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It was bright white with dual blue race stripes. It had a rear spoiler; but it was a modest appendage. The overall look was juvenile; yet, I fell in love with the car, the 1998 Dodge Neon R/T.

I had been ready to hate it. My bias stemmed from an experience last year, when I drove a raspy 1997 Neon sedan that seemed incapable of handling highway speeds. I pummeled that car in a column.

Dozens of Neon owners wrote and phoned in response. Most said I had it all wrong. Some suggested that I must’ve gotten the one ratty Neon produced by Chrysler Corp. They all urged me to take another look.

Thus came the 1998 R/T, a fully loaded Neon that was a hoot to drive. Whereas the ’97 Neon was a sluggard, the ’98 R/T moved quickly and nimbly.

Whereas the ’97 Neon was a motorized microphone, amplifying almost every decibel of road noise, the ’98 R/T was reasonably quiet. Certainly, it was tighter and more rigid than its predecessor. This made me suspicious.

I had driven prototype Neons in 1994, a year before the Neon line’s formal introduction. Those preview models were super-decent little runners, impressive in their presentation and performance.

But subsequent drives in regular production Neons were disappointing — noisy, cheap-feel rides.

Now, Chrysler execs say that the ’98 R/T I drove is a faithful representation of what is going to consumers. I hope they’re right. The new R/T is what the Neon ought to be.

Background: The Neon is a small, front-wheel-drive car designed to carry four people comfortably and five in a squeeze. There is no base Neon for 1998.It’s been zapped in a cost-saving measure that allows Chrysler to put more content in the remaining models, which are available as two-door coupes or four-door sedans. The tested R/T was a sedan.

In addition to the sporty R/T, there is the reasonably well-equipped Neon D and the very well-equipped Neon Style.

All Neons have received spiffs for the 1998 model year, including improved window seals, additional sound dampening materials and even fluted radio antennae (think of ribbons entwined around a Maypole).

Revised seat belts and lap shoulder harnesses increase ease of entry in the Neon coupes; and in all Neons, the changes reduce the possibility of belt malfunctions in vehicle crashes. There are, of course, dual front air bags; and there’s improved side-impact protection. But nothing has been done to the new Neon to change the laws of physics.

So, it’s not surprising that the Neon didn’t do all that well in recent 40-mile-per-hour crash tests conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research and public relations group totally funded by automobile insurance companies.

The institute performs offset crash tests, in which 40 percent of the total front width of a car is crashed into a fixed barrier on the driver’s side at 40 mph. Crash dummies are used to estimate the severity of the impact on human bodies. None of the 11 small cars te sted by the insurance institute got a “good” rating. The Neon got a “poor.”

I have some difficulty taking the test results seriously, inasmuch as small cars almost always get walloped in high-speed crashes. There’s also the matter of active safety — the way a car handles in panic situations, a category in which the tested ’98 Neon R/T excels.

The test car was equipped with a two-liter, double-over head cam, 16-valve, inline four-cylinder engine designed to produce 150 horsepower at 6,500 rpm and 133 pound-feet of torque at 5,500 rpm. It had a standard five-speed manual transmission (automatic three-speeds are available), four-wheel disc brakes with antilock backup; and a four-wheel-independent sport suspension system.

1998 Dodge Neon R/T

Complaints: The manual shifter is a bit choppy; but it’s a lot better than it was in earlier Neons.

Praise: A delightful pocket-rocket, the kind of car that invites driving just for the heck of it.

Head-turning quot ent: Adolescent styling in the minds of many adults; perfect styling in the minds of many adolescents, and people who aren’t so hung up on being “adult.”

Ride, acceleration and handling: Triple aces. Impressively nimble. A hoot to drive in all three categories. Excellent braking.

Mileage: About 31 miles per gallon (12.5-gallon tank, estimated 379-mile range on usable volume of recommended 87-octane unleaded),running mostly highway and driver only with light cargo (11.8 cubic feet cargo volume).

Sound system: AM/FM stereo radio and cassette with compact disc. Chrysler Infinity system. Very good.

Price: The 1998 Dodge Neon R/T is priced at $13,995, including a $500 destination charge. The dealer invoice price on that model is $12,409.

Purse-strings note: Excellent value, lots of fun. Compare with Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla/Chevrolet Prizm, Ford Escort, Hyundai Elantra, Saturn, Mazda Protege, Nissan Sentra, Volkswagen Golf and Kia Sephia.