We Found the Last Contour SVT Ever Built | On the Lift at Livernois Motorsports

[SID297]

We Found the Last Contour SVT Ever Built | On the Lift at Livernois Motorsports

It's not everyday that you just stumble upon a piece of history, but that's exactly what happened during a recent visit to @Livernois Motorsports in Dearborn, MI. Amongst all the various Domestic performance machines in the show we spotted a pristine Toreador Red Contour SVT. It had the familiar Medium Prairie Tan interior, and still wore its original window sticker. We soon learned that this 2000 model year example was the very last CSVT to roll off the Kansas City Assembly lines.

As the story goes, several of the SVT team members have been moving this car around from location to location for over two decades. While it is not a perfect car by any means, they have managed to keep its mileage in the ~150 range. It was on the rack at Livernois getting a new fuel pump installed and fluids changed in preparation for a public show at the SVT 30th Anniversary gathering during the Mustang Memories show at Ford HQ. This video tell the story:

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I'll have a closer look at this car in a vid coming out in a few days, so subscribe to the SVTP Youtube channel if you don't want to miss it. Seeing this car brought back a lot of memories of wrenching with friends on these cars in college. Who knows, one day I may try to track down a clean Silver Frost unit with the Midnight Blue interior to add to my collection. It would look great sitting next to my silver Gen 2 L.

 

[StacyStangz]

It was so cool seeing Ford's Mark Wilson pull up in this thing at the Mustang Memories Show - MOSCEM Sunday. He made sure to mention he put 14 miles on it, driving it to the show! Very cool.

 

[black4vcobra]

Neat piece of history.

Why would it need a fuel pump? I'd imagine it sat for years at a time with no fuel in the tank so maybe seized up?

 

[31N007]

The ODO read 113 miles, so he passed the 100 mile mark on the way to the show. Super cool!

 

[Scotian]

I have a 98.5 T red with MND interior with 137,000km . Looks nice beside my 03 DSG cobra !

 

[SolarYellow]

Ford really made a cool car with that one. Unfortunately, the ones I come across online are all abused and treated without any care.

 

[kevinatfms]

Neat piece of history.

Why would it need a fuel pump? I'd imagine it sat for years at a time with no fuel in the tank so maybe seized up?

The parts used were abysmal on those things. Never seen a car fall apart as easily as a Contour.

The love/hate cult of the Ford SVT Contour - Hagerty Media

Fun to drive but difficult to work on.

www.hagerty.com

Article best explains the Contour woes over the years.

 

[black4vcobra]

The parts used were abysmal on those things. Never seen a car fall apart as easily as a Contour.

The love/hate cult of the Ford SVT Contour - Hagerty Media

Fun to drive but difficult to work on.

www.hagerty.com

Article best explains the Contour woes over the years.

I had a buddy in HS that drove around a 5 speed, 4 cylinder Contour. Wasn't a bad car until the timing belt let loose and piston to valve contact ensued. I want to say it probably had 80 or 90k on the odometer at the time.

As far as the worst quality car, you must never have dealt with a first gen DSM. Good Lord those things were piles of shit.

Also, they were mostly gone by the time I got my license but I recall the K cars being absolutely terrible for quality as well.

 

[mbsvt]

Man as a Ford Technician of many decades I remember looking then over in the show room at my dealer when they first came out.
What a cool SVT sedan. They ran very good too. Nice find fellas.

 

[gimmie11s]

I wanted one of these VERY badly when they came out.

 

[kevinatfms]

I had a buddy in HS that drove around a 5 speed, 4 cylinder Contour. Wasn't a bad car until the timing belt let loose and piston to valve contact ensued. I want to say it probably had 80 or 90k on the odometer at the time.

As far as the worst quality car, you must never have dealt with a first gen DSM. Good Lord those things were piles of shit.

Also, they were mostly gone by the time I got my license but I recall the K cars being absolutely terrible for quality as well.

First Gen DSM had the normal shitty Mitsubishi interiors and such but the drivetrain wasnt half bad. The whole crank walk thing was a huge problem but i know a few people that owned them without much issue once you corrected the normal crap. They were also significantly quicker than the SVT Craptour.

