Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Dyno and Drag Initial turbo numbers...

When I see people saying with that much money you could have bought a vette I reply that some people enjoy modding cars and building something special. Anyone can walk into a dealership write a check but for the guys that love to work on their cars and take a mediocre car to the next level there is nothing better. I can't wait to get my car back from Street Flight. Knowing that I will have one of the few v6 turbo cougars in the country is pretty cool if you ask me.

You are also forgetting that those cars are around 600 lbs more than the CSVT. That is a BIG difference! If the HP is the same then you can bet that the weight will spell the difference in a race, highway at least. Then consider the CSVT's 4 doors make it more desirable to some though not all. You may want to do your research a bit more thoroughly before replying...not saying that your prediction won't come true, just saying that you need to support your reasoning with accurate facts.

warmonger

Problem is, the 03 Cobra- straight off the showroom floor, is making 360 - 380 RWHP. Throw on exhaust and intake mods, and you are at 400 RWHP. Add the Lightning pulley to the supercharger, and we are talking 450 RWHP easy (it upps the boost from 8 to 12 PSI). Given that the Mustang is a RWD car, this helps in the weight transfer upon launch. Sorry, but I think you'll have a hard time keeping up with a lightly modded 03 Cobra. Earlier years are probably fair game, depending on mods. Even then, you will only likely beat them a few times, until something on your car gives (driveline). Contours simply weren't meant for those power/torque levels.

And you are forgetting that those cars have the torque advantage (even after turboing the SVT) to more than make up for that added weight.

W(hy)TF are you guys comparing Contours to Corvettes and Mustangs? Hell, why would anyone buy a Cadillac DeVille when they could buy a Corvette for the same price? Because they are NOT the same kind of car! Comparing a FF sedan to an FR coupe seems like a waste of time to me.

You win the prize for 3rd page post that makes the most sense!!!

Why don't you guys compare the car to other four-door performance sedans with nearly 300whp that can be had for a shade over 25K...oh that's right there aren't any :p

Sorry, but HP and torque are directly proportional to each other. You can't have one without the other. If the contour is making as much power as the vette, you might ask yourself 'at what rpm' is it making that power at? For a small motor to make the same horsepower as a vette engine, either the torque numbers must be the same or the HP was measured at different RPM's. The math doesn't lie, look at the formula that relates HP and torque and you will see that you can/must change either one or the other in order to change the HP produced.

By comparison, what would happen if you pit an indy car against a corvette in some kind of race? Say two miles straight line. I would be my money on an indy car. Before they begain regulating the HP on those cars, an indy car could have 1500 hp. Honda had a 1.5L turbo engine with something close to that in the late 80's. It was done with a shiit-load of boost on an engine that spun 12000+ rpm.

warmonger

Nope, wrong, as the power curves are entirely different. Horespower isn't even directly measured, it is calculated from torque. Your 200 HP SVT engine may be near equal to a stock 5.0L HO in HP, but it has no where near the low - mid RPM torque. Thus, the max horsepower levels can be the same, but that is only one tiny measure of total perfomance. What you really need to look at is the area under the torque curve. The car with the fatter torque curve (in the case of the Cobra, much fatter) will win. The Cobra's torque curve is large enough to overcome the weight difference.

Um, this theory has been proven just recently by SCC comparing a Lotus Elise with a Mustang R. The Elise weighed in around 1600lbs where as the Mustang weighed in at 3000+.

I cant remember the exact performance numbers, but the Elise out performed the Cobra by at least 1 second throughout the whole test. And I have to mention that this particular car only has 150HP with proportional torque! I will take a look at my back issues and post the results.

the horsepower to weight ratios are what is very important.