Hi.  I have been driving a 1986 Ford Taurus GL (yeah yeah the first model. lol) for about 5 months.  After buying one of the Super Street magazines, I have decided to improve my car.  Sadly, my car has little to offer, yet that may be what attracts me to modify it.  Well, it has a 3.0 Liter V6 with a top speed of 86 mph.  I am tired of being passed on the highway when I am going to work.  What can I do that is affordable to increase the horse power and top speed of my car?
   Anyways, the interior is in good shape but everything is red.  That is okay because the outside paint job is black so it looks really good, but it still looks like a "granny-car!"  Can I get any suggestions that can improve the interior/exterior/performance of my car?

Please help me!  The ladies keep passing me by!  

I'm all supportive for people wanting a stylish car... But without going "Pimp My Ride" on it, I don't see any kind of import/performance styling looking good on this car. The base to work with is weak in my opinion so anything that is done to modify probably won't do a whole lot, if not make it worse. The last thing you want is to have people ridicule your car for being riced (or because of the year and model, beanerized).

Since the car is absolutely not meant for or really capable of worth-while performance tuning, I would suggest to get a car that could actually be considered a good base for upgrade.

You can take this post how you want because I understand how blunt it is, but I'm just warning you about the discontent people will have for you because of your car if you go through with it.  

Well, I am kinda new too this whole car thing.  But, I wanted to turn it into a performance car because the body style is so stealthy in that it would never look like it would be a car to race.  I was wonder if another engine might be a possibility to increase the power.  Just so you know my Taurus has 40000 miles.  

the only thing in the realm of possibility is a drivetrain swap from a taurus SHO.  the reality of it is that it wouldn't in the least way be worth it; the only sensible thing to do (staying with a taurus) is actually go find a SHO and start from there.  

RacerTaurus86 these other two guys are right in their own ways, but I think the ultimate decision should come from you.  Never let anyone tell you that you can't do something but on the same note realize if you try to accomplish what everyone else is in a car that wasn't meant for racing in the first place it is going to be extremely costly.  You could possibly end up wasting more money on the car then what you paid for it in the first place with almost no noticable results.  My car is absolutely a (insert female dog word here) to tune, because it is primarily a executive sedan made for luxury not racing, but I did what I could to make it a nice all around driver, it is track worthy for I took it to the circuit before and it proved it can hang with some really big name models of cars.

Although you are more intent on making your car faster so you don't get passed up by everyone and their mom, in "my opinion" I think maybe you should build your car for show it is more of a reasonable approach and cheaper one (believe it or not).  

Anyways man, I am just blabbering on, but currently I am in Japan and I consider myself to be a really great car advisor.  I think maybe I can help you out on your budget with what you can do with everything.  Listen if you email me at www.hondainspire@gmail.com send me pictures of your exterior, interior, and engine bay, along with a letter of exactly everything you want to accomplish and I will send you a reply back that will probably be at the least 2 pages long with options you can do for everything based on how much you are willing to spend.  Take me up on this offer I won't let you down.  

my advice is this, if you really want something sporty, reliable, cheap,...etc then ditch any american car you could think off and find your self possibly a CRX SI or any of the cars that are really cheap  to upgrade, and parts are available in supermarkets, lol, what I am trying to say, if you dont want to spend money, then get a car that has proven to respond to mods, parts are cheap, the car is cheap, swaps are easy and cheap,...etc. other than that i dont really recommend doing anything to your car, even if it only has 40k miles, its still an old car and things will break really easy. the car was never meant to be sports car, or even sporty, so do your self a favor, be happy with what you got or a buy another car that is worth to upgrade.  

Well, thank you all for the advice.  I DO plan one keeping this car all the way through my first four years of college.

*The crowd boos*

I have been thinking about making it a show car instead of something to race.  Or, maybe I could race it off-road.  MWHAHAHAHA.  

*clears throat*

Anyways, the interior right now is mediocre.  All of the lights inside glow red, which is pretty sweet.  Sadly, I have a musical horn installed in the car. (Yeah, laugh it up!)  Another bad part is that I have a weak CD player.  I got it for $50 at the local Wal-Mart.  After Christmas, I plan to either put: a new, bumpin' system in my car; new black carpet; or a neon under body kit.  I still plan on getting new rims and tires for like $500.  

if you really really really must stay with this car, neon lights and a set of cheap wheels are just going to make a pos look like a bigger pos.  quite honestly theres nothing worse than an old family car with nothing but a couple of cheap mods.  

the smart thing to do would be this:  find a message board for taurus SHO's or ford svt cars and learn about them.  then, the best thing to do to dress the car up is this, in this order:

-clean the paint.  clay, polish, wax.  get the paint as good as you can get it.  bad paint makes the car look terrible no matter what else is done to it.
-replace body parts with sport models or newer models of your car.  this would include bumpers, headlights, taillights, grille, door trim, side mouldings.  notice the body work of the normal taurus:

http://www.edmunds.com/media/generations/taurus.sable/89.ford.taurus.f3-4.350.jpg

to the SHO

http://www.fastcoolcars.com/images/Ron's%2093%20SHO/lft_frt_sho11.jpg

-source oem sho suspension parts or find some aftermarket, which will improve the handling of your car and also lower it a bit so it doesn't look retarded when you:
-buy a set of wheels
-source interior parts from upscale or sho cars i.e. leather seats, door cards, etc.

this is going to be about as good as you can get this car, but it should satisfy you until you buy the next one.  DO NOT PUT A SHO BADGE ON THE CAR. here is a website about the taurus sho  

i.e. my car went from this



to this:



notice the differences?  you wouldn't if they weren't back to back.  mine now has golf front end body work, shorty antenna, debadged trunk, and a european oem chin spoiler.  and yes my paint is clean; it was raining that day   but notice that nothing looks out of place, nothing looks aftermarket and definitely nothing looks like theres a young kid whos up to no good about it.  my cars have looked like this for 10 years and i've never been hassled.  

Yea, I totally see the difference vanilla... *chuckles*
But I think you should take both of these guy's advice into consideration and contact director, sounds like a really good and smart guy. But it also sounded like a good idea to swap out some of the SHO parts. But like vanilla said, DON'T PUT AN SHO BADGE ON! Good luck man!  

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Yea, I totally see the difference vanilla... *chuckles*

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thats the whole idea you wouldn't know it was modified unless you are "in the know".  look closely at the shape of the headlamps; the jettas have rectangular housings while the golfs had rounded ones.  also the euro chin spoiler is twice as deep; these pictures dont allow you to notice it as well because of the poor lighting so just use your imagination  

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Oh, actually I said that cause the picture of your car wasn't working  

ah!  the pics from that host site dont like to show up here, for some reason.  here's another: