Weight balance on a classic stang

BAD67FUN · May 28, 2004

Anybody have a clue or hear of a good guesstimation on the weight balance of our classic cars? I know the newer cars are nose heavy. Just curious as to the old ones.

C0V3R · May 28, 2004

Newer cars are way better distributed in general. I think the stang is in the vicinity of 65/35 depending on the size of your engine (6cyc - big block)

1969mach1351 · May 28, 2004

My 69 Mach with a 351, aluminum heads and intake, and FMxX tranny is 58/42.

66P51GT · May 28, 2004

1969mach1351 is more accurate at 58/42 than 65/35. The only car I know of that has that kind of weight balance is the Mini Cooper @ 63/37.

You can adjust the front/rear by a point by moving the battery to the trunk. Having the extra weight back there doesn't hurt off line traction either. Aluminum heads can shave some more. If you have A/C with an old iron compressor, you can shave 20+ pounds by switching to a lighter aluminum sandend compressor. Another advantage to shedding the pounds is for every 100 pounds you reduce in weight, it shaves ~1/10 sec. of your 1/4 mi. times.

SadbutTrue · May 28, 2004

Well, for a more concrete answer... I went to a truck weigh station, and they weighed each wheel. With me and a friend in the car, as well as all my tools/jack/etc (probably at least 50 lbs) worth of stuff in the trunk, and half a tank of gas, my front wheel weighed 1840 and my rear weighed 1400. so thats about 57/43 doing the calculations in my head. Without the junk in back, its a little worse.

Mosse · May 28, 2004

mine was 720 front, 600 rear .. kg

53/47 I guess..

Route666 · May 28, 2004

I remember reading that a smallblock 69 sportsroof is about 55/45.

Bullitt · May 29, 2004

my '67 fastback weighed in at 53/47 (total weight of 3300) on a set of LongAcre scales. this is with aluminum heads and radiator, with the battery in the trunk.

for comparison, a Fox Body mustang runs about 60/40!

mustangdave · May 29, 2004

To get it closer to 50/50 you have to use aluminum heads, intake, radiator, shorty headers will help over the heavy stock manifolds, do a battery relocation lose some weight, and you probably still won't be close. You can also try relocating the engine back or just throw a bunch of bricks inthe trunk.

BAD67FUN · May 29, 2004

That's getting pretty good there. Did you do anything else to save weight? I'm thinking a fiberglass R model cowl without the bumber and a glass hood should help too. I bought Summits battery relocation kit and just didn't like it. The box is way too big and the slightest smell of gas in the trunk area has me worried. I have a friend that knows of a battery that is supposed to be strong enough for our purpose yet small and light. So I may go that route and keep the battery up front for now. As long as it's strong enough to run an electric fan that I'd like to convert to. I'll move the battery if I ever win the lottery to afford one of those nice race gas tanks that drop in.

Bullitt said:
my '67 fastback weighed in at 53/47 (total weight of 3300) on a set of LongAcre scales. this is with aluminum heads and radiator, with the battery in the trunk.

for comparison, a Fox Body mustang runs about 60/40!

Bullitt · May 29, 2004

forgot to mention it also has a 9" rear (which i'm sure helps a ton), other than that it's stock, even with AC...

Ronstang · May 30, 2004

I haven't had a chance to weigh one yet but I move the engine/tranny back 1/2" on most of the Mustangs I work on now.....it should have an impact but I'm not sure of the magnitude.

Hack · May 30, 2004

Ronstang said:
I haven't had a chance to weigh one yet but I move the engine/tranny back 1/2" on most of the Mustangs I work on now.....it should have an impact but I'm not sure of the magnitude.

Do you have any details available about what you do to accomplish this? Sounds like a fun project! I'm sure there's a noticeable impact.

HistoricMustang · May 30, 2004

My 2600 lb road racer comes in at 1400 lbs up front and 1200 lbs in rear. I try to fool the car into thinking it is 50/50 by having a neutral stance sitting still and actually has a small negative stance at full speed.

HistoricMustang
www.historicmustang.com

mustangracer · May 30, 2004

I guess everyone has proved the factory numbers are pretty close. Most stuff I've read put the 65-66 at 54/46. Historic is doing what nascar does for adjusting their weight dist. You can move the distribution around some by playing with spring rates and ride height at the corners. This is also what ricers get to do with their fancy coil-over spring/shock setups, they can corner weight the car and adjust each corner to balance the distribution, within a range anyway.

Ronstang · May 30, 2004

Once again Hack,

I'm on my way out of town and I will help you out when I get back from Orlando.....should be Tuesday.

gp001 · May 31, 2004

I have a stack of sheets I down loaded and printed out from another forum regarding suspension measurements and data. One of the sheets is the static weight measurements of a 65 Fastback. Shows measurements were 55% front/ 45% rear. If anyone wants, I can scan it and post a link

Weight balance on a classic stang

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My rearend needs a stud and two nuts.

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Weight balance on a classic stang

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