Do Caltrac's = ProTouring?

[NMike]

can you actually run the Caltrac's on a road course and have them help? would it just lock up the rear suspension too much?

[HPP]

Although I do question how effective the Cal-trac design really is on a mopar suspension, I don't see why the wouldn't work. The leaf springs provide the lateral location and the Cal-tracs are designed to move up and down.

[elacruze]

I've been avoiding this question because it's a smelly can of worms.

Here's my  ; Cal-Tracs would stiffen the suspension *under power*. That is only a good thing if;

1. Your suspension is way too soft anyway.
2. The track surface is perfectly smooth.

I would not have Cal-Tracks on a road course car.

[HPP]

The same arguements could be made about super stock springs because, in theory, Cal tracs were originally built by a ford  racer to duplicate the action of super stock springs. If you look at the Cal-trac design, when the front eye pivots, it shortens the effective length of the front segment. They effectively turn symetrical chevy and ford springs in to asymetrical mopar springs. For that reason, I question their effectiveness on a mopar.

However, with the split monoleaf design, you can specify spring rates much more precisely than a typical mopar spring and reduce weight, which is a good thing. There also can be a good arguement that a softer, more compliant spring rate is better suited to road irregularities, which means you could use a softer spring for compliance adn let teh cal-trac put the power down

Cal-tracs also work in reverse under braking and they can reduce wheel hop that direction in the same way the reduce it under power. However, again, this is not tpyically a problem for a mopar because of the asymetrical spring design.