I had a disk crash on Sept 4, 2001, which lead to the loss of the original thawts page. If you happened to save a copy, let me know!

Update: An old copy was recovered. Thanks Perry! Here is the original page.

This page contains Lance's thawts on various performance modifications for the Contour/Mystique/Mondeo. These are my opinions, so they shouldn't be taken for fact.

Intake

There are several restrictions in the intake path that can be opened up for better high-end horsepower. The airbox, throttle body, and upper intake being the easiest to immediately deal with.

• A KKM Tru-Rev induction system is the most popular way of opening up the airbox restriction, but heat soak can be an issue during idle. A Miks heat sheild can help quite a bit.
  
• Switching to an SVT throttle body is probably the best approach to that issue, but obviously this will only help those without SVT's. A larger TB than the 60mm SVT unit has shown losses on the dyno, so that path is not recommended. Switch to the 60mm unit from the stock 54mm on a non-SVT requires a new throttle cable, bracket, gasket, and in 95-97 models, a new throttle position sensor connector. They went from a square connector on the earlier cars to an oval in the 98+. Switching to an SVT TB without going to the SVT upper manifold is not as worthwhile. You will need to port match the opening on the upper to equal the size of the new TB.
• Swapping the upper intake manifold for an SVT unit or having your existing manifold extrude honed is the way to go with this problem. Some gains can be had from further honing the SVT unit, but it is probably more expensive than it is worth. The primary/secondary ports on the SVT unit are a few millimeters larger than the non-SVT unit, as well, so keep that in mind. No other solutions exist as of yet, but we are being teased by Terry Haines about a dual TB upper, available in the coming months.