Modding the Contour, Worth it?

yea, ill probably stick with some light mods (intake exhaust and BAT kit) other than that ill just save up some money. Thanks guys.

Originally posted by platinum_drew:
stick with bolt ons, don't go beyond

Agreed.

Good luck with the modding

Stick with bolts ons that you can swap back to stock to make the car easier to sell.

My car is like completely unsellable now. No idiot in their right mind would buy it. But then,I wouldn't sell it anyways.

Simple performance bolt ons.
Suspension!!!
Brakes!

Originally posted by DemonSVT:
Simple performance bolt ons.
Suspension!!!
Brakes!

And Lasers!!!

With my '95, I modded stuff that I identified as needing replacement soon anyway. Front brakes, wheels/tires, suspension...the only "performance" mod that I did for the sake of performance was an SVT exhaust. It was a nice way to do stuff to the car in increments, justify purchases to a skeptical spouse (yes indeedy), and when I did sell it, I could at least say "oh, the struts and springs and brakes are new within the last 10K miles". I wish in retrospect that I'd swapped my SVT and SE exhausts, but at the time (and now, still) I had plans to do a 2.5" stainless Magnaflow single-pipe setup, so I left it as is.

Originally posted by DemonSVT:
Simple performance bolt ons.
Suspension!!!
Brakes!

This is exactly the place I find myself in! I was trying to decide whether to mod/repair the Contour or save my money for an '04 Cobra. I couldn't find a Cobra I could afford (yet) so in the last week I've sprung for the D2 Coilovers, the Elky Mesh and the new headlights from Team Ford (though I'm still waiting for the Morettes). I'll probably do the big brakes while I'm doing the suspension which also means I'll have to get bigger wheels. I guess it'll be a while before I get that Cobra! Don't know how simple it all will be and it certainly wasn't cheap but I guess my course is set and all my other projects are on hold.
Karl

My thoughts, even if a driver, brakes, suspension, and a good exhaust kit never hurt. If nuts, take the car apart and give it a good cleaning, etc, etc.
I'd save the pennies for the cobra, but never hurts to have fun with a driver.

buy the cobra and dont look back ... trust me i am very lucky and have the best of both worlds, a svtc and 03 cobra, the cobra is my primary source of entertainment soon to have a kenne bell, but the svtc as a dialy driver is the bomb. i dont plan on doing any more than bolt on's on the contour just to spice up the ride to work, but i have total respect for people who trick out contours to the max because its not easy to find speed parts for a car they stopped making 5 yrs ago.

Originally posted by ugotbit:
buy the cobra and dont look back ... trust me i am very lucky and have the best of both worlds, a svtc and 03 cobra, the cobra is my primary source of entertainment soon to have a kenne bell, but the svtc as a dialy driver is the bomb. i dont plan on doing any more than bolt on's on the contour just to spice up the ride to work, but i have total respect for people who trick out contours to the max because its not easy to find speed parts for a car they stopped making 5 yrs ago.

Exactly!

I wouldnt waste your time with the SE if your getting an SVT. And if your getting the cobra, just be "smart" and simple with mods to the SVT. The SVT's strength over the cobra is the handling, so I'd spend the $$$ on suspension, open intake and exhaust, and maybe headers or rims if your so inclined. Personally I wish I'd been smarter and saved some $$$ modding mine - oh well at least its almost paid off.

The Cobra is a pretty powerful car, but I'd rather have a GTO. Or a modified Trans Am. Or an older Corvette. But it seriously isn't that bad of a car. I'd take one in a heartbeat, but I wouldn't pay for it. Many more cost-efficient engines on the market for the money. Shoot for the kinda money you'd be spending, I'd go get an old Fox-body coupe, buy a 351C, strengthen the internals, give it more fuel, etc., get a good 6-spd transmission to go with it, and HEAVILY upgrade the suspension. For about the same money(if you're willing to put in the effort) you could have a MUCH faster Mustang. And you could say to people that THAT Mustang is YOURS, not some Hi-po factory tuner that thousands of others in the world have. Of course it would not be anywhere near the Cobra in refinement, but meh. I guess that's a bit much for a beginner tho...

