More of just wondering if this could work for non track driven cars. I have wondered about this for awhile and have not been able to figure it out on my own. If a car was not going to be driven hard cornering, more of cruising around weekend driving, etc. Maybe a trip or 2 to the track to see what it runs, but otherwise mainly street driving could it work?

The idea would be to have basically a leaf spring cut right after the rearend, and running Caltracs bars with a panhard bar. Then running coilovers for suspension. Does that sound like it could work? From what I can tell it would keep the rearend centered, and give you coilovers for adjusting ride height. I know it's not the ideal setup for laguna seca, but for street is it ok? Main thing I was going for in thinking about this is ride height adjustability.... I was looking at keeping the leafs all together getting the softest leafs I can find and running shockwaves, but from my measurements the shockwaves would be about a 1/4" away from rubbing the tires at ride height and any leaning might rub..... Been there done that on anothe vehicle and had the bag deflate on the road, it sucked and I don't want to do it again.

With the Caltracs still there I would not have axle wrap right, it would be more of a binding issue right?

Yes, this is very old-school and has been done before!!

What you end up w/ is using your front 1/2 leaf springs to locate the rearend and the coil-overs and panhard bar to locate the rearend and support the car!!

I personally would use roundy-round soft mono main leaf's and then use the coil-overs to support the car b/c the mono's will locate the rearend fine side to side!!

This way you don't have to use a panhard bar!!

pdq67

PS., and carrying this to the EXTREME, you will find that the "HTH suspension setup" truck-arm

http://www.hotrodstohell.net/truckarm/truckarm_index.htm

is somewhat like this only different!! It use's the old Chevy P/U beam sus*****on members to do about what yoiu want only probably a LOT better for what they are trying to do!!

NASCAR mandated the HTH type center-link truck arm suspension stuff so it can't be all that poor, imho!!

That's what I was trying to possibly duplicate the HTH system but on a budget.... This also gives me the option to see if I can run wider tires in rear...

What is Roundy-round leafs? Could I then just swap out the 1/2 leaf for a lower link from something like the DSE quadralink kit? Or would that loose the pin that helps keep the rearend centered?

THX, pdq67

I thought about making hell for stout S/F/C's and mounting the front halves of a pair of leaf springs to the end of them CLAMPED/MOUNTED SOLID and then making some sort of 2-Dimensional pivoting/swivel mounts for the now pointing towards the back, spring eyes and mount them to the rearend housing and just running a panhard bar!

Then set the shocks at 45 or 60 degrees or so in to the inside of the car..

This is basically a "Quarter elliptical" spring arrangement and has been done way back years earlier than even me if you look into it.

Talk about CHEAP!!! And "shade-tree" to say the least!!

In fact a mag did this sort of deal to the Chevette they mid-engined the Cad 500/TH400 in several years back. Except they used just the main leaf halves, put the spring eyes in front like stock and then mounted the rearend solid to the spring halves ends and added plates so coil springs could be located and used to support the car w/ the shocks going inside the coils!! Panhard bar too!!

pdq67

personally I would not feel safe driving a car with half a leaf on each side

I think a better idea would be to use some soft leafs like pdq is talking about
and if you relocate the shocks to the inside of the leaf spring (you will need to install a shock cross member) you will not have the tire clearance problem
and still use the cal tracks of course

or even better, get something like the air bar and put the coil overs on that, if you really want coil overs that bad
but you could just get a pair of leafs from some place like hotchkis or global west and a pair of drop block to get the height where you want it

I want it real low for shows and about where it is for normal driving... I was thinking the 1/2 leaf with pin would keep the rearend centered and the caltracs bars would be like the lower link in a ladder bar setup.

The airbar is what I want to get, but at almost 2k it seems overkill for me, since I do not plan on autocrossing this car, but I could be wrong that's why I was asking. :)

Fatman sells that type suspension.

I doubt it is very good since splitting the leaf makes it into a short lift bar sort of suspension. You'd probably experience a lot of up down motion when power is applied.

I'd opt for a torque arm with panhard bar, it's much more stable, and does not need to be as long as the factory makes them. Global West actually makes a kit for third gen Camaros to shorten the torque arm for better bite. Use the stock front leaf brackets to attach trailing arms to. Mount them on the inboard side to gain tire clearance.
David

How can I mount them on the inside David? Do I relocate the front spring mounts? How can I get a torque arm to fit? Has anybody done this before? The closest I know of is something like the HTH setup.

You need to go over to Larry C's great "Pro-Touring" site here

http://www.pro-touring.com/

And ask the guys what they think??

And, please say hello to Larry for old pdq67.

pdq67