Originally posted by 99MystiqueATX:
Just as some background on this car, the duratec motor was designed by Porsche and Cosworth (Kudos for the secondaries). They are known to require maintenance but unless neglected are awesome cars.



Excellent point there MystiqueATX. That's one of the little known facts about Contour/Mystique development: that Porsche reluctantly turned over their motor design to Fords. I remember reading in the industry press when the Contour/Mystique was launched that Fords had spent six billion in development. Six billion! Part of that investiment must have gone to the Porsche motor. I'm not sure, but one can imagine the argumnets over whether to keep it air-cooled or go with liquid cooling. And I wonder why they decided to do a V-block rather than keep the boxer config. Hell, Subaru keeps the boxer alive in their sedans, so I think this may have been one of Fords and Porsch's biggest mistakes. Anyone else heard any rumours about this stuff???

Bud Miller

** No mistake, it's a mystique **