? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

I am going to change my 66 nova from the traditional slapper bar to a split spring leaf and cal-tracs... what should i expect such as reaction and performance. My car works excellent as is but am looking for some help in reaction times and maybe pick the front wheels a little. As of to date my 283 has yet to lift front wheels and i do struggle on a consistent spot for a decent reaction time. Running stock class with 165 sixty foots and 490 on the 330 foot.

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

If you look at the Stock Eliminator cars you will see a majority of them run Cal-Track bars and springs and few, very few, run slapper bars.
I had the springs and bars on my '70 D/S AMX and wish I would have gone that route about two years earlier. I fought with SS Mopar springs for a few years and it really held back the performance.

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

Danny, you have a PM.

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

I'm in the same situation, new motor looked good last weekend @ Kinston now it's time to work on getting it to the ground. I thinking about Cal-Tracs myself I just posted above looking for suggestions on which spring to go with.

Chris

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

Chris,
call me during the week.

M-F 10am-6pm CST

219-861-1214

or e-mail anytime
monymkrssla@aol.com

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

We used to run slapper bars/j-bolts.
I highly recommend you get the matching Rancho 9 way adjustable shock so you can "control" the body separation, which plants the tire. You might not see any 60' improvement at all, but you will see consistency.
We didnt have consistency until we purchased the Calvert leaf springs. My 60' is around 1.54.
Alex is good to deal with and he is near Chicago, so shipping is quick if you are closer to him than Calvert in CA.

Clark

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

I love slapper bars! The best leaving camaro IMO (Bertozzi) runs em. My 80 camaro would 60 in the 1.40's on swap meet slapper bars and Kmart shocks, not saying the 1000$ set up is bad but they all pretty much accomplish the same thing -- stop spring wrap up. If you have plenty of pinion angle and it hooks good I would look at working on the freeing up the front end. Can you by hand bounce the front end easily or is it like a brick? No expert here just an alternative to spending $ on something that may not affect a 283 stocker.

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

I would argue that Kevin Cradduck's car is the best leaving camaro, and not quite as violent

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

Here is a video of both cars side by side.... :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUYJbrT5660

Clark

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

Didn't the Check-Mate Cars use Slapper bars?
I think Brett Mc Farland also used Slapper bars.

Watched alot of stockers leave on Cal-Tracks
and slappers bars both seem to work well for there
application.

It seems to be what the car likes the best.

Hammer

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

Mr Waters, I have a 6cyl FORD for sale that'll get your Nova in the air!!

Might give it a rash however......

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

Danny, you just need to hook up that clutch pedal that we talked about and you will get your front tires off the ground! LOL.

Also, be mindful of ride height when ordering the split monos. We started with the stock ride height,but like the lower ride height so we changed the back halfs to lower the car. We still have the standard height back halfs in the garage. The springs work well.
The Calvert stuff is very good. certainly the norm in the stockers. I have seen slappers on some notable cars too, but given the choice, I would go with the Calvert stuff.

Also, not sure of your tire size, but watch the belly of the inside of the slick. We have 9 x 29.5s on 8 inch rims and we had to really massage everything. It still rubs. This is an issue with most any mono spring by the way. Just something to really look at. Jim

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

We've changed some things on the orange car since that race. It's now even smoother.

Anthony won that race, with a 0.001 reaction time.

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

Thanks for all the replies . I am going to go this route and will let you know how it turns out. I am excited on doing this and hoping the outcome is very good . Probably install them next month when time will be more on my hand. Update later ......

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

The first set of bars I had on my stocker years ago were slapper bars. I spoke with Ed Quay about some suspension mods I was thinking about and he told me I needed to modify the slapper bars. I made the trip to Pottstown and delivered them to him. He extended the tubing about 8-10 inches toward the rear and put another u-clamp to hold the spring between the housing and the shackles. I think Ed worked for Jenkins at one point in time and I believe the modified version is what Jenkins ran on his cars back in the day. I still have them....somewhere.

Denny Ford told me he recently changed from slapper bars to Cal tracks. Said the cars seemed smoother and carried the front farther out.


______________________________

Andy Stone 1102 A/S 1112 SS/C

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

I'm thinking the advantage to CalTracs is the tune-ability of the setup. I'm going with CalTracs on my Dart which will be built from scratch.

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

After talking to Alex , I would highly reccomend his advise and help and product. Don't have any doubts that it will not help my car and can't wait to install everything . Thanks again Alex.

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

I think after following this post we'll most likely go the Cal-Trac direction with the Duster. Thanks for all the info. Hey Danny maybe there will be 2 cars @ KDS getting some big air under the front wheels next season !!!!

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

Yep ,and we can blame it all on Alex and Cal- Tracs

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

The Check Mate cars used a floater with a heim joint attached to a bracket bolted to front perch bolt holes,,,those cars would hook on a skating rink,,the real beauty of that set up was the spring only held up the car,,not used to propel the car,,,the ABSOLUTE ULTIMATE in traction devices,,no one ever had a "A" car quicker in 60 feet with any consistency,,,period

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

Hmm...I inquired about using a floater once and was told that was a big "no-no"
Well at least I was on the right track. :(

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

There's some read on leafsprings and floaters.

Gil

http://www.afcoracing.com/tech_pages/leaf.shtml

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

Anyone have pics or more info on this car and/or setup?

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

A guy named Muskie built that set up,you could probably find him thru Merc or Mike Keener

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

Please don't leave us hanging for more...
Gary

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

Kevins car has an alum block i think?

Re: ? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?
 

No, we're running an iron block, 427/425, with aluminum heads, rated at 435. We also have an all iron 427/425, rated at 425.

The aluminum block is a 427/430, (aluminum heads as well, it's a ZL-1) it's rated at 445, and we're not running it right now. It'll probably be a while now that we're in the middle of the Super Stock project.