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ES neons (!NOT!)

To: marka@telerama.com
Subject: ES neons (!NOT!)
From: Jeff Blankenship <jblanken@itds.com>
Date: Thu, 27 May 1999 12:20:03 CDT
Mark Andy asks:

> I was recently perusing www.neons.org's faq section and I also happened to
> see the stats on the '96 and '97 (I think) Sport.  I was pretty surprised
> to find that apparently you could get a SOHC with the 16:1 steering, front
> & rear bars, & ACR springs.  I.e. identical to my SOHC sedan except for
> the hub thickness (doesn't matter for autox) and struts (doesn't matter
> since you can change the struts and run crash bolts).
> 
> According to the new rule that all SOHC except the ACR are in ES, that
> seems like it'd be a pretty damn good car to have for ES.  I know I'm
> jealous anyway :-)

Look again very carefuly.  It will cure your jealousy, because I don't
think what you want ever existed!

The '95 Sport (sedan) came with ABS standard.  Not a good thing.
I don't know if you could delete ABS on these or not, but I'd GUESS not.

The '96 Sport (sedan) was only available with the DOHC (therefore not ES),
on top of that, it had the Highline struts, springs and steering ratio.
Thankfully, ABS is optional on '96s, and if you're smart you will avoid it.
As John Ryan already pointed out, the '96 Sport Coupe was the closest thing
to an ACR that you could get, and it is not an ES car either.

Forget '97-on Sports, they're mechanically Highlines with fog lights and 
power accessories, despite being classed in DS.

The '96 Sport Coupe's configuration was reincarnated in the '98-on R/T
coupes and sedans.  The differences are not relevant to this thread, since
these are DS as well.

I'm not 110% positive what the best ES neon would be, and if I figure it 
out, I might be tempted to make it my secret weapon!  ;^)  But I'm too 
attached to my current car to make a switch in the forseeable future.
--
Jeffrey D. Blankenship                         Senior Technical Consultant
jblanken@itds.com                              ITDS - TRIS
neon enthusiast #478                           Champaign, IL, USA

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