By Scott Oldham
Photography: Les Bidrawn, Josh Jacquot

When Dodge unveiled the turbocharged SRT-4 at the Los Angeles Auto Show last year, the theme of the press conference was urban decay.

To a hip hop soundtrack, graffiti artists in baggy clothes tagged a brick wall, as the Daimler Chrysler brass told the assembled press that the SRT-4 has everything the kids want. They just stopped short of calling it fresh and fly. We left shaking our heads. We remember thinking Dodge still didn't get it. We even shook off the claim that the turbocharged 2003 Dodge Neon SRT-4 would be the quickest car you could buy in America for less than $20,000, accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in 5.9 seconds. No way, we thought.

Then some of the Dodge engineers began driving a red SRT-4 prototype with a huge, front-mount intercooler in SCCA ProRally events. Almost immediately they found success, winning their class, Group 5, several times. Then we began to hear the car's turbocharged 2.4-liter four-cylinder was making some serious power on the company's dynos, and the SRT-4 was going to be the real deal. We got interested. Maybe we were wrong. Maybe Dodge does get it. Months of phone calls later and a yellow SRT-4 prototype was at our office for the car's first road test ever in any magazine anywhere in the world.

  Turns out we were right about being wrong. Dead wrong. Dodge does get it, but the SRT-4 does not accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 5.9 seconds. It does it in 5.8 seconds. That's right, 5.8 seconds. It also puts 223 hp and 250 lb-ft of torque to its front wheels, stops from 60 mph in 119 feet and snakes through a 700-foot slalom at a very fast 69 mph.

That means the SRT-4 runs head to head with the new Nissan 350Z and the Subaru WRX, while leaving the new Mini Cooper S and the Acura RSX Type-S in the dust.

  Dodge did it right. From its engine to its chassis, the SRT-4 is ready to rule. And we really like the way it looks. That front mount intercooler, big hood scoop and 17-inch wheels and tires have transformed the once homely Neon into a machine with real attitude.

In our first full road test of the car in the December 2002 issue we said the new SRT-4 redefines the collective concept of fast, raw and American and proves without question that Dodge is playing hardball.

  One month later, in the January 2003 issue we put the SRT-4 up against seven other cars in a comparison test to find the best car for under $20,000. The SRT-4 finished a decisive first, outgunning the Mini Cooper S, Nissan Sentra SE-R, Hyundai Tiburon, Honda Civic Si, Volkswagen GTI, Ford SVT Focus and MazdaSpeed Protegé. Bottom line. It blew us away.

Then there's the price. Dodge did what it said, and priced the SRT-4 at less than $20 grand. That means it really is the quickest car you can buy for the money, which makes it, without argument, the greatest performance car buy of the year.

And that is why we have chosen the 2003 Dodge Neon SRT-4 as the 2003 Sport Compact Car of the Year.