I'm guessing that your in Red Deer. Am I right??? LOL
You can make your 97 move, but it's going to cost you some cash. Here's what I would do (which is mostly all the stuff Hammer had on his 98 GT)
1. Motorsport Heads - Need these
2. SVO intake
3. Twin bore Throttle body
4. 42# Injectors
5. Large Fuel Pump - 255 l/hr
6. ATI Procharger (8 psi, or 12 psi if you're brave)
7. ATI Intercooler
8. 3.73 gears
9. Custom tune
10. Complete exhaust - headers, X-pipe, and cat back.
You may also want to look at the following as they will help your car now, and the stock components aren't going to last too long with the above items
11. New Clutch - Pick one, there are lots out there
12. Tremec 5 spd - you will miss a shift and you will break your transmission
13. Control arms
14. Lowering springs - Eibach work fine
15. New Shocks and Struts
16. After market shifter - Like the Steeda Tri-ax
17. New axles - Moser
18. Subframe connectors - give the frame some rigidity
1-10 should give you about 375 at the wheels.
11-17 shoud keep things from breaking and help with launching the car.
The bill for all this should be north of US$12,000.
Of course since you're in Canada, you'll get screwed a probably pay $20,000 or more.
You could do a Cobra 4.6L DOHC swap, but it wouldn't be easy.