I went over to my friends house earlier this evening like normal. As I turned on to his street a Neon with a larger than usual (but not rediculous) wing caught my eye. As I rolled passed the car I saw too many letters to just be R/T, so I turned parked in front of my friends house and walked across the street. Indeed, it was a red SRT-4. I know the kid who lives at the house with the SRT-4. He is friends with my friends little brother. Long story short....I found the kid who lived at the house w/ the car and told him to take me over to look at the car his dad brought home (he's younger than me, I can do that to him). I went over and looked at the car, inside and out. I was quite impressed! I was a little surprised how tightly everything in the engine compartment is packed in, that was my only complaint. The leg room in the front seats was more than enough for me (6'1) and the seats were extremely comfortable. We went back over to my friends house (the other kid came w/ me to hang out w/ my friends little brother). He had to run back home to get a video game he forgot. He came back and said his Dad would take me for a ride if I wanted to, so...I went. I asked a bunch of random questions to at least pretend like I knew what was going on. The feel of the car was amazing. The seats hold you in place really well through the excessive speed turns. The turbo pulls pretty damn hard too...really throws you back in your seat once you're in 2nd gear and anywhere above that. The redline for the car is going to be 6,000 RPM which was a bit surprising to hear. (You might already know that...but I didn't) I asked what PSI they intended to run and he said it was constantly changing. He said the main factor was temperature. Colder = less, warmer = more. That's obviously due to air density, but there were other factors too that I didn't quite understand. I asked him about the #'s on the car. MSRP is going to be just under $20,000. Official production starts December 4th and they will be released to the public shortly after the new year. 0-60 times were right around the 5.7 area, but he didn't remember what the 1/4 was. The car makes 215hp and 240tq. He also informed me that there is going to be a full line of performance upgrades available as soon as the car is released. There is a higher hp/tq version (he called it the Rally version, but I doubt that's what it will be called) that will be making about 260hp and 250tq he said (which doesn't really make sense compared to the other #'s, but I didn't ask about that). On top of those upgrades, there will also be the option of an open 2.5" exhaust, a carbon fiber hood, race suspension and a few other things. He said to come back by his house to pick up the press package he had in a day or two. On that is a list of all the stuff you can order on top of the SRT-4 and what comes on it from the factory. I'll have that scanned and upload it to show everyone when I get a hold of it. Overall....I can't wait for this car to come out!
