Sup? I am in the middle of descision making right now, and looking for some information. At the moment I own a '04 Ford Taurus SES V6 DOHC, Gold paint, 4door, Auto transmission, complete stock. Its under my parents name still, but if i keep it i need to change that (there credit makes this thing horribly expensive).

Main thing i came to find was performance options, (intake, exaust, so forth) and exterior options to make it look sexy. I have not found much so far, I dont realy know where to look. Im sure its not a 'light' car like an eclipse, what i want to know is "Can It be Tweaked?" Is there decent intake options? Decent or awesome turbo options? Exaust? Exterior? Are they more pricy then most?

I dont want to keep this car if it is not race worthy, and the outside cant be cleaned up. Stock, normal, plain, usual, not my thing. Whether I race or not, I want my car to have power and looks.

Look at it this way. Every car has an application for intake and exhaust (some cars dont have apps for headers) whether it be universal or make specific. Neither of those applications do practically anything, so your gonna be looking at a custom turbo. Everythign will have to be custom fabbed, so your probably going to want to buy an awesome compressor and have everythign built around that. Expect to pay $5000 or more for minimal results. Your car probably cant handle very much psi, so yoru going to want to have custom pistons and rods fabbed as well. If your going to do anything to this car, your going to want to be DEDICATED to it.

You might want ot look into seeing if you can do a SHO engine transplant. From what I've heard, the SHO Taurus powerplant put out some good nubmers. I believe that 1999 was the last year that they made the SHO Taurus, but the engine might be transplantable into the 04 model year. One direction you might want to consider.

ok.. Well At this point with all considered (including collage beginning this month) I believe i will end up trading this in for a 4 cylinder. Cheaper gas, cheaper payments, more money i can save up to use on other things like this.
Im thinking something along the looks of a eclipse. But i am not sure what to go with. Im hoping maybe someone could give me advice on prefered or best picks. Something fast, comfortable, not nesisarly v6 24v, doesnt need to be 4 door. Something i can add performance upgrades to without adding extra cost for being "exotic" like the taurus would be as you say. There are alot of makes like hyundai and suzuki and kia, that i dont know anything about. maybe someone knows, including all of them, what are the best choices?

IF ya want a good 4 cylinder, with lots of parts, the Acura Integra and RSX are pretty good. There reliable, though not the cheapest in the world used, but still they have ALOT of aftermarket support, especially the Integra has a stage III turbo which will add a whopping 200 HP. It's just what you want, im dont know much about eclispes, so i cant help ya there.

To be more informative about my situation.. I am not mechanicaly talented, i dont realy know much about cars as far as repairing and tuning. My father is a mechanic but i only learned the basics from him. I have always loved the whole idea of street racing, would love to be a part of it one day, somwhere. Or atleast own a car worthy of such competition for the time being. So you can say i am a "newcomer" when it comes to these things, but everyone starts at the beginning. However putting that aside i am more then willing to learn, infact anxious/optomistic to.

Say i was to keep this car, and become dedicated. To start off more simple (beginners style perhaps?) What would i be looking at as far as intake/exaust, and exterior looks; Spoiler/lamps/body parts? What auto parts stores cary them, what prices would i be looking at? I probably need to be specific on my area/state to find that out, if so tell me(dont believe my profile zip).


I have been searching all over yahoo/google for guides or information on this car. I cannot find a Damn thing on performance upgrades or options, not even a chiltons manual for this make/year. The closest i found was a auto test on consumer guide wich the only con listed was low acceleration(can i fix this please?)

