Caltrac bars for '67 camaro

[67kato]

Has anyone tried the Caltracs bars out for the street? How do they work with lowered suspension? My car came with a 12 bolt, multi leaf springs and slapper bars. The 12 bolt can stay but the rest has got to go.

Thanks,
Kato

[Travis B]

Cal tracs are awesome in my opionion! As far as eliminating axle wrap! much better than slapper bars and slide-a-links!

[tireman]

I heard that when you put in the solid bushings for the Cal tracs in the front spring eyes it really hurt the ride and also added too much roll stiffness at the back causing some oversteer. When I installed mine, I drilled out the stock rubber bushings to accept the shaft for the cal tracs. This probably reduced their effectiveness, but I thought it was worth a try. Installed, the car spins the tires less in second gear, so it seems that they are helping (first gear is still a lost cause with street tires). I don't have any more axle hop either. They did still add some cornering stiffness at the back that made the car a bit twichy, but I added a bigger bar up front (1 1/8") and it is pretty good now. From a comfort standpoint, I don't notice any difference.

[67kato]

Tireman, what tire/ wheel combo are you running? Shocks? Rear leaf rate? Did you notice any off the line improvement? What's your tire pressure.

[gen3bu]

pm nineball, he has them on his 69 ss

[tireman]

Right now I'm running 16x8's with 245/50R16 g-force T/A KDW's. These tires are pretty good high performance tires, but certainly not drag radials. I run about 28 psi in them. The leafs are stock 5 leaf springs and the shocks are junk. I have 1.5" lowering blocks on there right now. As far as off the line improvement, the lack of wheel hop is a big improvement. In first gear I find it difficult to pick out differences because it is so easy to spin the tires. There was a noticeable improvement in 2nd gear.

[Piet]

I am looking at building my own.

http://www.hotrodsandhemis.com/traction1.html

[67kato]

They look pretty straight forward. All it takes is some time and a welder right? I tried to build my own tubular UCA's. They function OK but I am afraid of the tire swallowing potholes around where I live. Time will tell if they will last. I will post some pics when I can.

[streetk14]

I am happy with the caltracs on my '68. They got rid of all wheel hop, but still allow the suspension to travel properly. I used the solid front bushings provided in the kit, so I did notice a bit of a harsher ride. If you buy some, make sure you get the "road race" style bars. They are needed for ground clearance. Like someone else said, check out nineball's car. He is running some good numbers at the strip with caltracs.
-Andy

[67kato]

Andy,
Thanks for the heads up with the clearance issue.

[gen3bu]

i made these myself @ 3-4 years ago. it is my daily driver, runs high 12's, and rides like "normal". it is a 1993 sonoma, 355 tbi.

[Piet]

Those are cool.... (They even have a purple halo! !)

That is what I am looking at doing for my ride.
(My Project is more Poor-Touring than Pro-Touring.)

[baz67]

gen3bu~ does the axle bracket hang below the wheel lip? If so it will be an interesting ride if you get a flat tire.

[67kato]

yeah, I hope he has run-flats otherwise its dash-eating time

Kato

[dhardison]

There's a guy on eBay that sells Cal-Trac look-a-likes. I don't have a pair, but I know of a couple guys that do (both on Novas). According to them they work very well. The guy's ebay user id is [email protected]. Do a user id search or shoot him an email. He sells them for $219.99 + $12.85 shipping.

Dan

[gen3bu]

piet - it is a red halo. i outlined it in windows paint and then did some editing to make everything easier to see.

baz67 - no i cut them off even with the 16" wheels if one side comes completely off the rim i am still ok by @ 1/2 inch - lol

67kato - just standard radials. i dont like the feel of flat run flats, they fold over without notice.

[67kato]

Dhardison~ thanks for the contact. I will pursue and see what's up. They are a little cheaper than the caltracs setup. I wonder what got left out to make his cheaper?