Originally posted by MadMerc97:
The Cobra is a pretty powerful car, but I'd rather have a GTO. Or a modified Trans Am. Or an older Corvette. But it seriously isn't that bad of a car. I'd take one in a heartbeat, but I wouldn't pay for it. Many more cost-efficient engines on the market for the money. Shoot for the kinda money you'd be spending, I'd go get an old Fox-body coupe, buy a 351C, strengthen the internals, give it more fuel, etc., get a good 6-spd transmission to go with it, and HEAVILY upgrade the suspension. For about the same money(if you're willing to put in the effort) you could have a MUCH faster Mustang. And you could say to people that THAT Mustang is YOURS, not some Hi-po factory tuner that thousands of others in the world have. Of course it would not be anywhere near the Cobra in refinement, but meh. I guess that's a bit much for a beginner tho...

are you kidding? 03-04 cobras are so easy and cheep to mod its no even funny. i have 496hp-525tq to the wheels with bolt ons and a very safe tune, for the bang for thr buck in mods NOTHING beats the cobra,i have personaly seen a 03 dyno 408rwhp with a cai and a catback, show me a gto or a trans am that can do that...

First of all, GTOs come factory with 400. Second of all, that can be fixed very easily with the same mods as the cobra. Third, Fox-bodies are lighter. Fourth, Trans Ams are easily modified to 400+horsepower for the budget in mind. I don't know what crack you must be smokin' to think that a 20K Cobra+mod money is cheaper and faster than an 8K WS6 with 12K in mods. WTF? Plus I won't respect the Mustang again until they make some NA power. I know it is nothing more than a different way of accomplishing tuning, but I for one prefer ALL-ENGINE power to just slapping on a blower.

Nice Cobra by the way.

i have total respect for na power but to each is there own... there is nothing wrong with blowers, turbos or nos, i find the only people who complain about that stuff has never had it...but just think if i put 12k into my svt contour motor it would be fast too....for 300 bucks in mods on a cobra you could have 450 horse TO THE WHEELS, no gto will do that for 300 in mods, thats all im saying, oh and thanks for the compilment

Originally posted by MadMerc97:
The Cobra is a pretty powerful car, but I'd rather have a GTO. Or a modified Trans Am. Or an older Corvette. But it seriously isn't that bad of a car. I'd take one in a heartbeat, but I wouldn't pay for it. Many more cost-efficient engines on the market for the money. Shoot for the kinda money you'd be spending, I'd go get an old Fox-body coupe, buy a 351C, strengthen the internals, give it more fuel, etc., get a good 6-spd transmission to go with it, and HEAVILY upgrade the suspension. For about the same money(if you're willing to put in the effort) you could have a MUCH faster Mustang. And you could say to people that THAT Mustang is YOURS, not some Hi-po factory tuner that thousands of others in the world have. Of course it would not be anywhere near the Cobra in refinement, but meh. I guess that's a bit much for a beginner tho...

first of all you are spouting off at the mouth and have no clue what you are talking about........first off a 351c would be the worst choice for a late model mustang.....you would have to have motor mounts fabricated,custom headers,and tons of other misc. parts.....there are tons of better windsor based options out there that would kill the 351c,such as a 347 stroker,which is a direct fit...also it has way better head options as well....a nicely set up 347 with afr heads would destroy a 351c,which has very limited aftermarket for heads etc....a stroker could be built for half the cost of a 351c and make alot more power...and it will bolt right in,and there are tons of more parts available for a windsor based build...hell you could probably build a turbo windsor based stroker for about the same as you could a regular 351c and all the crap necessary to make it fit...

Originally posted by MadMerc97:
First of all, GTOs come factory with 400. Second of all, that can be fixed very easily with the same mods as the cobra. Third, Fox-bodies are lighter. Fourth, Trans Ams are easily modified to 400+horsepower for the budget in mind. I don't know what crack you must be smokin' to think that a 20K Cobra+mod money is cheaper and faster than an 8K WS6 with 12K in mods. WTF? Plus I won't respect the Mustang again until they make some NA power. I know it is nothing more than a different way of accomplishing tuning, but I for one prefer ALL-ENGINE power to just slapping on a blower.

