Rear spring rate recommendations

[rattus]

I'm having a somewhat difficult time deciding on what leaf springs I should run on my 69 firebird. This car will rarely be driven on the street so I'm not concerned w/ a smooth comfortable ride, but w/ some compromise between drag strip and road coarse performance. I'd like the springs to be sufficient to control wheel hop w/ out using traction devices, e.g. Caltracs, etc. I'm making 450-500 rwhp.

I've searched this and several other boards regarding rear leaf spring rates, but the info is pretty sparse on recommended rates. From what I've found there are a few "off the shelf" options and a few custom options:

Guldstrand, DSE, Hotchkis, Global West: all seem to be in the 175lb/in range. It seems that most people are using these, but some have stated that these are a little too light for the track (and require traction bars etc.).



Afco, Landrum, etc. offer several springs in the 200-250lb/in range, w/ various true arch heights.

Landrum offers a "drag race" multi-leaf 300 lb/in w/ custom true arch. They will also custom make higher rates.

Flex-A-Form and Hyperco offer composite mono-leafs in the 200-250lb/in range. One guy on cc.com has the Flex-A-Forms and really likes them. Hyperco recommends using a panhard bar / watt's link.

The composite leafs seem appealing due to the sprung weight savings (which could offset the weight added by panhard bar / watt's link).

Without much experience, I have the impression that the 250-300+ lb/in range will work well.

Also I plan to use either Guldstrand solid (bronze) or Global West Del-a-lum bushings.