hi all,

i am currently putting a zetec in the front of my saab 96, in the same place as the orginal v4.

this is mounted really far forward as the gearbox behind is an transaxle driving the front wheels.

as the zetec is about 50lbs heavier than the v4, (someone badly misinformed me there!) it will cause nose heavyness as all the excess weight is in front of the wheels.

i am going to counter this with stiffer springs and the rad will be mounted further back as well and was thinking of getting fibreglass wings and bonnet etc.

however before i go that far how much will 50lbs at the front effect the cars handling? is this alot of weight? i guess i will have to drive it to see how it rides.

I should think 22Kg extra, for a car with at least 500Kg pre-axel, is going to make very little differance?

I'd check if fibre glass panels are actaully lighter than steel ones, I don't think there wil be much in it either way.

Mick

How much of the car have you stripped out?

Removing all the noise reducing stuff - saves lots of weight - downside you hear the road noise..

Is this car your primary car - or a trackday version?

If its trackday - strip everything except seats and steering wheel

Zetec might be a little heavier, but its a solid engine :p (no pun intended!)

its going to be a road car, just with a bit of poke! and decent mpg! the v4 is not good at ethier of those! it won't be stripped out tho it is at the moment. had to strip the floor back to get rid of the rust. will have to find out about the fibreglass panels and their weight.

You should try to get a V6 out of a Mazda RX3 instead.