Newbie needs input

[ANR-9]

IT Forum reader:

Four or five years ago I bought a [at the time] SSB Neon and converted it to DSP Solo II specs. Now I am considering converting it to ITA specs. At present, the car is prepared to 80% of maximum allowed Solo II Street Prepared mods.

In your opinion, is it a good idea to go ahead with this conversion or would it be better to start with another legal SSC Neon?

BTW: I have the car's old log book and a GCR on order. There is a double school at CMP in January (it doesn't appear that I'll have time to prepare).

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Michael Keogh
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www.americanneonracing.com
www.art-o-motive.com

[Knestis]

The problem I'm having is not knowing what you could do to a DSP car that is going to be expensive/hard to undo for IT.

If you cut ANYTHING off of the shell, that would do it. If it has a cage or rollbar that won't translate directly to Club Racing rules, that would be enough, perhaps. Rip out the dashboard? Pesky but not too expensive probably...

I don't know for sure but there are a lot of Neons out there right now.

K

[ANR-9]

I take it urethane motor mounts are illegal in IT, and so is the underdrive crank pulley. It has a bolt-in cage from the Showroom Stock days. The rest I am not sure of either.

Waiting for the GCR is killing my prep time.

[jhooten]

If it has a log book and will pass safety tech use it as is for your school. Nobody is going to protest you at a school. Just fix the illegal stuff before your first race. If all else fails check to see if your region has a catch all class like ITE that you could run the car in as is.

[ANR-9]

That's an idea.

Thanks.

[dickita15]

why don't you call you local tech chief and ask if you can bring him the car and see what you need to update in order to get you annual tech to attend the school. j hooten is right, you do not need to be legal for school just safe.
by the way don' throw that pulley away, there is talk about changing that rule to allow them
dick

[joeg]

Just go get your license with it.

I would not worry about legality just yet; worry about all the safety stuff (seat, belts, kill switch, good tires, etc.)first

Have fun with it; we need more drivers!

[ANR-9]

Thanks everyone for your input.

I've decided that if I'm going club racing, I'll get another car because I don't want a compromised autocross car. I've built it up over the past three years into a multiple regional, and single divisional championship winning autocrosser.

The cost and effort required to convert the Neon seems too high - I could buy a ready to race IT car pretty reasonably.

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Michael Keogh
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www.americanneonracing.com
www.art-o-motive.com

[lateapex911]

Good call.

Just avoiding that first tech is priceless!

(Some first techs go better than others, sad to say it has a lot to do with the luck of the draw, and what side of the bed he got up on that morning)

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Jake Gulick
CarriageHouse Motorsports
ITA 57 RX-7
New England Region
[email protected]