Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Modding the Contour, Worth it?

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!

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.

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.

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...