The Chrysler K-Car is famous for probably being the biggest pile of shit in history. Even the 24 Hrs of LeMons had one that people tried to keep running over the years with abysmal reliability. They eventually threw it off a cliff about a month ago in Alaska. It was videoed on 1320 videos(look for the American Flag painted wagon).

The Greatest Lemons Cars of All Time - 24 Hours of LEMONS

Here's a pretty exhaustive list of the greatest Lemons cars we'd ever seen in the series' first nine years. There's a lot of cool and crazy in here.

24hoursoflemons.com

(named worst lemons car of all time)

SVT put lipstick on a pig. No matter how much you pretty it up its still shit underneath. Horrible cars with just terrible quality control which lead to draining the owners pockets the minute something went wrong. Technicians hated them for good reason even if it tried to make them money.

 

[biminiLX]

Awesome find. I saw it when I took my son to the show Sunday. Brought back good memories of my SVT. I bought it with super low miles (like 9k) completely stock in ‘08 and drove it 4 years during residency and fellowship in hills of Pittsburgh. Almost 80k miles and no issues at all, so to me they were impressive little sedans that loved the curves and stretching its legs on tge highway.
Cool piece of SVT history.
-J

 

[SID297]

Neat piece of history.

Why would it need a fuel pump? I'd imagine it sat for years at a time with no fuel in the tank so maybe seized up?

Fuel pumps crapping out after long periods of sitting it pretty common. I've replaced my fair share of them.

The ODO read 113 miles, so he passed the 100 mile mark on the way to the show. Super cool!

I've heard varying stories since I shot that last week. I'd go with whatever Mark says.

Awesome find. I saw it when I took my son to the show Sunday. Brought back good memories of my SVT. I bought it with super low miles (like 9k) completely stock in ‘08 and drove it 4 years during residency and fellowship in hills of Pittsburgh. Almost 80k miles and no issues at all, so to me they were impressive little sedans that loved the curves and stretching its legs on tge highway.
Cool piece of SVT history.
-JView attachment 1806934View attachment 1806933

I would like to find a 4k mile one like that now. I helped with several 3.0 swaps on them back in the day. Wouldn't mind getting the old gang back together for another one.

 

[biminiLX]

I hear you Travis.
I’ll donate an extrude honed ST220 manifold in the garage if you get one for a project.
Was pretty far in planning an 11:1 custom 3.0 swap and bought an ST220 intake from eBay UK. Cool that I got to drop it off and see Extrude Hone facility outside of Pitt back around 2010.
I really should have kept that car
-J

 

[SID297]

I hear you Travis.
I’ll donate an extrude honed ST220 manifold in the garage if you get one for a project.
Was pretty far in planning an 11:1 custom 3.0 swap and bought an ST220 intake from eBay UK. Cool that I got to drop it off and see Extrude Hone facility outside of Pitt back around 2010.
I really should have kept that car
-j

I may take you up on that. What color interior did you have?

 

[biminiLX]

My favorite combo silver/blue!
Most people thought it was black but it got me liking the colored interiors.
-J

 

[BittenInBama]

I helped put together a Mustang show way back when; local Ford dealer sponsored the show & sent a Cobra, Lightning & Contour for display. Remember talking w the owner of the dealership about the cars. He said something like
"people love the Mustang (Cobras) & Lightnings yet ignore the Contour and it is just as much fun to drive. But it's like trying to sell caviar to a hot dog crowd"

 

[Steve@TF]

I may take you up on that. What color interior did you have?

I have a set of subframe connectors id send you


Sent from my iPhone using the svtperformance.com mobile app

 

[biminiLX]

I have a set of subframe connectors id send you


Sent from my iPhone using the svtperformance.com mobile app

Those were a nice upgrade. And saved the Jack point covers. I did those and H&R springs Sachs dampers and a B&M shifter and FSVT 17s. Car was fun stock and lightly modified. Also did a custom Y-pipe and picked up some highway mpg.
-J

 

[specracer]

Was great to see that car at the show on Sunday. Lets hope they continue to keep it (and others) "hidden", and spared from the crusher.