The amazing srt-4

In 2002, rumors began buzzing that the PVO team for Dodge were moving in for a 3rd knockout. Already having the Dodge Viper and Viper powered Ram pick-ups under their belt, they wanted to offer an entry level racer at a moderate price.

In doing so, they built the most powerful car available for under $20,000. The team labeled the new project SRT-4, and began with the low price Dodge Neon as it's platform. Skepticism grew on the new car fast, with many people tossing the idea out the window as a neon being a contender as the ultimate bang for the buck, but those skeptics were soon laid to rest as they came off the production lines.

On release, the 235hp SRT-4 was severely under-rated. It was assumed that intentional deflating of the cars actual numbers was intended to keep insurance costs down on the new hot-rod, though Dodge has never made a clear statement on it. One nice thing about turbo cars is that if you run them out of their efficiency range, or accidently... yea accidently let the intercooler get heat soaked incredibly bad that their power numbers drop. In any case, when the car was released, people were soon to realize that this was the case and that the car was even more capable then originally expected.

One of the beauties of the project was that it had a very short time-line to release. This meant the engineers didn't have the time to nickle and dime parts to find the cheapest way to build it and have it withstand normal operation. To keep designs costs down, they simply over-built the car. Completely forged bottom ends, crankshafts that are holding 1200+whp in drag cars, were all tossed into the mix to get this car to production asap. For the consumer, this meant the car was extremely mod friendly, and performance gains from bolt-ons and tuning were high.

In it's first year of production, 2003, a little over 3k units were built and distributed in the United States. The car was so widely sought after, that Dodge increased production to a little over 10k units in 2004 and 2005, and also gave them the option for a Sunroof and made a limited slip differential standard in them to help increase traction.

The success of the car also led to various 'special' production year colors available for them. In 2003, Yellow was the color of choice for Dodge, which led to electric blue in 2004 and stone white in 2005.

A line-up of performance parts from the boys at chrysler complimented the cars growing tuner frenzy. Mopar stage kits were released which not only increased horsepower, but loosened up the PCM to allow further modifcations with out check engine lights. Stage 1 was a very marginal increase overall, but the cars now enjoyed full boost even in first gear where they were limited to only 5psi before. Stage 2 also added an option for 'turbo-toys', a factory designed intercooler sprayer, a switchable map for race-gas and even more boost. Stage 3 took it to the max, upgrading the factory turbocharger to a larger model flowing more air.

The aftermarket also embraced this, with companies like AGP Turbo and AMS Performance jumping into the mix building incredibly powerful 4 bangers, ranging well over 500+whp. Near the end of the production life of the vehicle, Dodge also wanted to commemorate it's first 3 (by this time the SRT charger/magnum/crossfire were also available) by offering limited edition stone white with viper blue racing stripes for their first 3 srt's.

In 2005 dodge ended the production of the srt-4, but word was on the horizon for the new caliber srt-4 which would share an engine platform with the highly anticipated mitsubishi evolution X. Many fans of the original are dismayed at the new caliber, it's heavier, worse handling, but highly more refined then the srt of old. They have gotten a bit slower, and the aftermarket hasn't been as fast to embrace the new caliber, but in time, I think we'll see different of that car too.