I have never used Cal Tracs but hear good things about them. I have a street strip 71 Demon with a 500+ HP stroker SB, 4 speed, 3.91 8.75 with a Yukon center section, super stock springs, and 15.00 Rallye wheels with 275 Mickey Thompson ET Street Radials (just about shot though, need new tires soon). I drive it on the street most of the time but plan some drag strip outings in street trim (no slicks). It hooks ok on the street but sometimes spins a bit more out of the hole than I prefer.


So with the above info, would you guys recommend Cal Tracs? If so, what set up, springs, etc? I want to run an all bolt in only setup, and no relocated springs, etc.

Caltravs will always help a leaf spring car . Stick shift and radials done play well together .
Get decent dbl adjustable read shocks .
I uss mopar xhd springs .
There is a good read on yellowbullet

Tex

DO NOT USE XHD SPRINGS WITH CALTRACS. Use only with mono leafs. If you cannot put the whole kit in then just put a good shock with your ss springs. When using stock style springs and caltracs you cannot get enough adjustment out of the shocks to control them. You want the bars to do the work and the spring to just hold the car weight.

Cal-Tracks are a direct bolt-in, no spring relo required unless desired. I'd spend the extra on the mono leafs.

Just my opinion but I think cal tracs would be overkill on your set up. Spend your money elsewhere. Drag radials and a manual transmission don't go well together if you are making decent power. They will be fine for the street though. Buy 2 extra wheels with a pair of stiff sidewall slicks for your track outings

Since you need new tires anyway, why not slap on a set of MT's R drag radials. Then see what you need to do next? You might just be surprised at how much difference they make.

Cal-tracs typically need light springs and stiff shocks to work best. I have adjustable rear shocks with Cal-Tracs on the Cuda and it won't hook much until I have the shocks on at least 7 of 9. Too much rear lift without the shocks to control it. So, at the track the rear shocks are set on 9 (max).

Caltracs work great but don't forget the front end. I did way more work to the front end than to the rear to get it to hook.

Get the whole cal-trac set-up including the split mono leaf springs for the weight of the car! Once you do that it will dead hook if set up correctly. On the street they may be a little noisy as the suspension moves up and down. Its a completely bolt in deal and having a good shock makes all the difference on tune-ability

The street is no gauge for how a car hooks. A drag strip might look like asphalt but it is concrete with lots of VHT and tire rubber on it. That SS spring wants lots of shock travel, so you need the longest shock travel that you can find. This was usually from a SW, B or C body. Go read all the posts that Monte Smith wrote about SS springs. Read it 5, 10 + X's to start to understand what you need. BTW, those stock eliminator cars that pull the front tire way off the ground,stick or auto, are doing it on a very sticky track. They use very specific clutch set ups. When you finally get your car to hook, you will destroy that 8 3/4.

I ran the XHD springs with Cal Tracs....... No problems.
I wouldn't try and use them with SS springs though.

Keep in mind....... The bars were available for quite a while before the split mono-leafs were.

My Cal Trac/XHD combo replaced some well used SS springs, and the Cal Tracs were much more consistent, although best-to-best, they were no better.

I found the Cal Tracs made the rear of the car quite stiff for road use.

I ran CalTracs on the street in my Hemi 4 spd car. I liked them very much. No more wheel hop and I quit having issues with bent springs. The 'ol monster used to eat up springs and pinion snubbers on a regular basis. Once I put on the Caltracs it never happened again. One tip though...don't use any preload on them when running on the street..OK for the track but very bouncy for the street.

All of the above answers are spot-on! I tried using them with super stock Springs and they worked against each other causing the rear of the car to porpoise. The car is much more manageable and consistent now and doesn't get all contorted off the starting line like it used to with the super stock Springs.

I would suggest the ET Street Pro for you to hook especially on a streetcar.

I didn't notice mine riding any rougher than with the 3,400 lb super stock Springs that were in it.

No love for the pinion snubber?

Pinion snubbers are a crutch and a pain in the ass on the street!

It was the stock snubber...would bust them right off, bolts and all....




My car at etown with caltracs...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnf4i-iecT8

what ??? my pinion snubber and SS springs and 509 cam are not high-tech enough........

Ahhh, been using XHD and snubber on the street for a couple years.
Adjustable however.
Does bracket race well for an 11.0 car

I run the Calvert full meal deal and I have no complaints. As said above however, either get the split monos and bars together, or don't bother with any of it. The Calvert shocks also made a big difference in my setup over a set of CE shocks as well.

For tires, you want the MT ET Street R Bias Ply tire with a clutch.

Caltracs stock D100 4 leaf pack missing the overload leaf Rancho 9 ways 10" wide hoosier drag radials this was a couple of week ago


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you can see in the slomo below less than 2' of rise in the rear at launch

If you can find any old articles on the Calvert bars when he first started selling them, you may see that he developed them on a Super Stock Mustang with a 4 speed. And he used really stiff multileaf springs with that car. When I remember that it makes me wonder why the change to monoleafs.