While perusing one of our local junkyards the other day, something strange caught our eye. The alloy rims and body kit told us that this wasn’t just any old Ford . Closer inspection revealed that this humble Contour had been breathed upon by the fellows at Ford’s division of speed – SVT. We knew that you could get a Special Vehicle Team tuned Focus, Mustang, or F-150, but we had never heard of this souped up four-door. So, let’s take a closer look.
The interior looked pretty subtle except for those deeply bolstered front seats and the white faced gauges. The seats looked more like something you’d find in a corner carving sports car rather than a family hauling sedan like this. The tach echoed the SVT badge that was found on the trunk and the speedo featured a seemingly optimistic top speed of 160 miles per hour. All these additions are great, but don’t really make a car go faster.
This special package consisted of more than a few tacked on visuals though. The SVT guys added a larger throttle body, smooth flowing intake manifold, special cams, and a dual exhaust. That all added up to a 30 horsepower gain over the 2.5 liter V6’s already decent output of 170. All that power was fed to the front wheels through a standard five-speed manual transmission and extra braking was provided by larger front disks. The suspension was even tweaked with different springs, shocks, and sway bars.
It’s a shame that this BMW fighter has been consigned to such a sad fate. The Contour was one of the rarest SVT cars ever built and I’m sure there are a few people who would liked to have kept this one on the road. It does look like it suffered a minor accident and the odometer is showing over 200k, so maybe it was time to say goodbye. We are glad that we were able to document this special vehicle though before it headed off to crusher.
Oh, and we were sure to grab a few of the SVT specific bits just in case someone wants them for their Contour!
I had forgotten about the SVT Contour, Jesse! Sad, because it was a brilliant little car, fast, comfortable, and, despite the body kit, pretty much an under-the-radar speed machine. No one noticed them, which may be part of the reason so few are around now.
I had one for a short time, and was even able to take it to a local road-racing course for some “hot” laps (I was driving, so the speed was less than what a better driver could have gotten out of it). But I do remember that the little Duratec pulled like crazy (and sounded great), the transmission was precise and light in action, and the suspension was beautifully developed. Unlike another Ford “performance” sedan of similar vintage, I couldn’t run it out of brakes, either….
If I had had the coinage, I might have bought one, in which case it would now have much more than 200K on the clock, although I’d hope it didn’t end up in the boneyard like this one. Not going to say it was the equal of a 3-Series BMW in every respect, but for the price (IIRC, about $25K) it was pretty darn close.
Sweet! I’m only sorry someone didn’t rescue it before it was too late.
My boss had a plain Jane 4 cylinder, automatic he bought used. Handled great and could cruise at 80 easily. The only issue was how small the back seat was for his teenage sons.
I still see a couple SVT Contours on the road as rare as they are but they’ve been rode hard, put away wet.
Thanks for sharing, Jesse.
With more decades in the old vehicle hobby than I want to admit, this is probably the time to start buying cars like this, when they’re of little value. Those who tend to buy and keep cars – like I do (ref my post on the Wildcat thread) – will find that there’ll come a time when interest in such models will come into vogue…
…I’m speaking from experience. The ’84 Ford Sierra wagon that I’ve owned since 2010 (and bought to teach a grandson some mechanic’s skills) has gone from being considered as ‘old junk’ to generating a lot of interest and positive comments. My CZ motorcycle and some of my rather mundane ’80s 50cc scooters, as well as my ’64 Wildcat coupe that I’ve owned for almost 42 years, have gone through the same transition.
Besides, something like this SVT Contour would be a ball to drive.
I never knew they sold Sierras in the States..
We got the Sierra – rebadged as the Merkur XR4ti and the Scorpio (Sierra from 85-89 and the Scorpio from 88-89). Neither sold very well but the XR4ti did get kind of a cult following here. Not so much the Scorpio – but I did see one about a week ago driving here in Northern California.
Thanks, interesting stuff!
You got the Mekur, NZ (where I now live) got the Sierra – initially just the wagon – which was locally assembled from kits out of Belgium.
Mine was apparently an early production model.
NZ got the Sierra wagon back when Ford Australia and NZ decided that rebadging Mazdas made more sense than bringing actual Fords from Europe to replace the last Mk5 Cortinas
Mazda 323=Ford Laser, Mazda 626=Ford Telstar. Since there was no wagon variant of the 626 they brought in the wagon version of the new Sierra. It was quite successful, briefly being the No1 seller despite being only available as a wagon. Later on, after Mazda brought out their wagon, the rest of the Sierra range was also brought out to cater for the eurosnobs that didn’t want something Japanese.
My daily drive is a 1995 mercury Mystique with a 2.5L V6 and 5 speed manual transmission. It’s works fine for what it’s intended purpose. It’s comfortable, has decent performance, has head room for someone 6’2” and most important you don’t have to contort your neck to get in the drivers seat since the windshield isn’t laid back like the newer cars.
Steve R
How much for the wheels? And the shift knob?
As it happens, my dd is a 5sp v6 95 Mystique too.
Back in 2000 I picked up a 1999 that was only 6 months old…great little car, rare even at the time and ran circles around most European cars of the day. They were definitely more than a body kit, suspension and motor fully supported the “stance”. Not a cheap car to buy new, but well worth the price of admission.
So sad to see that in a junkyard. Some enthusiasts could really use a lot of those parts.
