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Springs and GAWR

G

giganto

CEG'er
Joined
Sep 28, 2007
Messages
78
I was looking at my door panel stickers, and noticed something noticeable. My red '95 4cyl. Mystique GS has a front GAWR of 2200lb and the rear GAWR is 1955lb. The GVWR is 4079lb.


My blue '96 6cyl. Mystique GS has a front GAWR of 2310lb and a rear GAWR of 2011lb. Its GVWR is 4244lb; 165lb more than the red car!


My question then is what the difference is between these two cars to add another passenger's mass to the car (DOT still defines a passenger at 150lb). The other plates only give a 10lb loadbearing advantage to my blue car, so I suppose the extra two cylinders, sunroof, power seat and spoiler weigh 155lb. I don't see any great part number differences in the suspension components except for the springs. Is that the only difference?
How heavy can one of these cars get?
 
i have found proof that the V6 weighs about 100lbs more than the I4. so thats a big chunk of that difference. also note that the GVWR is not how much the car actually weighs but how much the manufacturer claims can safely be loaded, including the weight of the car
 
I think what the OP means is that, if the unibody frame of both cars are identical, and the springs the main structural difference, what is it about the 6cyl springs that allow extra weight to be carried?

The only other thing I can think is that CG makes a difference in handling. Perhaps the rear GAWR is higher in the 6-cyl because the extra curb weight is all forward on the car; perhaps you can carry more cinder blocks in the trunk before the handling gets excessively squirrelly.

Or it could be the springs...
 
its just the springs. the V6 springs have a slightly higher spring rate over the zetec springs. in fact, supposedly, the pre98 SE springs were stiffer than SVT springs :shocked:
 
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