? diff in cal-trac vs slapper bar ?

[danny waters sr]

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.

[Jeff Lee]

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.

[Alex Denysenko]

Originally Posted by danny waters sr

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.

Danny, you have a PM.

[Hemiparts]

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

[Alex Denysenko]

Chris,
call me during the week.

M-F 10am-6pm CST

219-861-1214

or e-mail anytime
monymkrssla@aol.com

[cad]

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

[Daran Summerton]

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.

[Chad Rhodes]

Originally Posted by Daran Summerton

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.

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

[cad]

Here is a video of both cars side by side....


Clark

[John Leichtamer Jr]

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