So I had FRPP 4.10's installed about 2 weeks ago. I have an SCT xcal2 tuner. When I left the shop that did the install, she was driving weird...didnt feel right at all. Of course the speedo was way off. I got home, plugged in the tuner, reapplied the tune and had changed the option to 4.10. The speedo is now right. Car feels much better and more aggressive than I recall, but it has been a long winter with little driving...

Anyway, I raced one of the 99? Bullitt's and we were neck and neck. He said he had a couple of bolt ons and that was it, but I kinda had a hard time believing him...he sounded bad ***. OK...no problem. Then I had an encounter with another stang (05+) and he looked to have mods, but I couldnt tell what and I had him easily by the top of second by a couple car lengths. That was what I expected. Then last night, had one of the Neon's that has the turbo on it begging for a piece, so I gave it to him. From a roll at maybe 30? I could not overtake him. He was even steven and maybe pulling me a little. We pulled into a lot and he said he was stock except for a recently installed intake. He said at Bandimere (track) his best time was 14.01 at 5280+ feet. He also said he can easily take all of the other turbo Neon's he has ran into, so he claimed his particular car was "strangely powerful". According to him, he had 235 at the wheels corrected.

My question is, shouldn't I have been handing these guys their collective hats? So far I am 1 for 3 as a tie or close one isnt in the win column. I hate to think that I made a mistake with the 4.10's. I am cognizent there is a little retraining for me in terms of shift points because of the change from the 3.55's but with a b@m@ modded tune, I would have expected a much better performance.

 

Much like a CAI, the 4:10's are not a magic bullet, but rather a method of fine tuning a car.
You took an 05+ as expected, anything else is just smoke and mirrors. A Neon who might or might not have been modded, a Bullitt with the same....

 

Some people actually go slower in the 1/4 mile with 4.10's. Adding shorter gears isn't always the answer for better et's. These cars seem to like the 3.55's and the 3.73's the best. I have the 3.31's and wouldn't change them for anything else. When I go to the track this year I should cross the line almost at the top of third gear and the car will be pulling hard all the way thru. Taller gears are almost always better from a roll too.

 

if all you have is a tune, intake, and gears...you're in it with a srt 4 neon..when my buddy had his, he pulled my 05gt and all i had was 3.31's intake, and a tune...at bout 115 he pulled bout a half a car in front of me...but dont overlook the srt4's alot of power for a small car...kinda like the fox body principle. plus i hear the neon's are like 230 to 235 hp from factory and thats why they dyno so they were underrated...

 

Was it a turbo'd RT neon or was it an SRT-4 neon?? even with that 14.0 and trapping in the low 100s, they have great top end with only a few mods. I had one with a stage 2 and some other mods and it would rape on the freeway.

stock, no mods? not so great, but still pretty quick.

 

the only turbo neon IS the srt. The RT's are not turbocharged

 

what I meant was maybe it was an RT with a turbo kit on it... there are some crafty people out there.

 

Guy was prolly messing with you saying he only had this or that. Who cares, its a neon for Gods sake. Yes they can be made to go fast, but look how funky they are! Mustang is a mans car period.

patrick

 

Well...yeah Sooo, are you saying when we stopped I shoulda just kicked his ***? lol. I get what you're saying though. He has a friggin neon and my stang is totally sweet.

Thanks everyone for the info because I was thinking the neon was power to weight ratio and good to know that others have had similar experiences. I'll try to keep the rolling starts to a minimum and do it from the line where I'll eat them for breakfast.

 

He probably said the same thing, only backwards. And, he won.

In any case, shorter gears will make your car accelerate faster, but you will also run out of gear faster and have to shift more, which slows you down. Also, don't discount the fact that the SRT-4 weighs, like, 300 pounds wet.

Ok, probably not, but weight is a big factor. It's something mustang guys throw in Camaro guys' faces all the time (yeah, it may be down on power, but at least it's not a fat pig!), for what it's worth.