I dunno, if you've only got $6K into a nice looking SVT, then put in the $10K on top for a good 3L and turbo, tires, various little mods, then you won't be getting beat by evos. I don't ever remember being beat from a roll with my 3L turbo set at about 9psi. At the track it was differen't but the evo's I ran against were only pulling high 13's and low 14's like the M3 I ran. SRT4s pulling mid 14s, Vettes pulling mid and high 13's with a couple pulling low 12's. Lightning pulling high 12's. I know there are those spectacular EVO, WRX, SRT4, CIVIC, STANG, VETTE, etc. out there that can utterly destroy most of the competition, but those are rare. THe magazines make it sound like they are everywhere but they aren't. Of course turbo 3L contours that can run like that are rare too.
Anyway the point is you can't get into an evo that fast for less than $25K I bet right now.
So $10-$15K for the kind of power I'm talking about is a heck of a lot cheaper and it won't really depreciate much more anyway. Not so with a new evo.
A stock evo is quick but nothing like a 3L turbo on the highway IMO. You only have to look at the area under the dyno curve of both cars and compare to see what I'm talking about. There is a spreadsheet on my website that I took dyno's from Sportcompact car and plotted the points against my 3L in NA form and in two of the different turbo forms. Just look at the broad torque curve in it and the overall power. Even taking into account different dynos and such it is a huge difference and it performs like it too.
Anyway, most people forget that a set of Drag radials at normal tire pressure are still sticky as all hell and can be used daily on the street making powerfull contour even more potent! If you got the money to turbo out a contour you can afford a set of DRs for summer/fall driving once per year. Or deal with the wheelspin.
