The Kirk Cold Air Intake available from modernperformance.com is a pretty simple to install kit that will make an SOHC Neon quicker. A pipe and K&N cone filter replace the stock snorkel and airfilter assembly, shortening the distance the air travels to the throttle body and hopefully bringing in cooler air as well. The cone filter ends up residing where the stock battery is located, but another kit offered by Nemo's Neon Performance lowers the battery out of the way. Installation time for both kits is very reasonable, most people should be able to complete it in less than an hour if the tools are available. After swapping the stock and Kirk system (complete with battery relocation) for the head to head testing a few times, the install completion time dropped to less than 30 minutes.

The performance increase on a 97 ACR sedan (SOHC) was better than we expected, no difference was originally expected until other breathing modifications were completed. Using a G-Analyst to collect time and g-force data, the car rolled at idle in second gear. At a paint stripe, full-throttle was applied until the rev-limiter engaged. The course was straight and slightly uphill, the test was run at 11:30 pm and the temperature remained at 40 degrees F. No speed limits were exceeded, but a citation for 'Display of Speed' could have been written.

The Kirk system equaled or outperformed the Stock system at all RPM. The numbers that probably mean the most are the peak acceleration measured, time at peak, and overall time to accelerate from idle to redline (in second gear). The Kirk system demonstrated a 3.7% increase in peak acceleration and maintained it for 2.6% longer than the Stock system. The Kirk system was 7.54% quicker from idle to redline, over a half second improvement.

With other modifications such as the 'gutted headlight bucket ram-air funnel' and engine improvements, the percentages can become even more favorable.