Gerard, to answer a couple of your comments/questions: you are correct in that I would run higher spring rates in the rear with LSD or welded diffs. I ran a welded diff for years with 900# springs in the rear and 400#'s in the front. The car handled great and I had popeye forearms. I have since switched to a custom Quaife LSD which I find alot better than the welded diff and have been able to drop down to 500# springs in the rear and have kept the 400#'s in the front. We used a European Escort Quaife and had to redrill holes in the ring gear to match up with the Quaife holes. I have run it now 11/2 years with zero problems and my popeye arms have disappeared. As for the Koni's, I have likewise had them custom made. You are correct in that they are no longer available, but I do have several internally adjustable ones and some from Europe that are shortened and single adjustable. However, over last winter, I worked with Lee Grimes (a good friend) at Koni and had him make me a set of double adjustable struts. The fronts are made out of BMW E30 chassis rear struts which have been modified/shortened to fit into the EGT front knuckles. The rears are Fox chassis Mustang OTC double adjustable units which have the bottom bracket off of an EGT strut welded to them to fit our application. One season with 7 weekends and one test day on them and they were perfect. I dropped 2 sec a lap at my usual tracks. Hopefully this year with a new motor and some more testing with Lee Grimes at Putnam Park in the spring, we will have the car at the front of the brutally competetive CenDiv ITB fields. As far as the Escort for racing, I enjoy the car, but if you are interested in fwd, you might want to consider a Focus in SSC for now then move it into IT when it becomes available. There is alot of after market parts available for the Focus which should make it a fairly competetive IT car when it gets classified. The Escort has NO after market support unless you make it yourself $$$$. Some parts are still available in England but they are only for the earlier Escorts with the 1.6L motor. The 1.9L motor in the '87-'90 EGT has absolutely no help out there. I have done everything custom made to my car. I enjoy the car but will likely get out as soon as I can afford to build or buy a new car. Thanks for the interest. Jon Ricker