good info everyone. thanks. as far as the reliability thing on the subarus, ive always thought they were supposed to be good cars. thing about the contour is the interior rattles, its 4 years older than a 2003, so its in worse shape. the underneath is rusty, body in good shape for a car with 100k, this is stuff that cant be changed with a 3l swap, plus, thats cash out of hand, where as more expensive cars are payed out in the loan, so an extra 100 bucks a month on a 48 month is like 5000 grand, so if you dont have 5000 right now, you can spend 100 a month for 4 years, which is easier for most (except for interest). but anyways, im wondering if i should just wait a year for the sti's to get cheaper... not sure. but regular wrx's before 04 are ugly, inside and out. rsx's beat it for sure, except drivetrain. dunno.
Of the cars you mentioned, I'd pick the RSX or the WRX if reliability is a primary concern. Between me and people I know, I've had experience with a lot of Honda/Acuras, Subarus, Fords, Dodges, GMs, Nissans, and Toyotas. Of those, the Toyotas, Honda/Acuras, and Subarus were far and away the most reliable.
In terms of what will be the fastest, that always comes down to how much money you want to spend. If cost is at all a concern for you, I guarantee you'll get beaten by cars that you didn't think could beat you - simply because they spent more money on modifying their car.
A reasonably modified Contour can run the 1/4-mile in the 13-14 second range with a 3L swap. If you go forced induction then the sky's the limit, though your reliability or your cost will be impacted severely if you go that route.
As they say, "Fast, Cheap, Reliable. Pick any two." This applies to ALL cars, regardless of manufacturer.
On Subarus, if it's reliability and performance that you want, I still think that the WRX is the way to go, but then that's why I bought one myself. However, if will still break if it's abused, and if you want to put any serious amount of power into it, you'll want to swap up to the 6-speed at some point, because 2nd gear is a weak point (relatively speaking) in the 5-speed transmission. At factory power levels - and even a bit above - the 5-speed is rock solid. Heck, ask Barge - he's still running the stock 5-speed. But for heaps of torque and good launches, you'll get more reliability out of the 6-speed. Speed-wise, since you're dealing with forced induction out of the box, it's fairly simple to reach 12-13 second in the quarter, but at a sub-13 second 1/4-mile you're pushing the limits of the stock 5-speed. Aftermarket gears or an STi pull-off 6-speed would be the way to go at that point.
I've seen RSXs that can run 12-13 seconds in the 1/4-mile, but they were expensively modified. Not a cheap way to go. You can see 14 seconds in a reasonably modified one, similar to the Contour. They'll be pretty reliable, but again, costs will increase dramatically once you go forced induction to get serious performance out of it.
Now to throw you a bit of a curve. If a smaller car like a Miata would be of interest to you at all, consider going that route. Smaller, yes, but performance is easy to squeeze out of one, including with forced-induction. 200-250 hp in that light of a car will be seriously entertaining.
FWIW....