Let me just throw my 2 cents in from the other side of the story as well. First off I own a pretty fast camaro as my main vehicle. (About 350-360 at the wheels) If you want something that is going to do 13's without too much money, then going with a camaro/firebird/mustang is one of your best bets. If you have a little more money a vette would be even better. BUT, if you think the resale value on the CSVT is bad, take a look at the market for camaros and/or firebirds.....its TERRIBLE. Not only that, but as some people have mentioned they are more commonplace than a CSVT. Its all fine and dandy to have a fast car without putting much money into it, but then again its also nice to have a car to hop into that is pretty reliable, good and gas and pretty damn quick. If you think the contour is hard to work on try and work on an LT1 or LS1 Camaro...I would choose to work on a CSVT any day of the week over my Camaro. It takes a few hours to replace the spark plugs in the camaro and thats not an exaggeration. As far as my cam swap on the camaro, thats something that I will never want to do again. The best thing about the Camaro is that it is cheap to get a lot of power, but there are also many flaws as well. (For example, the damn opti in the LT1's for you people who know about camaros)
If you want a car that is gonna be fast for not too much money you are going to sacrifice other stuff. Just because it takes a lot of money just to get the CSVT's in the 13's doesn't mean you should just up and sell it. I love driving my Camaro and would never get rid of it, but it is also loud and bad on gas and also goes no where in the snow, whereas I can hop in my CSVT whether there is snow or not and have no troubles.
It sounds like you need to sit back and think about this a lot more, speed isn't always everything.....
