Motorweek 1998 Ford Contour SVT Road Test

[@eljefe8564]

Got lucky enough to drive one of these on the regular when was 16 in 2001. Awesome car. Actually sounded pretty good

[@MultiTelan]

Heh, same. For me it was two years earlier and I was learning to drive, but this is the car I learned to drive on.

[@dyingbreed7740]

It was a great handling chassis in its time. The bare bones zetec with a manual was a well balanced stellar handling compact sedan. Underrated and under appreciated bit of engineering. It was a bit too small and underpowered compared to the Japanese and European alternatives but it saw a lot of success as the Mondeo in Europe and thrilled fans in the BTCC. Love the car

[@robm5958]

I have one with 26K miles on it. It's been sitting in the driveway under a tarp for many years, but the car is still pristine with the new car smell in the interior. Going to take her to Ford to see how much it'll cost to dump all of the fluids and change the necessary parts. :)

[@ChrisPatrick-q6k]

Check the rear sills for rust first

[@myactuallname3940]

You could just take it to an Indy and save the ass fucking you would receive at a dealership

[@robm5958]

@@myactuallname3940 That's exactly what I ended up doing. It's still sitting there right now and should cost 5500 in labor plus the 5K in parts.

[@mike479]

I used to own ‘98 #6522, identical to the car in the video minus the sunroof and cd player. Really fun car to drive. Comfortable, efficient for what it was. That V6 with headers and a Borla exhaust on it sang a beautiful tune. Did a pretty extensive restoration and paint job on it last year before I sold it. Neat car that went unnoticed by most people, but when someone recognized what it was, they sure made me aware they knew what it was!

[@cameronholloway4983]

I’ve got a 2000 Tropic Green SVT Contour. It’s not in the best of shape but I love it.

[@fernandorocha8459]

Wowww, very nice and beautiful Ford Contour SVT

[@StormAutoAdventures]

I never knew MotorWeek tested my old SVT Contour! I was excited until I saw the worst acceleration stats I've ever seen in this car! All the magazines did 0-60 between 6.9-7.2 seconds, and they all ran a consistent 15.3-15.4 1/4 mile all @ 91+ mph... Between 91.1-91.8 mph to be exact. In 2002, I personally ran a best bone stock 1/4 mile of 15.19 @ 92.55 mph with my 1998.5 SVT Contour E1. Mine was Silver Frost with Dark Blue leather interior. It had a power sunroof, and the optional CD player lol. The 98.5 E1 changes were... The 1999-2000 16" 5 spoke SVT wheels with the same 215/50ZR16 BFG performance tires as the 99-00. A much better sport tuned suspension that eliminated that horrible nose dive and swaying during handling without killing the ride quality. There was no dash clock...It just said Contour like the 99-00. It also had a slightly different shaped rear seat, and front seat backs for more rear leg room. Pretty cool. I miss that car. I bought it with low miles in 2002. I wish I didn't sell it in 2005.

[@ericbritton9346]

I almost bought one used in 2008 and got rid of my 2004 Dodge Stratus SE for It. It would have been the coolest car ever. The SVT team should have worked on a 1994 Ford Tempo sedan with a performance beefed up V6 and a all wheel drive set up back then. But the Contour was on its way in to replace the Tempo.

[@ABeans07]

Lol tempo

[@AaronSmith-kr5yf]

Why didn't they shove in the larger displacement, Yamaha developed V6 from the previous gen Taurus SHO into the Contour???? It would have fit, both were 60 degree V6 DOHC, but of completely different designs, with the SHO engine having MORE POWER and revved its nuts off at 4000+rpm. I'd much rather have a late 80's or 90's Taurus SHO vs the Contour, mainly for that sweet, sweet revving/sounding Yamaha V6 engine under the hood.

[@kinggalloway-ortiz3346]

I’m thinking the same thing, they should of put a SHO motor in it.

[@ericbritton9346]

Same here, that Yamaha 3.0L V6 DOHC engine displacement, it would have did at least 224 HP at 4,000+rpm like the Taurus SHO.

[@MikesAutoWorld]

It would never, ever fit in the Contours. My dad wanted to swap the guts of his rotted out 94 MTX into our 98 SVT rust free T-Red shell. The SHO is incredibly wide with the heads and intake, let alone the mounts being completely different. I prefer the SHO in design, but sadly it would never work in my SVTs

[@MikesAutoWorld]

Think of it like this, Ford produced the 5L V8 in a number of cars over several years. The only thing they changed was the improvements in design over the past 45-some years. The displacement stayed the same, but the overall design changed to the point where the engine got larger with DOHC and improved intakes. So if you were to swap a brand-new Coyote into a older Fox 5L car, it could be done, it would be an even tighter fit than the original engine. Same thing with the Vulcan. After Yamaha touched the 3L V6, the engine got bigger with DOHC aluminum heads and a larger more improved intake system. The block stayed a 3L design (until the auto 3.2Ls), but everything above it changed. It's honestly amazing that the Duratec V6s fit in the Contours/Mondeos. The 2.5L and 3L Duratecs barely fits in these cars, and if you have to do anything major on these, the sub-frame has to be dropped. So if you shoved the SHO into it, you'd essentially have to make it air cooled with no room for a cooling system within the engine bay. The SHO in the Taurus just barely gets by with room due to size. I wish the SHO was able to fit, and on paper it should, but until you get a tape measure around to compare the size between the two engines, good luck

[@MikesAutoWorld]

Besides, you can make SHO power out of this car anyways. The most the stock diff and trans can handle is up to 250hp. So if you make that power with either a full 3L Duratec swap, or build up a 3L with the 2.5L SVT heads (port them for more power) and intake. You'll be making a nice a steady 220-250hp with headers, y-pipe, and full exhaust. I'm doing that with mine to go against my dad's 1995 blue MTX SHO (recently got this one). His old 94 SHO motor is going into his 65 Mustang inline six coupe. Big build with a lot of odd ball parts to make it work (specific year Aerostar bell-housing, 90s 3.8L V6 manual trans out of the Stangs, different rear end, etc.)

