"Raphmoe" (raphmoe)
11/05/2014 at 09:10 • Filed to: performance cars, journalism, reviews, svt, ford, contour
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"Raphmoe" (raphmoe)
11/05/2014 at 09:10 • Filed to: performance cars, journalism, reviews, svt, ford, contour | 6
| 25 |
Long lost in the anals of history are quirky and odd performance variants to otherwise normal sedans. It is a job of all of us journalists and oppositelockers to remember, remember the 5th of Novemeber for great cars such as the the Ford Contour SVT. Here is some background and history and photography automobile porn for your eyes and minds as well. Essentially the SVT Contour was a hot hatch (but not a hatch, but hot) version of the Ford Mondeo (known in America as the Contour) but we here at Jalopnik enjoy the Mondeo more because Top Gear enjoys the car. Here is a quote from a !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! :
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
With an exterior duller than Clark Kent in his workday suit, this Mondeo-based compact sedan was a product of Ford's Special Vehicle Team. Yes, the same guys responsible for the original SVO Mustang, Mustang Cobras, SVT Lightning pickups and plenty of other wicked rides. The subtle bodywork hints at a significantly modified 2.5-liter V6 with up to 200-hp at 6600 rpm. Reviews praised the Contour for its balanced handling and poise.
Truly a marvelous write up; think about it, body work is always an indicator of great performance, much like the body work on this late model Civic tells me that it is a nice price craigslist sale because of the attention to detail and crafstmanship:
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
That civic is basically the Ford Contour SVT of of Civics. Tarted up and given many go fast bits and a perfect sleeper for you in the high-school parking lot; or, as a middle aged man that is in a dead end job and career and wants to live out his high school fantasies of owning a sweet car that is really a 20 year old maintenance nightmare of a crap can. This is the price we pay for automotive freedom. Continuing on the !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! had this to say about the car:
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
SVT's talents were best applied under the hood, massaging the available 2.5-liter/170-horsepower DOHC Duratec V-6 into an energetic 195-horse premium-fuel-slurper. Applying a proven tuner trick to the aluminum powerplant, SVT used the Extrude Hone polishing procedure to maximize flow through the upper intake manifold and cylinder-head intake ports. Several SVT components supplanted stock units: specially ground camshafts, an increased-diameter throttle body, hypereutectic pistons, and a lighter flywheel. Air is drawn through a large-capacity conical air cleaner and routed through a 2.25-inch stainless-steel exhaust system split into two mufflers with polished tips. The sound is delightfully devilish at wide-open throttle, yet not obnoxious at highway cruising speeds. To ensure optimum engine performance, SVT adapted the cooling system used by platformmate Ford Mondeo in Europe, and installed an oil cooler to further help keep temperatures under control.
Those words meant alot in 1998, but in 2014 they really translate in to "yeah i guess this car was good but we had nothing else really exciting to talk about at the time, I mean, guys, Y2k is about to happen and we are all going to be killed by the skynet machines rolling over to the year 0000 and BOOM explosions and death and apes rule the planet but really they are the lizard creatures from the Phantom Menace which came out in 1999; so basically:
The Ford Contour SVT was the Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace of performance cars. Sure, it's a performance car. But.....it's not the best; it's kind of the worst.
Party-vi
> Raphmoe
11/05/2014 at 09:16 |
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"The Ford Contour SVT was the Star Wars: Episode 1 The Phantom Menace of performance cars"
^This 1,000 times over.
Margin Of Error
> Raphmoe
11/05/2014 at 09:21 |
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LOL "performance car"
THIS is a true performance sedan
Mattbob
> Raphmoe
11/05/2014 at 09:22 |
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hehe "anals"
Roundbadge
> Mattbob
11/05/2014 at 09:27 |
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Butt.
Dsscats
> Raphmoe
11/05/2014 at 09:39 |
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Performance car focus? No, that's a performance car Contour!
/illshowmyselfout
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Raphmoe
> Dsscats
11/05/2014 at 09:39 |
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hehe, punny!
RazoE
> Raphmoe
11/05/2014 at 09:54 |
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Brother's baby-momma had a "regular" Contour and it was a pile. Those rear plastic windows are fake and necessary because the interior designers didn't talk to the exterior designers. However........and I've said it before...I've always had a soft spot for the SVT Contour..
allthenamesaretaken
> Margin Of Error
11/05/2014 at 09:57 |
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Unless you want to steer....
