Good Project car between $5K & $15K?

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Joey D
Neon ACR's are not as good as many of the other mentioned vehicles.
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No, but for a domestic car it is essentially as competitive as it got.

Joey D
Plus I've never seen, and my roommate Chris agrees, a car that breaks down so much.
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Never said it didn't. Dad currently has a 2002 Neon R/T engine in his, and it is his third engine.
 
The smaller American econoboxes weren't particularly good at the time, but they weren't horrible either. The old Quad-4 cars come to mind with some pretty good performance (Beretta GTU anyone?), and the later Saturn S Quad-Cam coupes were quite fast as well. Clearly it was the Japanese's game in the '90s, and you could easily argue a case for Volkswagen and Audi as well.

Sure, I'm biased, but I still say the MKIII Jetta/Golf was one of the best cars of the era for the price...
 
I guess I didn't consider it to be that big since the Cavalier of the time was quite large as well. It isn't much bigger (if even at all) than my Jetta. Then again, the Jetta has always been big for its class...
 
Joey D
After talking with him today, he suggests a Miata for an autocross car, but also likes the idea you are looking for BMW's.

Also McLaren are you thinking of joining the SCCA or are you just going to start with local club sponsored events?
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The Miata has been a solid choice so far. Lots for sale, so I easily have enough time to find one to my liking.

I'm thinking of just doing track days to begin with. I'd love to have a car up and prepped for the 2008 track day after the 2008 ICF show, but if I can get a car with some decent performance mods by Summer '08, I'll take it to the Concorso.
After that though is when I'll see where I'm at, and if I should take part in a SCCA event.
 
Joey D
Neon ACR's are not as good as many of the other mentioned vehicles. My roommate autocrosses a 1st generation ACR, I've posted pictures of it on the site before. He personally dislikes it, his previous track car was a 1993 Civic 3 door which pretty much walked all over the Neon. ACR's I'm sure are good at some forms of racing, but they are not as good as other vehicles mentioned when it comes to autocross.

Plus I've never seen, and my roommate Chris agrees, a car that breaks down so much. Yes it is a track car so we both expect it to break down, but not as often as it does. It seems like he would go race it every Sunday and I would have to go tow his ass home or run him up some parts.
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Not meaning to get OT or anything, but I've gotta reply to this.

There's a guy that's part of our local motorsports club that autox's his ACR. Not sure of the year, I think it was a 1997. He beats the living snot out of it (Regularly bouncing off the limiter, for example) on the track, and rallies it occasionally. He's never complained about reliability or breaking parts. Furthermore, he's fairly competitive in his class.
It certainly varies car-to-car, I guess.

ACR's will be hard pressed to be as good as some of the Japanese rivals, but considering what you get and the price that you're likely to get it at, I think it deserves a little bit more credit than you're giving it.
 
I didn't say it was a bad car, I said other cars in this thread are better. I was just sharing an experience of someone who actually owns and races one.
 
Joey D
Neon ACR's are not as good as many of the other mentioned vehicles. My roommate autocrosses a 1st generation ACR, I've posted pictures of it on the site before. He personally dislikes it, his previous track car was a 1993 Civic 3 door which pretty much walked all over the Neon. ACR's I'm sure are good at some forms of racing, but they are not as good as other vehicles mentioned when it comes to autocross.

Plus I've never seen, and my roommate Chris agrees, a car that breaks down so much. Yes it is a track car so we both expect it to break down, but not as often as it does. It seems like he would go race it every Sunday and I would have to go tow his ass home or run him up some parts.

After talking with him today, he suggests a Miata for an autocross car, but also likes the idea you are looking for BMW's.

Also McLaren are you thinking of joining the SCCA or are you just going to start with local club sponsored events?
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Didn't Duke used to run a Neon ACR?
 
I don't know, maybe my roommate has a poorly built one or something. But like I said, they aren't awful cars for racing, there are just better ones that are mentioned in this thread that he probably should get over an ACR Neon.
 
*McLaren*
BTW, are the Vader seats the ones with the /// logo on them?
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No, the Vader seats have the M tricolor stripes on the seat back. They have the side wings integrated into the headrest, which are shaped somewhat like a Dark Lord of the Sith's helmet.

The sedans have M stripes too, but other than the stripes, the seat is the same as a regular E36 ZSP seat.

The M logo in the head rest didn't happen until the E46 M3. If I recall correctly, the E39 M5 was the first M car to have it.


M
 
///M-Spec
No, the Vader seats have the M tricolor stripes on the seat back. They have the side wings integrated into the headrest, which are shaped somewhat like a Dark Lord of the Sith's helmet.

The sedans have M stripes too, but other than the stripes, the seat is the same as a regular E36 ZSP seat.

The M logo in the head rest didn't happen until the E46 M3. If I recall correctly, the E39 M5 was the first M car to have it.


M
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The stripes was what I meant, but I appreciate the extra info anyways, as you probably know already. :)
 
Slicks
He's never complained about reliability or breaking parts. Furthermore, he's fairly competitive in his class.
It certainly varies car-to-car, I guess.
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As a person who has had a Neon in the family for 11 years, I will say that that is certainly far from the norm. Stock, a Neon ACR will wipe the floor with any Japanese car of similar vintage. However, it will probably break too.
 
Do you think an ACR would beat an Integra Type-R? Just curious... I can't find any performance specs on older ACR's. 0-60 for a Type-R is around 6-7 seconds.
 
///M-Spec
No, the Vader seats have the M tricolor stripes on the seat back. They have the side wings integrated into the headrest, which are shaped somewhat like a Dark Lord of the Sith's helmet.

The sedans have M stripes too, but other than the stripes, the seat is the same as a regular E36 ZSP seat.

The M logo in the head rest didn't happen until the E46 M3. If I recall correctly, the E39 M5 was the first M car to have it.


M
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^ So what's the story with the one on the left? Reupholstered or did someone find a non-branded OEM Recaro seat?


M
 
Nissan 240SX, Nissan 350Z, Honda S2000, Ford Focus, Mitsubishi Eclipse, Mitsubishi Lancer, or Mazda Miata. If you look hard enough you can find some real good deals on some of these cars. My cousin bought a '04 Honda S2000 with 42,000 miles on it for $10,000. I had a couple things done to it like intake, wheels, exhaust etc.
 

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