In reply to Danny Shields (Forum Supporter) :
Just reminded me of my very first Neon. It was such a stripper that the only way to know it was a Plymouth was by the VIN. Options? Nope, not even a hood badge.
In reply to Danny Shields (Forum Supporter) :
Just reminded me of my very first Neon. It was such a stripper that the only way to know it was a Plymouth was by the VIN. Options? Nope, not even a hood badge.
In reply to Danny Shields (Forum Supporter) :
I forgot that you had three Neons. Plus I know you drove a certain yellow one, too. :)
It’s just amazing to recall the talent attracted to that the Neon program. Anyone who was fast–or wanted to be fast–campaigned a Neon. The support (as in cash) had been never been seen before.
In reply to David S. Wallens :
Speaking of that yellow Neon, I think the red Neon pictured at the top of this story is the same car as the yellow GRM project car from 1996. It went back to Chrysler to be updated, refreshed, and repainted, then was conveniently delivered to Swanson Chrysler-Plymouth in St. Pete. Swanson ran a pioneering "one-price" dealership that had been featured in the Wall Street Journal. Once they caught on to the whole Neon ACR phenomenon , they actually started keeping ACRs in stock, lots of them, at discounted pricing. A bunch of us bought new ACRs from Swanson at bargain prices. I miss those days of cheap factory-built autocross cars!
As a man who LOVES neons, decades of being cheap cars, good race cars and rot have really made them thin on the ground. Also the people who want a nice neon also arnt gonna pay a premium price of a nice one.
Still have fond memories of my neon.
Ozzy said:
Nice and thank you.
red_stapler said:Still have fond memories of my neon.
K1s for the win.
The Neon I still have is this little ceramic gem, a gift from artist, autocrosser, and longtime GRM advertiser Scott Schleh, AKA Mr. Clay Cars:
Professor_Brap (Forum Supporter) said:As a man who LOVES neons, decades of being cheap cars, good race cars and rot have really made them thin on the ground. Also the people who want a nice neon also arnt gonna pay a premium price of a nice one.
This is the problem. I took a beating from the Neon Facebook groups when I listed Car #19 for $10k. For those unaware, I had a mint Celebrity Challenge car with ~9000 miles and full documentation. Race car from day 1 with little in the way of street miles. Car was fully built to ITA specs. I ended up getting fair money for the car, but it took quite a lot of time to find the right buyer. Same goes for Car #18, although that one wasn't in as nice shape so I sold it for what I had into it (all the receipts/invoices were included).
For anyone who made it this far, here are the reasons you don't see Neons any longer:
Really, there's no compelling reason to build a Neon any longer unless you want to be different of have some kind of sentimental connection to the platform. If you look at it from a utility standpoint of building a race car, why go through all of the hassle of sourcing, hoarding, and rebuilding used parts for a dead platform when you can buy a Civic and have everything at your fingertips thanks to 30+ years of strong aftermarket support.
I still have my 98 acr bubble rims with some beat up BFGs. Located in Rochester nh. Make me a fair offer. Been looking for my acr or a similar one on similar or better condition, for a couple years now. Does not look like I will find one. Rims have about 80k on them, and the bags are the first set of replacements.
Prefer not to ship.
My car was starting to rust, and was parked with no dry storage. I did not want it to get toasted by more rust sitting or mice to destroy the mint stock interior, so I sold it, around 2016. I was the original owner.
Edit: I still have the original acr springs, I think they had about 80k when replaced with Mopar high rates.
I will say that is kind of a shame that this style of car is quickly disapearing, even from the used market.
In 10-15 years we're only going to have today's bloated, overly computerized, and hard to find manual vehicles.
The Neon as well as many others in that cheap commuter car of the 90's genre, is among some of the last to get a decently peppy motor and a 5spd manual. A basic car made into an enthusiast model. By the early 2000's, the options shrunk dramatically, and by the 2010s, all but disappeared.
Then again I just found a Fiat 500 Abart for pennies.
I've had a 1998 Plymouth Neon ACR coupe tucked away in a barn for almost a decade, it will be out soon for refurbishing into a summer daily driver (see projects section!). Neons are classics now and have gone full circle, I would go out on a limb and say that a well-kept 1g now qualifies as "cool", and most people will be happy to tell the story of how they used to have one and loved it. I grew up on Neons, so did most of my friends (we still have several ACRs, an R/T, multiple 2.4T swapped coupes and a VQ35 swapped coupe among us). I still see the rare Neon locally, including a mint aquafresh blue sedan, but junkyards are empty, and they never pop up for sale. So many clean examples have fallen victim to circle track racing, and the broken ones get scrapped. They have little value, but it's legitimately shocking how fast parts sell on the FB groups, nothing lasts very long.
Danny Shields (Forum Supporter) said:The Neon I still have is this little ceramic gem, a gift from artist, autocrosser, and longtime GRM advertiser Scott Schleh, AKA Mr. Clay Cars:
That. Rules.
I haven't seen a 1st Gen in YEARS around here. Last one I saw was that periwinkle blue color they made them in, and going down the highway, I saw a big sheet of the paint from the hood fly off. I'm willing to bet that happened a lot to those cars! I had a friend who had a pair of R/Ts that he bought new and later an ACR. They were really cool cars.
2nd Gens are near extinct around here as well. They used to be everywhere. I haven't seen one in a long time. A buddy had a silver 2000 with the automatic when we were in college, and we used to carpool a lot in that or my old '89 Maxima SE. It was kinda quick for what it was! The only ones I see now, in the rare chance that I see one, are clapped out SRT-4's. They all sound like they are seconds from shooting the rods out and have no exhaust, primered body panels, and are on the cheapest Ebay coilovers you can find, but I applaud them for still running after nearly two decades of nonstop abuse.
This picture is over a decade old, but this car is still being autocrossed in Connecticut by a retired school bus driver. I'm not exactly sure, but I think he's now in his 80's. Still chugging along
Ya, parts are next to impossibe. They really wernt fast. Just cheap to build. Sold mine a long time ago, ahd the thing for 10 years. Great little car, miss it dearly. Wife hated it. Pretty sure the guy I sold it too circle tracked it.
My buddy still has a turbo 4 door 95 in his garage. has less than 1k miles on the engine. Dont know when the last time he ran it was. Just a disposable car is all. People treated them as such.
In reply to ddavidv :
Oh S-it. I use to run the hills in Pa. 72 Toyota Corolla # 85 & 86
CanadianCD9A said:I've had a 1998 Plymouth Neon ACR.....
Looks just like mine, except I had back door handles, and it was a dodge. I had a loaded acr, had both options ac and r(radio).
lrrs said:CanadianCD9A said:I've had a 1998 Plymouth Neon ACR.....
Looks just like mine, except I had back door handles, and it was a dodge. I had a loaded acr, had both options ac and r(radio).
Rear defrost was another option on the ACR (imagine that in 2023!). You have to pay extra for that kind of equipment delete in contemporary Porsches, such a bargain by today's standards.
In reply to CanadianCD9A :
Had Rear defrost also.
Paid extra to have the radio removed (part of the Comp package) and then another $600 to get it back.
It was the cassette one, sounded pretty good for a stock radio, Way better than the junk in my 2012 CRV.
No factory cruise, not an option on the ACR.
I'm pretty sure the second they were out of warranty, they had exceeded the manufacturers expected service life.
You guys have me thinking....
Saw this one on the way home today.
In forgot about the Neon RT that's just down the road from me. The house is Mopar Haven. The have a D Series truck, a Laser, new Dart and a Satellite.
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