And yet somehow you have emptypocketts? Still, I wish my dad was here to lavish gifts on; you go.

My dad didn't buy me lavish gifts.My daughter,son and wife gave me enough money for the Cal Tracs and I paid the diffrence for the springs and shocks.My wife calls it a Slant Sickness.Me I just call it an addiction.I don't know about you but I'm a pretty good fabricator but building leaf springs and shocks are something I can't do so I have to buy them.The CalTracs, yeah I could build them but for the cost of $300.00 it's not worth it for me.Stock and heim ends would cost me about $150.00 plus figuring out the proper angles design ect...These things are built as a complete system and designed to work together.Hopefully for the money I spent ,it'll be one less thing to go wrong (hopefully).Building these things to have twice the power they were designed for is expensive.Once you build the power you gotta get it to the ground.Like Keith from 727 Specilites told me "the money don't stop at the firewall".He's right.I keep saving and spending my money on the best parts avalible.I only have a few things left and get the motor back in.I have done all of the work myself except for engine maching/Long Block Assy and building of the transmission.I don't have a unlimted budget but I'm going to spend what I have to, to have one of the fastest and most durable 1978 Volares on the street,So if you are ever in Arizona and see a lime green "78 Volare,give it a go and see if it was money well spent.

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SOOOOO much money spent and I keep gettin' told that I could have had a V-8

The Caltrac 'package' works quite well. I use their mono-leaf which is actually a split-leaf spring, 9 way Rancho shocks and the tracs on my 71 GTX Stock Eliminator car. I formerly used a modified E-body SS spring with fair success and different Mopar and after-market adjustable shocks. The BIG problem with a Chrysler Super Stock spring is they're biased but the car spends too much time in verticle travel/rise vs going forward. The Caltracs are more like a single pivot/ladderbar whereas the instant center helps the vehicle move forward while applying load transfer to the rear tires to enhance traction. Caltracs are fairly easy to adjust and work quite well in most 'lower horsepower' applications and as Dennis stated, Travis and John Calvert give excellant service, well worth the $$$! If you go that route, it's a good choice and very versitle. I don't believe you'll be disappointed...wb

In extremely simple terms, a Cal-Trac is a crude but effective 4 link system.

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Official Cookie and Mater Tormentor.

Actually, not so crude just simplified...

The Cal-Tracs are most like a reversed leaf-link as first used on the Mopar Missile. The system is shown in my old Direct Connection Chassis Manual. I can scan it and post it if anyone really cares.

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Joshua

The link-leaf Missle parts were actually using a double pivot point and the arch that the axle housing pivoted centralized the motion whereas John Calverts 'Cal-tracs' uses the forward mounting point of the bar that is not stationary as it actually has the ability to slide along the forward segment of the spring. IF the forward mounting point were not able to 'slide', it would put the bar and spring in a bind as they have two different archs and the two cannot travel in different archs and have different pivotal lengths without bind. The Missle link-leaf used a pivot on the bottom of the housing, acting somewhat like today's 'slider' when using ladder bars and leaf springs. The bars act to control spring wrap-up whereas the spings just support the car, similar in effect to that of the Cal-tracs where the trac controls wrap-up and helps plant the tire for aided traction control. If the forward mount were rigid that would bind the suspension and eventually cause breakage. A good reference to fully understand these two forces playing against one another can be better understood by reading Doorslammers: the chassis book by Dave Morgan. Dave was a very knowledgable and successful drag racer who knows and understands the basics as-well-as the more complicated functions of the more sophisticated drag race chassis and their dynamics. Probably one of the best written books on everything from leaf sprung cars to ladder bar and 4-link suspensions. I HIGHLY recommend this book as required reading for anybody who truly has the desire to understand about the more complicated drag race suspension and the dynamics of weight/load transfer. There are many others as well but Dave Morgan's in probably the most in-depth of the ones I've read. Another book worth reading is Chassis Engineering by Herb Adams. Mr Adams book is really for the racer that travels in 'other than straight' track realms. His book is another great chassis technology book that will help the reader understand the 'what-ifs' and 'whys' for circle track/road racing as-well-as Solo-type chassis work. I highly recommend both as one can glean much from them both, even if just for a drag car! Great reading for these cold/winter months...wb