Dodge's PVO group beefs up a Neon for the budget buyer.

Byline: MARK VAUGHN

Dodge has been in the sport compact sedan business since before the term ``sport compact sedan'' had much meaning. Show of hands: Who remembers the Dodge Omni GLH and GLHS from the 1980s? Owners said the GLH stood for ``Goes Like Hell.'' They were right.

When the Neon came out it got high marks as a fun compact sedan (the term ``sport compact'' was still not in the mainstream vernacular). Even the base Neon was more than just an economical, utilitarian entry-level car. Then, Dodge made the race-ready ACR Neon in 1994 followed by the Neon R/T in 1998 and '99.

Next, at the beginning of the 2003 calendar year, Dodge will introduce its most powerful, high-performance sport compact sedan ever, the SRT-4.

The idea of something like the SRT-4 emerged three years ago when a small team of Dodge engineers produced the SRT-4 concept car. It was a driver, too, and it felt low, tight, powerful and fast when we drove it two years ago at Irwindale Speedway (AW, June 12, 2000). The production SRT-4 was unveiled to the public at the Los Angeles auto show last January. Credit for that version goes to Dodge's Performance Vehicle Operations, the same group that made the Viper SRT-10 and Viper GTS-R race car.

So think of the SRT-4 as a Viper on an extraordinarily tight budget. How extraordinary? The sticker price is $19,995. You won't see the name ``Neon'' anywhere near it (who knows why marketing people think the way they think?), but the SRT-4 is essentially a souped-up Neon.

Under the hood, the SRT-4 uses Dodge's promising new 2.4-liter turbocharged transverse-mounted four-cylinder engine, which also goes into the much heavier Chrysler PT Turbo. That engine's cast-iron block and 16-valve dohc aluminum head make 215 horsepower at 5200 rpm and a flat torque peak of 245 lb-ft from 3200 to 4200 rpm. Redline is at 6240 rpm. Engineers got all that power to the front wheels via a heavy-duty NVG T850 five-speed manual transaxle along with a high-capacity clutch and equal-length halfshafts.