Svend
> Roundbadge
11/05/2014 at 09:59 |
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Margin Of Error
> allthenamesaretaken
11/05/2014 at 10:07 |
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These things have police performance upgrades, you'd be surprised how sharp they are on a race track.
n54 & s38
> Mattbob
11/05/2014 at 10:14 |
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lol. Yup. It's "annals", not "anals"
jsn081
> Raphmoe
11/05/2014 at 10:21 |
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a college buddy had one of these back in 2000. After 2 years of upstate NY winters most of that "subtle bodywork" was hanging on by little more than duct tape and a dream. If I recall correctly, it needed a clutch at ~35k and had a host of other problems. Didn't help that my buddy beat the ever living crap out of it, so I'm not sure if it had problems due to the driver, or he drove it like that because he hated it due to the problems. Though the world will never know because he put it into a guardrail during a particularly bad snowstorm effectively ridding the world of another mediocre "sports sedan"
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Raphmoe
> jsn081
11/05/2014 at 10:22 |
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Sometimes, cars really are appliances. Fun, fast, hoonable appliances. Just like the latest and greatest TV, they will wear out after time. Was he ok after the accident?
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jsn081
> Raphmoe
11/05/2014 at 10:31 |
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he was fine, wasn't a high speed hit. He sideswiped the rail with the bulk of the damage to the front passenger quarter/suspension and the obvious scrapes down the rest of the bodywork. Was enough to total it but nobody was injured.
It is true that cars wear out, but there is something so insanely brittle about the plastic used by Ford in the late 90s/early 2000s. Something used to fall off his car if you looked at it funny. By contrast, my lowered 1997 Audi A4 survived 3 winters of hooning, parking lot powerslides, and plowing its way out of street parking spots with little more than a single rusted out lower door trim (common problem on the early A4 and a $30 fix). Plenty of rocking its way out of plowed in parking spots and I still was on the original clutch at 89k when an 18 wheeler smashed her up.
LugNutz
> Raphmoe
11/05/2014 at 10:37 |
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I was on a test drive in one of those back in the day and got all four tires off the ground going through a raised intersection at a tad over 90mph. That was the end of that test drive, heh.
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Mattbob
> Margin Of Error
11/05/2014 at 11:05 |
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cop shocks, cop tires, cop motor.
Jonathan Harper
> Raphmoe
11/05/2014 at 12:05 |
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A fun car should never be referred to as an appliance. It is an insult to fun car the world over.
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Jonathan Harper
> Raphmoe
11/05/2014 at 12:07 |
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A guidance counselor at my high school drone one, I thought it was sorta cool until it legit started falling apart. That body kit was not made to last.
That said, I would much prefer the SVT over the Civic.
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Raphmoe
> Jonathan Harper
11/05/2014 at 13:06 |
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Margarita machines are appliances. Margaritas are amazing. Soooo, I do not agree with you.
and 100 more
> Raphmoe
11/05/2014 at 13:38 |
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Not to be a pedantic dick, but honestly just to be helpful...
it's "annals", not "anals"
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Jonathan Harper
> Raphmoe
11/05/2014 at 13:54 |
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To be clear, Margaritas are not fun cars.
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Raphmoe
> Jonathan Harper
11/05/2014 at 14:17 |
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Ok.
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allthenamesaretaken
> Margin Of Error
11/05/2014 at 16:17 |
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not doubting that so much as..ya know..the whole 40,000 vehicle recall from Ford thing hahaha. The police upgrades on these almost make them track ready, totally agree.
Mr.New.Vegas
> Raphmoe
05/02/2017 at 00:03 |
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Obviously never driven a contour with a 6 cylinder. Or expects it to react like a Ferrari. Oh and that pic of that shifty ricer civic was hysterical. I own a regular 6 cylinder contour and not an svt, and let me tell you this car flies to be what it is, I’ve smoked quite a good many cars that were utterly shocked to have been beaten by what they probably assumed was just a crappy Taurus or escort. Don’t down a model of car until you’ve driven it, I down civics because 99% of them blow except for the si and type r versions.
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Mr.New.Vegas
> allthenamesaretaken
05/02/2017 at 00:05 |
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Lol more like a performance yacht.