Since you don't want the car to be any lower, stick with stock springs. Stock pring wise, the stiffest stock Contour springs are the 95 to 97 SE springs. You must use a 95 to 97 type front strut with the 95 to 97 front spring. The rear struts are the same for all years so you can use the stiffer rear SE springs with no other special effort. The original SVT fropnt spring with an early SE rear spring would not be a bad choice.
Stiffer struts would help, and your best choice would be Koni adjustables with Bilstein being a close second. Also, if you have an early 98 SVT (E0) then using the 99 and newer SVT front strut will make a significant difference.
If you do install new front struts, you may want to consider installing camber kits at the same time to provide for some camber adjustability.
What do I have on mine? 99 SVT front struts with camber kits with the stock SVT springs.
What would I prefer to have if I would have had a bit more in the budget? Bilstein struts with stock SVT front springs and early SE rear springs.
After you finish with the struts and springs, see how it handles and consider a larger rear sway bar. You may find you don't need it.
Anyway, thats my thoughts.
