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I just couldn't keep my mouth shut anymore. NEONS ARE NOT SLOW (2nd gens excluded)! With a driver that has half a brain cell, they can pull some impressive times for what they are. They weren't built to be gas-guzzling HP monsters. They were built as economy cars. However, with a tweak here and a tweak there they are amazing machines.
One of our guys here ran 11s and was still street legal. Think about it - a 4-cyl. 2.0L motor that runs 11s street legal. Yeah, it was still just a Neon - but it smoked just about anything it came across. (Incidentally, this same car is now in the 10s but isn't street legal anymore.) The fastest Neon in the world is about to break into the 8s.
Now I'm not dogging Hondas. They are nice looking in their own way. I'd buy a S2000 in a hearbeat if I could afford one - not because it's a Honda, but because it's a little convertible that looks good which is what I want for a 2nd car. My ex's 94 Civic looked real good - black, with red interior, white graphics and wheels. The thing with it though that killed me - it was a manual and had mods and I beat it in my automatic SOHC Neon. Not once, but 3 times. So it wasn't a fluke.
On the other hand - I had my ass handed to me by a modded Prelude once. That guy had dropped a TON into the car - custom interior, paint, graphics, and sub box, plus lots of stuff under the hood. It looked good, and ran like a champ. However, if I had the same mods he did, I probably would have taken him. (This is in my DOHC 5-speed that I have now.)
As far as attitude goes - most of the Neon people I know are awesome (my fiancee and I met at a Neon gathering). On the other hand, some of the Neon people are such assholes that they won't give you the time of day.
Most Honda people look at me and are like, "Oh, you have a Neon. It's a slow POS, blah blah blah." and are just plain ignorant. Here again though, I have met some really cool Honda people who actually took time to talk to me and get to know me for who I am, not talk shit on me for the car I drive.
It all comes down to attitude. Personally, I don't care what kind of car someone drives as long as they aren't a jackass towards me. In the end - image means nothing anyway: what matters is who you are.
Erin
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