Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General ol' 96 SE compared to '99 SVT

I'm just curious. I took my ol' 96 SE for a spin yesterday and fell in love with it all over again. But my question is this; why is the throw in the manual shifter of my SE shorter and more accurate than my SVT? The shifter of my SVT has much more travel into each gear than my SE, which seemed to have very little travel to each gear. Also, the high rev range in the SE is soooo much smoother than my SVT. The SVT feels more harsh(no DMD yet) and less refined. Obviously it's more power to deal with and all, but still... I figure once I get a DMD it will seem very much as smooth as my SE. My main ? is why would they put a better shifter in the SE? Doesn't seem to make sense. Any ideas or comments.

Probably car to car variance. Like some CSVTs dynoing 170+ stock and some 155 stock. I've driven probably 6 different CSVTs. Some were slow. Some had touchy throttles. Some were just bat out of hell fast. Who knows why.

Not much of an answer, I know, but it helps me feel better about the slow one I got.

-R-

pre 98 (exact yesr?) is a rod shifter that maybe could give a more precise feel than the later cable shifters. supposedly they went away from it due to too much vibes being transmitted back to driver.

there's no reason I can think of thaat the SE would feel smoother than the SVT though - maybe the 2 extra lbs on the flywheel dampen up some of the vibes??? maybe your svt needss new plugs or wires?

yes the pre 98s had rod shifts which are better than the cable shifts according to terry haines. ever since the pre 98s, ford started to decontent things and im sure converting from a rod shift to a cable shift was one of them. also, maybe the lightened flywheel may have something to do with it since it revs faster. does your 96 have a hood blanket? if it does, it could cut down on some of the noise.

the pre 98, rod shifter is much better then the cabe shift. having driven with both I can see were you feel the earlier one has a shorter throw. I think a small part of that is perception. with the taller center console in the older car the shift seems shorter and maybe quicker to move then the completely exposed one.

it is pretty definate the cable was used to cut down on vibrations, but if you have shity tires you get vibration, get some good tires and there is little to none, just normal road feel

also pre98 have the hood liner and the post 98 don't, not sure how much noise difference that makes, but I know the post 98 doors feel like nothing openning and closing because of the removed sound dedening material that was removed in later years

ummm, just to chime in....my 99 svt "had" a hoodliner when i got my car....

i've got a 96, so i have the rod shifter. it may be more reliable, but i've got to say im quite jealous of my dads 00 svt cable shift - much smoother, don't have to worry about shifting through peanut butter when its cold (tranny coctail) and theres short throw shifts for it - none for the rod shift ( unless you count getting dom to hacksaw two inches off the top of it.)

Good information about the shifter guys...that's what I was wondering. The thing about the "smoothness" of my 96 isn't that it was quieter, it just feels silky smooth and very refined compared to the frantic more hyperactive revs of my SVT. The sound of the two cars couldn't be more different. My SVT sounds very sweet with the open K&N and I only hope to improve on that with some magnaflows. The SE sounds good and clean and strong like a stock V6 should. I guess I should just get a DMD on my SVT and see what that is like. But WOW I am still VERY impressed with that old SE. It is simply the original gangsta' of Contiques. I never had too much of a problem with the SE shifter in cold weather, and I haven't driven my SVT in cold weather yet so I can't compare performance in that area. Just thought I would see what you all knew about this. Thanks for the input.

So people such as BeyondLoadedSE...are you still running your stock shifter with all of those mods?