Nice Cobra by the way.

do you own either car????????have you even driven either car????????if not then stfu with your nonsense....like he said before a cobra with intake and exhaust will easily make 400 or more hp TO THE WHEELS....the '05 gto('04 only has 350 hp btw)makes 400 hp AT THE CRANK......with nothing more than a pulley upgrade the cobra will make well over 400 AT THE WHEELS.....since you want to compare apples to oranges(like your $8k ta with $12k in mods)take your beloved gto which costs more than an '03 cobra and put the difference in the cobra and it will destroy the gto...actually though stock for stock the cobra is equally as fast and costs less....

the guy with the '03 cobra was reffering to modding the cars with the same amount of money(not comparing purchase price which is ridiculous)take a ls1 camaro and an '03 cobra,and give each owner $500 to spend on mods....the cobra will destroy the ls1 every time.....hell the ls1 would probably only be just as fast or maybe even slower with $500 in mods and the cobra left stock....

if you want to really compare by purchase price,i'll buy a $3k mustang,and use the $5k difference in mods and kill the ta,so your point is meaningless.......

and you whine about the cobra being supercharged....big deal......so your saying something like an evo,or sti for example aren't any good either because they rely on a turbo for power

thank you.

I have a better idea...

Let's take an '01 Cobra and an '01 WS6. Stock, the cobra loses. Conversation over. It isn't fair to compare the '03 Cobra to an earlier year F-Body. This conversation is nothing more than a conflict of opinions. Besides, a Fox-body mustang hasn't been considered 'late-model' for a decade. A 351C isn't difficult to fab-up mounts for. You just have to take the measurements right, and cut the metal right. Look a powerful NA engine is a good thing. I'm not saying FI engines are BAD, just another, viable method of tuning that I prefer to stay away from. That's it. I don't want to argue with you guys, just state a couple viable alternatives to the "'03 Cobra is god" lines you mustang fanboys spout off like scripture. Meh. Have it your way...

03-04 cobras are a scaled down version of god...j/k you shoud drive/ ride in one then you would be happy, besides i think its a great thing that major companys are building cars like cobras and gtos because they can ony get better from here...

Originally posted by MadMerc97:
I have a better idea...

Let's take an '01 Cobra and an '01 WS6. Stock, the cobra loses. Conversation over. It isn't fair to compare the '03 Cobra to an earlier year F-Body. This conversation is nothing more than a conflict of opinions. Besides, a Fox-body mustang hasn't been considered 'late-model' for a decade. A 351C isn't difficult to fab-up mounts for. You just have to take the measurements right, and cut the metal right. Look a powerful NA engine is a good thing. I'm not saying FI engines are BAD, just another, viable method of tuning that I prefer to stay away from. That's it. I don't want to argue with you guys, just state a couple viable alternatives to the "'03 Cobra is god" lines you mustang fanboys spout off like scripture. Meh. Have it your way...

wow your posts just keep getting more and more ridiculous...well then since to you its not fair to compare an '03 to an '01,then let's compare an '04 cobra to an '04 f-body,oh oops i forgot they don't make them anymore

then how about an '04 cobra to an '04 gto,then the gto loses.conversation over......

and now since when is a fox body not considered a late model?

maybe it is an earlier late model,but they have always been,and still are reffered to as late models...at the car show i was in last month the winner of best late model,was a mineral grey fox body....

oh but i forgot according to you fox bodies haven't been reffered to as late models for a decade...

i also never said it was all that difficult to fab up mounts for a 351c,i said that it would probably be the worst choice as far as cost and extra work...why bother fabbing up mounts,custom headers,and tons more little details to put in an engine that has far less aftermarket parts than a comparable windsor...and a windsor based build would fit right in and have more options to build a cost effective high hp n/a motor...

sure building a n/a motor with high hp #'s is great,but there is only so much you can get out of a n/a motor,and some form of f/i will be necessary...that's why most of the fastest cars in the world are using some form of f/i....also with f/i you get driveability....build you up a high compression n/a motor and tell me how streetable it is,and how good of mileage you get....now take a comparable f/i setup it will be driveable,and still probably pull down 20+ mpg....so again tell me why f/i is so bad...

i also never said the '03 cobra was god...just that its fast stock,and can be easily,and cheaply modded with simple bolt ons to make well over 400 hp to the wheels...by the way ugotbit i would love to see some more pics. of your cobra,i saw your engine pics. in the other thread...my cousin has an '04 that i've had the pleasure of driving a couple of times,and let's just say i didn't want to let go of the wheel...lol...

well lessee. The Fox-body's design spans from 1979-1993(?) I would not call a car that's design came from the late seventies a 'late model'. And the 'F-body doesn't exist' thing is pretty lame. If you wanna be lame, let me bring up the Mustang II.

And are you trying to tell me that a Windsor is a better engine than a Cleveland? Please tell me you aren't. The Cleveland is WORLDS better than the weakling Windsor motor. And as for motor mounts and fabbing up stuff, the 351C/W/M are very similar to the small block 302. The 351 can and has been transplanted into several Mustang IIs and Fox-bodies before, so it isn't a bad idea.

