Newtonian flight rocks, but the ships of Freespace have been designed specifically for the arcade mode and as this is more of a "port" than a complete replanning of the game dynamics, I have a gut feeling that the arcade mode will give out the least amount of unpleasant surprises and bumps in the game balance in the process. I don't want the game dynamics to end up in Elite: Frontier style "jousting runs" between ships, if you know what I mean.
Yeah, there is a thread for the Freespace MOD in the Starshatter modding forum, but I haven't updated it that much. However, as I have plans of updating about the project here and there (ssmods), I have also planned of firing up my own forum for the project.