Okay, I'm going to get attacked by my fellow "board Members" for this one, but I can't let an opportunity go by. You say you don't want stock, normal, etc. I have a suggestion for you. Scion tC. It's a very well equipped car for well under 20g's brand new. It has an engine with reliability and strength that can only be described as "bullet proof" (it comes from the Toyota Camry, and if you want to know what kinds of things it's capable of, check out Jotechracing.com and look under project cars for the Nitto Tires tC from SEMA). There aren't many of them on the road, so you won't be driving what everyone else drives (as you would be if I recommended what would be my second choice for somone in your position, the Civic). This is a slight handicap at this point because performance upgrade choices are somewhat limited. But that is quickly being remedied. Clutchmaster recently introduced high performance clutches and a lightweight flywheel for example. There are turbo options already (scionspeed and zpi both have kits that will push hp to well over 300, starting with 160 stock), and limited slip diff, and for the looks of the car, many bodykits and spoilers and what not. For an example of some choices check out tctunerz.com (although from what I've heard it's not a good idea to purchase through them , just use them for window shopping. Okay, that's enough of that spiel I guess. There's my two cents with compounded interest and more.

Youre not going to find many parts for a Ford Taurus, and if youre not mechanically inclinded, I doubt youre going to be able to fabricate anything thats going to make a real difference powerwise. If you have an opportunity to get a new car, I agree with buddhakwake. The Scion tC, its cheaper than just about all the cars in its class, and can have aftermarket parts put on by the dealer that wont void the warranty (if only that supercharger would come out finally). Its much cheaper than the RSX. As a college student, you need a reliable ride, and you probably dont have a ton of money to play with. That pretty much rules out older Civics and stuff. Whatever you choose to do, dont be one of those guys that slaps on a weld on muffler, and drives around like he's got a supercar. Can't tell you how many people do that at my college.

i see plenty of that.. and i would refuse a civic, because there so small and ugly. and i see so many of them with that damn exaust, so loud and grainy. f%&ckin rice burners. I wouldnt just slap some metal tube on the damn thing no. Im looking for real things not some cheap job that sounds like ass and does nothing.

I dont think at this time buying a new car is possible, even though i realy want to. Better to wait awhile, if not even keep this car until i have finished my major, and into my career with better paychecks.

I dont expect there is much for a taurus, but i would think there is some things, spoiler, k&n filter, some type of performance exaust (probly nothing real high tech or fancy, but better then stock). Im just not sure where to look for these things, except k&n i could probly get that at napa or something. I think the biggest thing engine wise that would be nice to fix, atleast somewhat, is the acceleration. It does seem pretty slow when taking off, its good in the mid range rpm's though. Dunno if theres any way to improve the acceleration much without changing internal parts like piston rings or something.

I know i wont beable to do anything fancy right now holding this car in hand, but id expect there are minor things i can do that improve it somewhat, looks and performance wise. If i keep it till i finish collage thats around 4-5 years, i dont want to drive it completly stock that long, to boring.

Well, just a k&n intake and a non-custom performance exhaust will probably only net you about 15 or 20 hp (not much change). I wish you luck.

Your going to sit and bash ricers when yoru asking questions about what intake an exhaust to get? You wont get more than 15hp with I/H/E.

Im not exactly talking shit, i just dont like civics.

Your reasoning of why you dont like them is practically the same car you would be driving with an intake and exhaust, not to mention it looks like a bar of soap.

Well, look man. You sound like you don't have a whole lot of money right now for a new car (which basically limits you to something like a civic or an older, needs fixing up, muscle car; because unfortunately the taurus is largely a dog in the looks and performance categories, without much help out there for it without custom built stuff). You say you aren't real mechanically inclined (which basically cuts you down to the civic, beause an older muscle car that needs fixing up requires more personal wrench time; but who knows, maybe you could get your mechanic father to teach you how to do what it would take). So, it seems like you are resigned to fixing up your taurus so you don't feel...like you're not expressing yourself; until you can get a different, possibly new car to fix up. My advice would be to just deal with having the taurus stock and start saving now so you can get something more to your liking to begin with, rather than fixing up something you are going to get rid of. I did it for almost four years with a 1991 camry, until I got my MR2, so I know what it's like. And believe me, it's worth it. Delayed gratification that really meets your desires is much better than instant gratification that's half-assed.

And I second that. The day I get my Gsr is the day I jizz all the way home.