Ladder Bar Car: Trans Brake or Foot Brake?

Mike Pearson · 12-12-2008, 10:10 AM

Bill,

I have an older super stock camaro. I have a coil over/ladder bar setup in my car. I also leave on a trans brake. With a good 350 running SS/HA I ran 9.92 with 1.28 60 ft times. I now have a 327 in the car. it does not leave quite as hard. The car is very consistent. I do run a radial tire. I use the M/T 12.2x31.25 radial tire. I have had good luck with this tire. Hooks good and is much faster than the Hoosier bias ply tire that I ran prior to the radial. I back to backed the two tires and the radial was .013 quicker on several tests. I would recomend the radial tire. You will have to experiment with tire pressure to find the sweet spot for your car. Start at about 12 lbs. and work up from there. I have a single adjustable shock in the rear and double adjustables up front. I am happy with this setup. If you have leaf springs under your car now and change to coil overs make sure you install some good quality heim joints in the front of your ladder bars. The front heim is the only connection point to the frame. If this heim fails the rear end will move forward or backward and cause heavy body damage. Also you should instal a retention device at the front of the ladder bar around the heim to keep the rear end in place in the event of a failure. Most of the older cars do not have this. I had to retro fit my car after I converted from leaf springs to coil overs.
Good luck with your project

12-12-2008, 10:10 AM	#11
Mike Pearson VIP Member Join Date: Mar 2007 Posts: 2,454 Likes: 617 Liked 1,943 Times in 584 Posts	Re: Ladder Bar Car: Trans Brake or Foot Brake? Bill, I have an older super stock camaro. I have a coil over/ladder bar setup in my car. I also leave on a trans brake. With a good 350 running SS/HA I ran 9.92 with 1.28 60 ft times. I now have a 327 in the car. it does not leave quite as hard. The car is very consistent. I do run a radial tire. I use the M/T 12.2x31.25 radial tire. I have had good luck with this tire. Hooks good and is much faster than the Hoosier bias ply tire that I ran prior to the radial. I back to backed the two tires and the radial was .013 quicker on several tests. I would recomend the radial tire. You will have to experiment with tire pressure to find the sweet spot for your car. Start at about 12 lbs. and work up from there. I have a single adjustable shock in the rear and double adjustables up front. I am happy with this setup. If you have leaf springs under your car now and change to coil overs make sure you install some good quality heim joints in the front of your ladder bars. The front heim is the only connection point to the frame. If this heim fails the rear end will move forward or backward and cause heavy body damage. Also you should instal a retention device at the front of the ladder bar around the heim to keep the rear end in place in the event of a failure. Most of the older cars do not have this. I had to retro fit my car after I converted from leaf springs to coil overs. Good luck with your project __________________ Mike Pearson 2485 SS