Ze’Neon has been plagued with an ‘intake air temp’ sensor problem for the last year. I unplugged the sensor, plugged it back in. It would seem to work for a while, then the check engine light would pop up. In order to pass the dreaded SMOG test out here in CA, I would have to have it working.

So last weekend we went to the junk yard - no luck. I called up a dealership and they had no idea what I was talking about. IAT? Intake what? It turns out that the IAT and the MAP (Manifold Absolute Pressure) sensor is in the same package on the Dodge Neon. I had to take it off the car in order to get the correct part number. When I put it back on, it was worse. She stumbled and wouldn’t idle. The rev limiter moved down to 4,000RPM’s. I just took a guess that the ‘lightbulb’ finally burned out. Welcome to limp mode.
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So, we’re drivin’ down the 605…go to pass some slower cars…”Um, the car just stalled…HOW is that possible? Oh, we’re out…of gas…” Somehow we managed to coast along the highway, and most of the way down the exit ramp before the car came to a stop. We make a quick switch (Kris hopped out, I jumped over into the driver’s seat), and Kris pushed the car about 25 feet into the nearby gas station. We wouldn’t have been totally screwed, after all, we have AAA. And, as stupid as it feels, even I’ve run out of gas on the highway/exit ramp before. Unfortunately for me, the gas station was uphill from where I was in Worcester, MA, and I had no one else in the car with me at the time. Lesson learned - the things you don’t check are the things that bite you in the ass. And bonus - found out exactly how big the gas tank is.

We were able to make our first trip to an awesome, clean, and organized pick-a-part yard in CA (although you still had the more than occasional ankle-breaker to watch out for). Too bad there were only four Neons in the whole place which were picked over by the time we found them. We were still able to salvage a few usable parts (ceramic exhaust ring, exhaust heat shield, and the steel oil pan that’s been on the parts list forever). It was only a buck to get in, and today happened to be the “half-price” sale day. We were also able to head up to the shop, get our newly acquired parts cleaned, and re-organized our area. So our slightly stupid mistake did not ruin the day one bit.

I took a ride up to Huntington Beach during lunch. Ron Wood from VW Specialties took some time out of his busy day to look at ze’Neon. He confirmed the following: Small pipe gussets from the halo to the main hoop, metal fire extinguisher heads, environment friendly coolant, aluminum skid plate around gas tank, tow hooks, seat belts re-webbed (FIA). After this has been completed, I get handed a logbook for the car. w00t!

We attended our first rallycross put on by the ostentatious Gravel Crew. A start delay meant that we would be doing runs #2 and #3 in the dark. This is the first time I’ve run an event at night and it was a thrill. We had some drama on our first run, as a pallet got knocked down onto the course from a previous competitor. I had to make quite a manuver around it. Later, Scott (from the Gravel Crew) graciously offered a re-run to us.

We placed 2nd in class with lucky number 13! There was some strong competition out there and I’m pleased with how well we did. I will be following the CRS points race closely. I’ll update the post with the official results when they become available.

Once again Christine did a great job of calling the notes out. It’s less of an importance in rallycross to have notes, but very important that we get in-car experience together. I told her that I was going to ‘haul ass’ by the barn on my last run and she didn’t flinch. I’m on the lookout for any spectator pictures or video that may be posted to the forums. If you have anything please contact us. I once again encoded all three in-car runs as .wmv files.
Rally Air II Run #1 Day
Rally Air II Run #2 Night
Rally Air II Run #3 Night +infravision (best run)

Update 4/20/2005: We placed 11th overall! The results are posted. Speaking of competition, the name George Doganis who took first in our class, sounded familiar to me. So I googled him. It turns out George is a several time national autocross champion and no stranger to rally. Some very strong competition indeed.

We were supposed to head to Vegas last weekend for a rallycross in Jean, NV. We had planned it with a free 2 night stay (with dinner and a show) we had at the Paris hotel. Turns out that they had a conflict and canceled it. At the last minute Christine managed to reschedule.

I just asked Tine if anything else has changed and it looks like they moved several things around. Apparently THIS weekend there is a rallycross for points in Corona, CA. They start at 3:00pm… A night rallycross. Okay, I have lights.

Well, that changes things. I’d like to get the exhaust tightened up this week. It’s been hanging down below the center of the car. It’s preventing me from installing the full size skidplate. At the very least I’ll have to make a weekday trip up to the shop to pick up the front plate. You don’t just slide a 32″X 48″ 3/16″ aluminum plate into the back seat when not using it. Oh, and the Kumho rally tires would be nice.

Rims, rims, rims! I have rally tires mounted on OEM Dodge R/T rims. I just received another 4 R/T’s and the steelies that the street tires are on makes 3 sets (12 rims). I will probably pick up another set used. I’m going to need to order 2 more Kumhos before August. As of right now, I only have 4 rally tires.

The site upgrade is complete. I got the motorsports gallery sorted out and back online. According to the logs - images.google.com will be happy too. I have about 1.4GB remaining for videos and pictures.