[@elizabethpeterson1644]

I had a 1998 Ford Contour SE from mid October 1999 to late May 2005. It was a good 1st car. My was an automatic. I never had major issues with it. I did bumped a couple of things in backing once was an older car that the front bumper was held by duct tape. Another was a tree when I tried to backed in another part of a drive way since the other exit or entrance had a big conversion van parking in it. I did hit the van it was blocking the other part of the driveway that I could have gone out. My father did back into the car and did a cut from his lift gate from his truck one winter when I had the car. He forgot the car was there. I did complained to my father about fixing it. It was easy to changed the brights by taking out each headlight. I used a Phillips head screwdriver to unscrewed the 3 screws. I only did it a couple times when I had the car. Even the wiper blades and filling up the washer fluid was very easy for me. One thing that I missed was the radio with a tape cassette player. That was old school for me. I don’t have that car no more. Now I drive a 2020 Ford Escape SE. I had different vehicles over the years from Ford.

[@patrickmichael3384]

Yes! Thanks so much for posting this!

[@pinata-whacker4635]

Had an 00 red tan interior.. I loved that car… affordable fun to drive manual car- try buying that nowadays…

[@fernandochaves9665]

Fast and beautiful, thanks for this video.

[@Paul-up8um]

mk2 mondeo in england we also had the st200 and st24

[@margaretbehler4935]

My brother Kevin had one. Lots of fun!

[@fernandorocha-dx1wv]

Very beautiful and nice car. Spetaculla,r fanastic and great performance

[@carlosbarragan1673]

Ive had 3 of them in the past , 2 silve, one black.. The best you can do to them is 3l swap them and put headers exhaust and tune. And it wakes up, The fastest one I had, had headers, borla exhaust system cold Intake. 13.8 nch discs and 4 piston Wilwood brakes.. quaife diff lighter cranck pulley ., AC delete. shorter belt. etc

[@imfraeglasgow]

You think the engine bay is big enough for a Honda J series engine?

[@carlosbarragan1673]

@@imfraeglasgow I dont think so probably a K series no problem

[@chadmiller2224]

I wish Ford would have gave us the badass escorts that their European division put out. The coolest fast Fords outside the Mustang were mostly in the UK.

[@MrAndreCoutinho]

A lot nicer than the Mondeo, especially the rear and taillights, the interior looks premium.

[@jbar_85]

My friends first car was this lol! Her dad got it for her in 2006 lmao! But not the SVT model for sure lol.

[@petulantfrenzy5532]

Ah the good old days of Ford.

[@thomasschaefer9312]

I had one. I was fun to drive, but it was ALWAYS in the shop. Quality is job none.

[@matthewbowen5841]

I know this was mostly about balance and handling, but geez, all this development and 1/2 second slower to 60 than a 91 Protege...

[@markcross6864]

Same as the Mondeo ST200 available in the UK .

[@richardprice7763]

Isn't that just a Mondeo V6?

[@MikesAutoWorld]

Their equivalent to the SVT is the 2000 ST200

[@metrawatt]

In the US, Ford re-badged the Mondeo as the Contour

[@QRS365]

just 195 hp ?

[@samrod904]

My first car ever had had problems with it

[@jimbrow83]

No faster than non svt actually slower 7.5 for no svt manual model

[@felacsvt]

Had a 98 CSVT ran on for like 1.5-2yrs then had rod kick due to oil starvation eventually rebuilt the engine drove like a bat out of hell then the engine harness fried had my mom just sell it…never buy the 1st production model of any car alway something wrong with them 😌

[@jlcii]

This car would have made more sense if it got the 3.0 liter duratec V6 and all wheel drive system from its stablemate, the Jaguar x-type. Otherwise, this is just a Half Baked sport package for too much extra money

[@P00katube]

Who's here from Jackass : The Movie?

[@seanthegod4585]

Wait a minute. The V6 with the manual hit 7.9 sec from 0-60. Hardly anything to write home about, the SVT. 🙄

[@metrawatt]

These things weren't the fastest, but neither was a BMW 325 back then. But they were surprisingly fun to drive.

[@theripper121]

t@@metrawatt That and motorweeks test track/driver was never the best. They are always the slowest of any car journalists of the time.

[@ABeans07]

Lots of wrong info on here lol

[@ChrisPatrick-q6k]

Mondeo

[@ddemonjjv]

Says the guys still living with mom and dad.😁

[@user-sk1eh3pg6j]

Test driver doesn't know how to drive it. 0-60=7.0sec. He shifted way too slow.