Handling of a 2000 Crown Vic?

I have a completely hair brained idea of doing a body swap on a 2000 Crown Vic (retired fire chief car so doubt p71) with a 1950 Ford (Clem's car that I know he is waiting for a trade on). The wheelbase is an inch apart and the '50 is plenty wide for the Crown's treadwidth. So my question is: How well does the Panther 4 link with a Watts handle? I know that the front is a double A-arm and should work fine with some parts thrown at it, but my understanding of rear axle suspension geometry is pretty crappy.

How does it handle? Much better than you would expect, but it still isn't what I'd call good. Throw some parts at it, and it becomes better, but I've never driven a modified one.

Note that I did not say that it is not fun--it was a lot of fun to me, to slide a large boat around a corner at the age of 17 with a girl sliding into me on the bench seat--but good handling it is not.

I am not expecting a miata here but it is good to hear that the watts may actually work. There are also some fairly reasonable billet control arms for the rear axle that would stiffen things up a lot back there.

Check out Wiki, they had some substantial improvements to the chassis in the '01-02range. It may be worht finding one of those.

It's predictable, that's the main thing.

Are you sure about the width of the 1950 car? In general cars of that era weren't all that wide.

Hilarious! Awful, but still hilarious.

You are also better off holding out for an 01 and newer p71. Heavier duty suspension bits and better engines.

2003 was the year with all of the big changes. Like previously stated, a 2000 CV will handle predictably.

All of that with the caveat that the suspension is in good repair. These things are pretty hard on their suspension components and if they are original or were replaced with cheap parts, they will be frighteningly sloppy. I spent a long day and a few hundred dollars replacing EVERYTHING in the front end of my 2002 with Moog or TRW bits and its pretty solid now. Still a big wallowy pig but a predictable big wallowy pig as previously noted. Still need to do the rear but with the front done it at least goes where I point it when I point it.

It will still handle better than 65 year old shoebox suspension. You can run wheels with some dish to them in the pre 03s. Zero offset wheels look silly on most things from the 50s.

On a 50's Ford, you could hide the zero offset wheels under some flat spun aluminum Moon disks. Absolutely era perfect.

My wife drives an '05 Grand Marquis, would that chassis work under a 50's Ford as well? The car only has 65K on the odometer, my ancient uncle owned it prior.

You've posted an idea that's keeping me up at night . . .

From my research the Panther chassis cars are really close to the 50 Ford. An inch apart on wheelbase. The treadwidth is much wider (especially on the 03+ cars) but should still fit under the fenders (03+ is a maybe).