For factory sleepers, I can't believe nobody has mentioned a Taurus SHO yet.
I've owned eight of these cars so far... they were made from 1989-1999 and here in the states they suffer the same horrible resale as the regular Taurus so these days they can be bought CHEAP. The car pictured above set me back $400. When I sold it I had about $3500 into it all total, including a tranny rebuild, repaint, suspension & some basic bolt ons. Plus, since they are still a 4 door Taurus the insurance is cheap too, and yet they're as fast or faster than the Ford Mustangs of their generation
The early generation SHO's (89-91) didn't look much different from a run of the mill, 140 hp 4 door Taurus. However, they actually had a DOHC 220hp 3.0 V6 built by yamaha mated to a Mazda built MTX-IV 5-speed manual. The engines are amazingly strong, I know many SHO owners with well over 200,000 hard miles on their engine, and a few with 300,000. When this car came out in 1989 for $19,900 the ONLY 4 door that could beat it was a $50,000 BMW M-5, nothing else with 4 doors came close and it was a match for many two door performance cars of the era. It's main disadvantage was the launch; being FWD these cars are very tricky to launch well and it takes a lot of practice to really get them going. However, once you figure it out the 5-speed SHO was a match for Ford's Mustang GT all the way through 1995, and if you ran into a Mustang from a roll, stock for stock the SHO would walk away. Official stats for the 89 SHO were 0-60 in 6.7 seconds, 1/4 mile in 15.1@ 95 and a drag limited top speed of 143. Unofficially, in my 6 years of SHO ownership (including several regional meets and one national SHO convention) I've seen numerous 5-speed SHOs run well into 14's in stock and near stock trim (my 89 ran a best of 14.74 @ 96 with an extra 16 horsepower in basic bolt-ons.) It had a curb weight of 3078 lbs, had fully independant suspension with beefy 24mm front and 26mm rear sway bars, and once you put a decent set of tires on it (stock was 215/65/15, I ran 225/50/16's ) it actually handled EXTREMELY well, with good balance and easy lift-throttle oversteer on demand. Best of all, the 1st generation cars were very stealthy; aside from some ground effects they looked just like a regular Taurus. My car above had some nice wheels on it, but take them away and the car could almost pass for a plain old Taurus:
92-95 had the same engine & tranny setup but were slightly larger & heavier with a unique front end and a little more bling. 93-95 cars could be had with an automatic, and their engines were stroked to 3.2 liters. With the 5-speed, these second generation cars were just as quick as the first gens; in fact the quickest completely stock SHO I've ever seen was a 94 5-speed that ran a 14.52 at US-41 dragway in Illinois. The key to these cars is learning how to launch them; they're very tricky to get going as there is a fine line between bogging the engine and spinning the tires silly. Once you figure out how to get it moving, it will haul ass.
The 96-99 cars got a little more stealthy again, but they also got a little slower. They were all automatics and went to a jointly designed Ford/Yamaha 3.4 V8 that made 235 horsepower. Despite a power bump, the added weight and the auto only option netted a car that averaged high 15's in the 1/4 mile. It was still a terror on the highway though, with a top speed of 140. It was much more refined than the earlier cars, and reflected the competition that was coming from GM in the form of the supercharged Bonnevilles and Grand Prixs.
You can drive a 3rd generation SHO in GT2 and GT4.
The first and second generation SHOs were
supposed to make it into GT4; I was actually involved in one of the GT photoshoots for cars in Detroit; they took photos and sound clips of a white 91 and a red 94, but sadly only the V8 made it into the game
Another reason I like these cars so much is that they have sparked more confusion, misinformation and flat out myth than just about any other car out there. Seems everyone I talk to has something different to say about either the origin of the car or the kind of engine it has. I've heard everything from "Mustang V-8" to "turbo 4 cylinder" to "supercharged 6", and I've heard everything from "these engines originally made 300 horsepower and were detuned" to "they were built for boats but Ford put them in a car." Most recently, I had a guy tell me that Ford had to do a major engine modification after the first year because they were putting out way too much power and completely wasting the Mustang. I also had a guy insist that these engines originally made 800 horsepower in pure racing trim. Suffice to say, I've spent many a year deciphering the fact from the fiction about these cars, but I love hearing the stories just the same
More than you wanted to know probably, but the 89 SHO is the reason we have such a nice variety of strong performing sport sedans today. At a time when 4 door performance came with a huge price tag, it turned the whole industry on it's head and sent the automakers scrambling. It gets my nod for one of the best factory sleepers 👍