRace majors. - Steve
