71 Camaro chassis flex and traction

[slnc101]

I'm gonna drag race my Camaro.I need advice on traction.I don't want to cut the car up.I'm getting the frame tied and a cage put in,but what kind of traction bar should i use or should i use a lift bar.The Motor has 12 to 1 compression and a 630 lift roller cam.The car has power,getting it to hook up is a easier said than done.Any suggestion? Thanks Steve

[MrQuick]

Not sure what class you plan to run but my friend runs the street class in a 12 sec Nova. His best time is 11.40's but brackets at 12.90.
He switched from a Cal trac to slid-a-link and he seems to like the slide-a-link due to its tuneability. He does think the Cal trac is stronger but has had no problems after 2 years.
Before that he had a custom link that we made. It ran from the spring perch all the way to the rear rail of the front subframe.That worked nice but it was too heavy.

[Modern71]

That is a wicked motor, with the right traction I imagine you could be in the low 11's high 10's without alot of work and on motor alone.

I own a 71 as well, and you can fit in 9.5in tires, to stay in street classes and get the right kind of traction if you use good slicks. I imagine you are looking at making this a racer and not a regularly driven streen car with that kind of compression. If your end goal is around the 10s, you can easily stay with leaf springs and a high ratio shock in the front to transfer the weight of the car to plant on acceleration, but if you want to go faster I think you will need a Ladder or 4 Link which will require cutting. At that point you might as well expand the rear with a tub of some kind and get out of the streets class.

As it stands, Competition Engineering makes a good traction bar, but make sure whatever you get, it has J Bolts and doesnt bolt on to the spring perches. With your motor you will tear those spring perch Traction bars up real fast. Also don't use the double U bolt traction bars, the ones that bolt over the spring on both front and back, they drag the ground on hard breaking. I havent used the lift bars, but I thought about it, and I decided against it. A good traction bar should have the rubber nub on the front eye of the Leaf Spring, that will force the spring to stay in shape and not bend into an S, which causes wheel hop.

The slide-a-link sounds interesting, but I have never tried them. Anyway good luck.

[David Pozzi]

I put 285/40/17 tires on the rear of my wife's 73 Camaro with just a roll of the rear fender lips. Wheels are 9.5" X 5.5" backspace.