Now as for your 'FI engines are some of the most powerful in the world' thing and then 'FI engines usually have better driveability'. Those two sentences don't match up. Those powerful FI cars tend to be very POOR in the handling area. AKA funny cars. Just try to drift one of those...I don't mean to be drastic, but meh. The handling and driveability is really dependent on the vehicle. Now, your MPG issue is valid. It takes a lot of fuel to make NA power, but it is becoming a little easier due to modern performance fuel-injection.

And as for the '03 Cobra. It's a fast car. I admit that. I just think other alternatives could yield a more interesting, and potentially more powerful vehicle than a factory tuner car put out by Ford. Just my opinion.

I like a good conversation. This is fun.

oh no you didnt go there... mustang 2's were made during the gas/ emssions crunch, no car from that era has power even vettes... that is a fact. any way 03-04 cobras have a irs and handle quite well...also im sure it would be quite easy to get a funny car sideways, they do it all the time before thay crash... and the 351c thing is whack, a stroker 351w would destroy a 351c no problem and save weight because its a small block...any way maybe gm will catch up with the rest of the world and stop using pushrod technology form the dark ages and do somthing differnt to make power, and chrissvt ill post some pics of my car for ya, i know you like cobras...lol

trust me i don't need a lesson from you as to when fox bodies first came out...i am quite aware that they were made from 79-93,as i've been into the mustang scene since '89 when i got my '88 gt,and have owned several of them over the years.....but YOU are the only one that thinks they are not late models....everyone else in the world considers them late models,that's just a fact....like i said at the car show,which is put on by the mustang club of america,they call them late models

how is saying f-bodies aren't made anymore lame????it is a fact....sorry that you beloved cars were nothing more than a good engine in a pos car,but facts are facts,and they aren't made anymore....and if you really want to bring up mustang II's,ok,but let's not forget that the camaro's of that same time frame weren't anything special either...they were boats with heavily underpowered engines...everything made in the mid to late seventies was underpowered,heck even the corvette's only made about 150 hp during that time

i wasn't saying that the windsor was a better motor in general than the cleveland.....but for a foxbody or any other LATE MODEL mustang,yes they are better...there are a ton of aftermarket parts for the windsor engines , specifically made for the mustang chasis...you could build a windsor and a cleveland for a mustang,and i guarantee you that the windsor would make just as much hp for alot less $$$....you do realize that there is a 351 windsor motor as well as a 351c...the 351w shares almost all parts interchangeability with a 302/289 etc...the cleveland is different and the parts are not the same..as i've said countless times in this thread is that it would be better,and more cost effective to build a 351w than a 351c for a late model mustang...

and you do realize when i say f/i i am reffrering to forced induction,which means turbo's,blowers etc....i was not reffering to funny cars

i have no clue where you got that from...nor was i reffering to handling

what does handling have to do with whether a motor is f/i or n/a?????and drifting certainly has absolutely nothing to do with this conversation

what i mean is take 2 of the same motors say a 351w for example.....now build 1 with high compression,huge cam etc. for n/a setup.....now take the other with normal compression,etc. for a f/i setup....now you tell me which will be more streetable????tthe f/i will basically run like normal and still offer all the performance of the n/a setup...

and what is with all this ricer "tuner car" talk...an '03-'04 cobra is merely a high hp factory muscle car that just so happens to have a blower on it.....it is no different than say an evo,sti,srt-4 etc....they all rely on turbo's to make their power,just as the cobra uses a s/c to make its power....it still makes good power,and personally i love to hear that blower whine as well....and just because you happen to not like the cobra's so what,they are still very cheap and easy to mod,with simple bolt on parts they can make almost 500 hp to the wheels,how can you not love that in a car????there will always be "other alternatives"to ANY car,but that does not take anything away from the cobra's....

Originally posted by ugotbit:
any way maybe gm will catch up with the rest of the world and stop using pushrod technology form the dark ages and do somthing differnt to make power

Why would GM ever go to OHC? I know of some people who are still mad that Ford went to the modular design. The LSx is smaller, lighter, more efficient, and more powerful in N/A form than the MOD motors.

yes in na form that is one hell of a engine...thats no doubt, but sometimes you need to think outside the box... most of the high end excotics are ohc...

but i think the s/c 4v mod engines realy shine when used with forced induction, 4 valves per cylinder helps get air in and out in a hurry, witch is a big deal in s/c applications... sure the eariler mod motors were nothing to brag about but they can only get better from here...

