Rear suspsnsion Q.. Caltracs?

[dugs67cam]

My car is a 67 Camaro. I am looking to improve the front and rear suspension - within my budget. From what I have read and seen there seems to be plenty of suggestions for the front I am looking for some opinions regarding my rear suspension. I was looking at the Caltracs setup but noticed that it mostly has been applied to drag - straight track cars. Anyone with rear suspension suggestions or opinions regarding the Caltracs? Thanks

[rockdogz]

I don't have any in depth techincal knowledge of suspensions, but the purpose of Cal-Tracs (as with most traction type bars) is to counteract the effects of axle-wrap and keep the rear tires firmly planted in a hard launch situation. I don't know of any effect they have - positive or negative - on the twisties.

[dugs67cam]

Thanks rock, most of my concern is towards the possible negative effect on the handling end. It seems that most road protouring type cars just use the leaf spring approach.

[rockdogz]

Yeah, from hearing some of the guys who are in the know about suspensions, the three and four link suspensions are only good if you really know what you are doing and can tune it, otherwise you are worse off than with leafs. I went with 3" drop leafs and Cal Tracs. Tired as I am of saying this, in a few weeks (months?) I'll let you know how well it works...

[myclone]

While Im geared more toward drag racing with the current caltrack equipped vehicle I do enjoy flinging it through some twisties every now and then and can offer the following few things:

No adverse affects on handling after installing caltracks compared to before in my situation.
When they are backed off for street driving they do tend to rattle a little on some bumps.
They knocked ~.20 seconds off my 60ft time with no other changes.
I havent broken them yet no matter how hard I try unlike the rest of the driveline .

[Nine Ball]

I was very happy with the Cal-Tracs I had on my '69 Camaro. Before I put them on, the car had severe wheelhop (500 rwhp). After I put them on, the tires would stay planted. You can loosen them up for the street, allowing the leaf to work like normal. The main problem I had with them is that on a lowered car they were the lowest point on the car and would scrape all sorts of stuff.