>>14122704
Find out what class you want to compete in and build the car according to said class.

Last I saw Neons weren't really competitive in a specific class unless you went full retard and wanted to throw money away by going Street Modified/SMF which places you against caged gutted CRXs with supercharged K-Series swaps and slicks in the same class.

Late 90's ACR coupe is the only competitive neon in a stock class.

>>14122721
Then what would you recommend for roughly the same price?

>>14122704

Modern Performance has an SRT4 that runs the track very well, but not sure it's really a specific class competitive car. The 90s ACR versions were competitive in SCCA Showroom Stock and other stock classes. But they're really outgunned now in most classes. The only real place I see Neons having success in SCCA is rallycross.

>>14122753
If I wanted to do rallycross wouldn't it be better to buy one of the early 2000s Hyundai accents and buy old wrc parts?

>>14122798

At the rallyX national championship this year a stock Neon was banging on the door of both the higher spec prepared and modified class. That was 90% driver skill. In fact I think the mid level prepared class beat the modified class. Most people aren't running real rally cars. It's autocross on dirt it's not serious so you'd be wasting money building a car with old WRC parts. Either way you'll probably be beat by a new Fiesta since they're very good for rallyX.

>>14122752
Again, do your research and see what class you want to compete in.

The Street Touring Classes are pretty popular for SCCA AutoX:

STR: S2000, Miata, E36 M3
STX: RX8, Integra Type R, FRS/BRZ, 328i E36

Just a example, I honestly have no idea what class you want to run and I can't find a good "list" of cars that do well. My suggestion is to go to a autocross with your shitbox and do research, alternatively try asking Facebook groups for your AutoX region and look at past results from your region. General guideline seems to be at least for mine:

BMW E36 (328i/328is/M3), E46 (M3), Z3M/Z4Ms do really well too
Hondas (usually in SMF or STC, EF Civic/CRX, I know the ITRs can do well in STX and D-Stock, S2000s do well all across)
Mazda (RX-8, RX-7 FB and FD, Miata all gens)
Mini Coopers
FRS/BRZ
09+ WRXs and WRX STis (I see way too many of both, almost as many as Miatas)

>>14122824

For SCCA autoX it's best to look at the top 10 or 20 national champion cars. In most production classes the cars are relatively homogeneous. For road racing just look at the Run Offs results. Obviously you can try to work in an odd ball car, but then you need to plan to be a very good driver and spend way more money for the most part.

>>14122834
Yep, thanks. That's pretty much what I regularly see in my region competing in. Sometimes it feels like if you show up in anything else you just don't have a chance.

>buy 1st gen 2 dr Neon
>throw in turbo PT Cruiser engine
>?????
>profit

Great choice anon!

Either generation is great, but the 2nd might be heavier. Depending in which model you can either have a sohc or dohc, but you can easily swap heads for that. Also you can take out the tarbos out of the plymoth vans that share the engine.

Neons are amazing handling fwd boxes, i miss mine even if it was a autobox. Junkyards will be your best friends. Thing is though, ive been seeing neons coming out of the woodwork lately, and a lot of these things look untouched

>>14122848

Sure. You can sometimes be competitive in a region with an odd ball car. My region is adjacent to where nationals has been held and where the SCCA started so the competition is very strong there are many national level drivers here. If you have a care that could even compete at the national level in some regions you can walk all over guys that just come for fun. You'll be a try hard, but all regions have try hards who take parking lot driving very serious.

>>14122824
I was considering ITA but it looks like the crx and miata dominates those classes. Unfortunately I love in the DC area and for some reason people seem to love to overcharge for cars on craigslist. I'm not buying an old crx for fucking 3 grand, so I need to take alternative routes haha

>>14122916

Racing is expensive. If you can't shell out for a good starting car how do you expect to make it? Just the cage and safety gear you'll need means you'll be $10-15k in including purchase price of a car just to get started and then you have hundreds or thousands for each weekend of racing in wear parts, replacement parts (you will wreck), towing to and from, accommodations. Racing is expensive. Even budget racing like Lemons (not serious enough for my tastes), Chump Car (better but not great) or World Racing League (my favorite in terms of cost/competitiveness/seriousness) cost a lot of money to build a car and run all season.

>>14122966
Yep, my suggestion is to stick to the Street/Street Touring classes.

Pick up something like a pre-owned FRS/BRZ/WRX or used S2000/E36 M3/Miata and have fun.

>>14122966
I've been saving for the past 10 years, I know how much it'll cost to start up a dedicated track car.

I can't afford to race street touring because of insurance reasons, I wasn't planning on registering the car or making it street legal