Dude you are looking to spend like 10K on a car that will be worth closer to 0K when you are done. Not to piss on your corn flakes or anything...but something to keep in mind.
If I was you, I would just buy Al Mirko's race car and try to make it street legal. It cost 10K and its already done.
A more realistic approach may be to buy a car that gives you more performance out of the box as opposed to boiling the ocean with a 2.5L automatic family car. I like my SVT but I am not going to try and make it demolish an RS4 or an M3...not that it couldn't be done, but why bother when you can just buy a used E36 M3 and it would be cheaper, have better resale, etc.
I think you will find there are 2 camps of ppl who mod there cars on here. Those who bought a car knowing what they are getting, and want to mod it to taste, e.g. they want to add a little style, another 10-20HP, maybe a little forced induction, etc. Then there are those who ended up with a Contour of sorts, but seem to want an Evo VI or S4 out of it. I think a lot of these ppl may be new drivers who ended up with the car because their parents bought it for them, or it was a good deal in their price range, etc.
Now I am not knocking trying to make a 300HP Contique, I think that would be a hoot, and I am not making fun of the young crowd. Trust me I did some foolish stuff in my day, e.g. put an Offy cast aluminum intake and 600 Holly 4bbl on a stock Chevy 250 with a 2 speed powerglide. It was fun, but boy that was pretty stupid! (Now a 300 cfm 4 barrel or Holly 2bbl TBI would have been a bit more cool hehe)
So my advice to you is...either keep your car simple as a daily driver, and pick up something you can turn into a real bruiser, e.g. DSM, 5.0, or be prepared to spend lotsa dough that will get you a car that while unique and a fast performer, will be easily outperformed by cars in good condition, with good resale, which cost 1/3 of yours.
Either way the choice is yours & have fun...!
