Me i have ladder bars, but come on now, Ron Rhodes went 1.01 with cal tracs and a 275 radial.
Post up your suspension, 60' and tire (shocks too if you want )

ladder bar, 1.16, Et Street R 275 radial. Santhuffs NOT radial valved

i like caltracs

Split mono Cal-trac leaf springs A-body length. The Cal-Trac bars are set nickel width gap between spring and pivot with me out of the car, bar set in lower hole and Rancho/Calvert 9 way single adjustables shocks.

1.37 60 ft. on a 275/60/15 M/T drag radial with 18 psi tire pressure. Heavy 3,600 lbs. street car.

No times yet. But tried to buy the best of the best parts. Hoping to get down in the 1.0x to 1.1x times on a good track

Menscers all the way around, sliders assassin bars, Calvert springs, ARB, and wishbone to keep it all straight. Might modify my sliders to put them on a downward angle forward to help get more separation.

The best was 1.36 at Bowling Green at # 3855 lbs with Cal Tracs and Rancho's set at 9 on a 9" Drag Radial Pro. This photo was taken at Dragway 42 1.39

Rear: Menscer valved Afco .ARB, Caltracs, shackles. 29.5 x 10 M/T Pro Drag Radial. and a 4;10 Dana. Front is pretty much QA1 with Heims on the UCA and Santhuff shocks. We've been 1.34 and 1.37 with the rears. As below, not the best way to go forward but it seems to work. This is with the "little" 580 motor. We're hoping to get into the 8.99s with the big motor (N/A)

Good god.
Qualifies as a superstructure!!

I think something helpful to know is not just how fast but truly how consistent and how adaptable to track conditions.

Whos winning bracket and index races ?

It also seems like a lot of the CT users are running radials .

Is that the tire that works best with them?

We improved a LOT switching to radials, so much so it caught me out

Ladder bars,29.10.5,chassis engineering single adj rear shocks, usually 1.30-32 60' with a best of 1.27.

1.21 on rear tire . Mencsers on all 4 corners, 275 pro . Car is 3280 with me in it .

3800lb RR as posted in other thread, Mono's/bars, bottom hole, 2 flats preload either side, 90/10's>9-ways rear set on 7 stiff, 10x29 C07 Hoosiers@16psi, 720ftlb Motor@4400, 4200 stall, 4.10's low first gear 727, SLR of 11+, it Dead Hooks, but slow 1.43 60's compared to you guys, best to date and 10.35's through mufflers. have run 1.43/1.43/1.44 60's when track has heat, when things get cold it needs a bit more thought on shock settings....we are still tuning as only around 11 runs on new combo. Our NSS brkt class we run here (leaf susp only) has a majority of Mopars, many A-bodies in the 9's, including a Petty Superbird tribute with a 572 Hemi, 99.9% of them run caltracs/mono's and are very consistent with them, one of our members ('65 Belvedere) who double entered (NSS and Pro-ET) won both classes, caltrac car. Ladder bars would work better for us though I believe and it would be easier to tune and change ride height which we really need to do.

Power, weight and, SLR also are a big factors here. Mine has a 36"ladder bar, Koni doubles, 130lb spring, 4.10, fresh 10.5x31 M/T bias, 2.45 1st, 3350lbs, aprox 900hp. Best 1.240. Upgraded to Afco Big Gun, 120lb spring, 4.30. Still chasing the set up. Now been 1.261 best on 120 pass tires. These are off the foot brake. Both of these numbers were at local tracks with no special prep.
Doug

One thing to consider is that most of these super fast leaf spring radial cars (like Rhodes') have to be on a flypaper track to run these numbers. I don't mean decent prep, I mean fall down and you can't get back up prep.

Take two cars, equally set up but one on ladder bars and one on leaf springs...now put them on a marginally prepped typical test and tune track. My money is on the ladder bar car.
Dave Dudek has been 9.80s on polyglas GT tires...does that mean everyone slower than 9.80s is a fool for running sticky tires?

Look, I'm not saying Cal-Tracs aren't great...I run them on 2 of my own cars and I've been sorta fast (mid 5s in the 1/8 at 3900 lbs), but the simple truth is that ladder bars are superior. You really think any of these leaf spring guys wouldn't jump ship and weld in ladder bars if their class allowed it?

My best 1/4 mile ET was 11.28 @ 119.6 on a 1.59 60 ft. My best 60 ft. is 1.52 on a 7.41 in the 1/8th. I run a 4-link with leafs.

Very good points.

I keep hearing about classes that don’t allow ladder bar? I’m assuming these are stock classes that I probably wouldn’t run anyway?
I have only tried bracket racing in pro and some Gamblers races

Thanks for insight

With my Caltrac's its been the front suspension changes that helped the most. I have a best of 1.33 so far, but its still spinning and crushes the tire. My goal this year is to switch to a drag radial, gawd I can't believe I just said that, and maybe see if I can jam a set of double adjustable Vikings on the rear......The shorter height and stiffer side wall should allow it to get down the track quicker, if it hooks....

Couldn't agree more. For bracket racing where consistency is key its hard to beat a ladder bar suspension esp when the track prep may not always be top notch. My car used to be superstock springs, and than we backhalved it with ladder bar, night and day difference. More consistent and smoother driving. My car is a turd compared to most guys with only 1.46 60ft (3150 lbs runs mid/high 10s) does have a 30x13 slick, but the 60ft is deadly consistent. I do think Cal-Tracs are great if you have car that you just want bolt ons and don't want to modify alot. They will work with the right shocks and if you know how to set them up, but for the basic bracket racer ladder bars is the easy choice.

These are specific stock suspension classes...usually of the "street car" or radial tire variety.