Originally posted by ugotbit:
yes in na form that is one hell of a engine...thats no doubt, but sometimes you need to think outside the box... most of the high end excotics are ohc... but i think the s/c 4v mod engines realy shine when used with forced induction, 4 valves per cylinder helps get air in and out in a hurry, witch is a big deal in s/c applications... sure the eariler mod motors were nothing to brag about but they can only get better from here...

Yes most of the exotics are OHC because of their tednecy to be high-revving, top end oriented motors. But there is no one who does pushrods better than GM. DOHC mtors have been used in performance GM cars. They have the Northstar motor but GM won't use them extensively because they cost too much. GM has to build to different price point otherwise it will end up making a car like the Corvette ZR-1 which was much too expensive. The LT5 was a 5.7L DOHC motor that was very powerful but too wide and too heavy.

I do agree that the MOD motors respond very well to forced induction.

The ONLY reason the ZR-1 5.7L was a quad-cam was because Lotus designed it, not GM. I was just joking about the funny car thing by the way. GM makes one hellova OHV engine. Not all exotica have OHC engines. The Dodge Viper has a 20-valve OHV V10. Chrysler has traditionally made high-performance OHV engines. One word: HEMI.

And about that late model thing. I know the competitions you probably went to say fox-bodies are late models, but when was the last time the Aries K was considered one? That car was built many years after the Fox-body began it's run, and it is most definitely not considered a late model. That competition probably only considered the fox-bodies as such due to the final production year. Put that way, what I mean to say is not ALL Fox-bodies are late models. a '93, maybe, but not a '79. Does that make more since to you?

jesus,i'm not going to keep arguing with you about whether foxes are late model or not....no what you're saying doesn't make any "sEnse".............contrary to what you might think,fox body mustangs have always and are still considered late model mustangs to pretty much anybody that knows anything in the automotive world...YOU are the only one that wants to think of them as not late models...the car showS that i attend including some of the larger shows in the country,and they ALL call foxes LATE MODEL mustangs...that's just a fact,i'm sorry if you cannot comprehend that.....

and just to prove a point here's a link to a mustang part supplier...and guess what their name is " "LATE MODEL RESTORATION"

and guess what they sell parts for foxes 79-93.....

http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/lrs.aspx?ref=mu&gotopage=/content_50_home.aspx

You guys are going off topic! Is the Contour worth modding or not? NO!

For me, it is definitely not worth it! Once I get a job, I'm selling my Contour! I'm looking for a better car. Which is (at least for me) any car other than a Contour (for me, anything but a Ford

).

I find no problems with the GM F-Body. But, I do see a problem with the naturally aspirated V8 in the Mustang putting less power than a GM LS-1, no less an LS2 or LS6.

Originally posted by gilroynewball:
You guys are going off topic! Is the Contour worth modding or not? NO!

For me, it is definitely not worth it! Once I get a job, I'm selling my Contour! I'm looking for a better car. Which is (at least for me) any car other than a Contour (for me, anything but a Ford ).

I find no problems with the GM F-Body. But, I do see a problem with the naturally aspirated V8 in the Mustang putting less power than a GM LS-1, no less an LS2 or LS6.

Trust me, the LS1s (maros and t/a) make great power undeniably, but you will hate the build quality and ergonomics. That reason alone was enough for me to purchase my Mustang with less power. The stang also looks a great bit better but that's subjective to taste.

The more I drove the f bodies the more I hated them. Passengers in the front seat really seem to hate the huge hump in the middle of the floorboard as well, not that their opinion matters

. Now the vettes are built a little better but are rattle traps also. As a former GM employee, I would never buy one of the previous gen ls1, ls6 cars. The Mustang ain't nowhere near perfect but it's def a step above the gm quality.

The GTO is built pretty good but it's not fair to call it a GTO. The car is nice but the car styling is just too 1990s (boring). It should have been called the next gen Grand Prix coupe with a RWD sedan to match.

You are telling me that this

Looks better than this?

the car certainly does,although the skank by the firebird doesn't look all that hot herself...but i guess she does look better than a dude

Fwahahahaha! I force a decision with Psychology! I knew the class would come in handy!

Id take that Roush anyday.

Then you'll be sleeping with a Mike Meyers lookalike tonite...

You chose..........poorly....

Agreed!