BIG SHO
Hey peeps. This is my 1997 Taurus SHO that I picked up for a nice $3700. The odometer was showing 100,370 the first day (now over 101,300), which isn't a bad amount of miles for a SHO. It had a new (well, salvaged) engine put in recently...not sure why, but this engine itself has run like a top. I can't say the same about my battery wires which seemed to have a bad connection in them. It'd cut-out everytime I tried to start it w/ the dome lights on or if I hit a large bump on the highway at first, but now it's starting to do it on a regular basis...but, I think (HOPE!!) I fixed it today, but we'll see... Also the A/C is broke (during summer of course...:P), and my sunroof acted really goofy for a few days until I found a piece of broken plastic jammed in the track. I'm not sure where it came from, but whatever, it works fine now...lol Those are the only problems I've had thus far. I'd say I came out alright; $3700 for a near-150 MPH, punk-beating*, luxurious first car!!
Anyways, here's a few pictures I took of it last week:
This is THE ONLY car I have ever seen that looks better with a car bra...lol
Note the stainless-steel dual exhaust...a tip-off that will save you Honda Civic owners some embarassment... ;)
Btw...this thing has every option that Ford offered for the SHO that year, and contains features such as: MACH sound system w/ 6 CD Changer, sun/moonroof, leather, chrome wheels, the "sport active" suspension (I forgot the technical name...)
One more shot of the side:
I've only taken 1 shot of the interior though...this pic makes the "Saddle Tan" int-color look unbeleivably hideous. It looks better when it's not in direct sunlight...lol
But...the best feature of them all and what makes the entire car is the 3.4L V8 240-horse BEAST that roars all the way to 7-grand. Here's the jewel:
And here it is again, because I just thought the lighting was kinda cool on this one...
Alrighty, here's one just for fun:
I know 126 is nothing to really brag about, so I had to try again:
I know it's crappy, but I took it with a regular camera (the others are digital) and it came out blurry to begin with. Then you add an absolutely crappy scan job, and it's just a bunch of blotches. But, the needle is a touch under 140... :) :) :)
As far as mods go, the car came with a drop-in K&N filter that's currently bone-dry...so I'm thinking I want to replace it with a cone filter. My friend and I created a homemade cold air intake/ram air with a vacuum hose, duct tape, and $20. (bet you feel stupid for buying that $300+ dollar cold air intake from AEM for your Civic, huh??? Suckers... :P) I just cut off the stock intake tube (commonlly called the "saxaphone") above the resonator (commonally called the "moustrap"), went to Home Depot and bought 10 feet of 2.5" Ridge shop-vac hose ($20), stuck one end in the remaining intake tube in the fender (fit PERFECTLY!!!) and ran the other end right up to the grill...now how's that for jury-riggin??? Well, I already put our shop-fan up to the front of the car (blows about 30 mph) and I can feel a decent amount of air coming into the air box, so I know that if I got a cone filter for $45, I'd have no problem with feeding it plenty of cool air (especially at higher speeds) w/o having to pay $220+ shipping for one that has a sheild from www.shoshop.com. Expect pics of our work SOON....
But, the drop-in K&N is worth at least 5HP, and according to SHOshop, the 3rd cat bypass is 7-10 HP, so I bet I'm putting out no less than 250HP at the flywheel, given 235HP stock.
Alright, now this thing has a friggin' AWESOME sounding engine, and it's sad that Ford corked-n-constipated the thing w/ flow restrictions everywhere. When I got the car, I could only hear the engine through first gear...it was lost in the wind noise once it hit second. Now that I've removed the saxaphone, I can hear it all the way through 2nd and even some of third.
I'm still just wondering if I want to get some nice sounding mufflers for it...but I'd probably ask for them as like a Christmas present or something...too cheap to pay the $ for mufflers (as I've already proved...lol) So, I went ahead and made a poll to see what y'all think. btw...Flowmasters are absolute crap and I hate them (they make every single V8, car or truck, sound exactly the SAME!!! Seriously...don't you notice that???), but I want to see how many of you got suckered into liking them...lol...it'd probably be Magnaflows since my friend can get them INSANELY cheap through his work, or Bullets since I've heard those on SHO's before and they sound REALLY good and muscular...but we'll see!!
So...I think this beast will do until I have enough money for a LS-1 Camaro SS...what do y'all think??? :D Please, sign my guestbook!!
~John