Sold one and the guy flipped it the next day at the track…. I still don’t believe it but his insurance paid the claim and he bought another one a week later…lol
I thought you meant he resold it at the track the next day. See where my mind is.
Worked at a Ford dealer when these were new. They sat on the lot for months and only sold when deeply discounted. They were fun to drive and looked great but were always in for warranty repairs.
I still get shivers up my spine just thinking about working on these. Talk about 10 pounds of $hit stuffed in a 5 pound bag. Some of these scars on my arms probably came from V6 Contours.
Also had a V6 5-Speed SE. To true working on these. Almost anything involved removing half the top end and/or unbolting mounts and rocking the engine/trans. It was very fun to drive, sounded great and fairly reliable for me up to about 80K. Then goofy things started breaking. It was replaced with an SVT Focus 4-door. Far superior car.
I always loved those Contours. My dad had a 626 Chronos 5-Speed V6, Canadian edition, now that’s a rare car.
What an unusual junkyard find! These have quite a large following and are fairly challenging to come by. Neat little cars!
There is a reason you don’t see Conturds on the road very often…
Ah yes, the Contour and Mystique. When I was working with the Ford engine guys in the ’90s, developing their first glass-reinforced nylon plastic intake manifolds for the 3L Vulcan engine in the Taurus/Sable platform, the C and M cars were often called the Detour and Mistake! Just didn’t grab the buying public. But those were the base models. Don’t know how well the SVT sold.
Hence their quick disappearance. But every mfr always has a bummer or two…..
Steve M. “and it ran like a raped date…” Really ?????
While I have zero interest in a car like this, I had a friend with a Contour, not a bad car, but the 4 cylinder, and his kid beat the crap out of it, and it took it, but by 100K, the car was shot. Just an electronic nightmare, and Steven is right, there’s a reason they are in the junkyards, they are throw-away cars. Cost more to fix than it’s worth. Car makers aren’t stupid, they know they need to engineer cars like that today so people buy new cars. You couldn’t convince me otherwise.
Looks too good to be in the scrap yard. Unless it’s a flood damaged car. I’d take it for a daily driver. Even if you drop a few bills into getting it roadworthy, it’s still a nice ride with a little pep in its step
A disposable little crap box, possibly the last of it’s kind to reach the scrap pile. I would take the SVT badges and attach them to my snow blower, other than that I wouldn’t give it a passing glance.
Interesting comment edh. I’m old enough to remember when ‘disposable little crap box’ was applied to most AMC products, Corvairs, Studebaker Larks, Ford Falcons, and anything small and British, French or Italian, especially if equipped with four-doors.
How many of the vehicles I’ve just mentioned have become cool, popular, and/or have a cult following? Perspectives change over the years…
…I’m sure those SVT badges would look cool on your snow blower. It’s the sort of thing I would do, if I lived in a place where it snows. (cheeky grin)
Whats a snowblower?
we had the ST24 and ST220 in the uk…..both good at being a fast Ford.
In the UK we had the ST200
https://thecarinvestor.com/review-ford-mondeo-st200/
Mine hit a GPS-verified 150 mph.
I can’t believe how few know of this car! Anyone with a contour SVT was part of a tight knit circle. They did group buys to get the parts they needed cheap… My brother had one, by one I mean three or four in total, and they were a blast. Guys used to take a 3 L out of the escape, and port match The intake from the 2.5 SVT, and it would look stock under the hood. You could also get a Quaife limited slip differential for these things. With the 3 L, the LSD, boxed A-arms, koni coil overs, 18s or 19s with sticky rubber,… It was like a mustang 5 L with way more quality… Pulled lika a mofo
If you want one that’s going to appreciate in value… Two rarest colours were Toredor Red and Tropic Green. Most of the red cars had tan interior… One of the rare interior colour choices was midnight blue leather… It’s pretty cool, we built a red with blue leather once…
A friend of mine had one. It was great fun.
I think he kept it about 2 years. Put snow tires on it for winter.
It was in the shop all the time. He couldn’t take the bills outside of the warranty repairs, and got rid of it at a loss.
Mine was a slightly modified 1998, bought new, proved to be quite reliable, also used snow tires, put on 75,000 miles in three years, only sold because the new spouse didn’t want to drive a stick.
A ’98 SVT Contour was my third car because I needed to take clients out to lunch and my ’93 Sentra SE-R only had two doors. The SVT was a truly worthy replacement, and that is saying something. The drive is great on these and the exhaust note is fabulous!
Issues with this car centered primarily on poorly attached cladding (fixable by replacing clips with bolts), “throttle hang” (fixable with a golf ball, IIRC) and failure of the intake to open its secondaries, which took away that cool boost feeling at 4K (intermittent problem). I bought mine used in 2000 for a song and it served me well for about five years.
Back in the mid 2000s in New Jersey region SCCA autocross, there was a guy who raced one of these. He was in the G Stock category witch was dominated by the Integra Type R at the time. This guy would win or come in second between the Type Rs every time, serious car.
Jesse, when you see something like this, newly arrived to the junkyard and nothing of huge value removed yet, do you ever ask them how much to buy the entire car? Or are yards not interested in selling entire cars like that? Also, if you asked them, would they tell you why it’s there in the first place?
I’m interested in hearing what parts you saved and pricing if available? I live near Savannah for meet/pickup.. I own a 99′ T-Red with 3L…
Anyone have a blue driver seat for an svt contour?