I posted this in performance first. I had not checked for a elcamino subject.

I have a 69 Elky. I know it is not designed for the best traction. I have a 540 592HP 634 tq at the rear wheels. TH400 and 2700 stall with 12 bolt posi 373's. With TA's they break loose easily at up to 45 mph. I want to go to the track and obviously and would like some opinions on where to put the $ for tracktion. Slicks -- control arms etc. Where do you think my money would be best spent?

Thanks in advance.

nice heavy sand or concreate 70 lb bags id say put 3 or so in

Making the car heavier is not the answer. For whatever reason there still seems to be people who do not realize how close to a Chevelle the El Camino is in weight distribution front to rear. Yet I never see people advocating adding weight to a Chevelle. All muscle cars have more weight over the front, all good suspension setups use physics to "transfer" weight to the back. Concurrent with that is to setup the suspension to plant the rear wheels to the ground. A good setup will push the differential away from the car - this is known as anti-squat. A bad setup will pull the differential up toward the frame - this is known as squat. Anti-squat increases traction, squat reduces traction.

You have enough rear wheel power for 9 second passes at the dragstrip. Naturally your BFG T/A radials are overwhelmed - the regular T/A's are not real high performance or drag tires. Your '72 is blessed with fairly large wheelwells - go ahead and stuff them with the largest slicks you can fit. You should be able to get 13.5" section width or ~ 11.5" tread width slicks in there.

Do you have a roll cage yet?

For rear suspension the usual ingredients of: largest rear sway bar you can fit, boxed or aftermarket lower control arms, adjustable upper control arms, either no-hop upper relocation mounts or SSM lower relocation mounts, fresh bushings everywhere. You should find some benifit to using an air bag on the right rear to control the twist that your rear sway bar cannot handle. Well, that should get you started - go have some fun!

Thomas

i have 29x11.5x15 hoosier QTP d.o.t. sneakers on my 70 camino,you have to trim the outer wheel lips a little but they fit good !! use f-41 chevelle rear sway bar,poly bushings,boxed lower arms,ajustable upper control arms from jegs & run a air bag in the passenger side coil & you should be good !!!:yes::yes::thumbsup:

68-72 El Caminos have LESS Static weight on the front end than Chevelles. All things being equal, A El Camino will come out of the hole better than a Chevelle. I still have my 70 SS 454 -M-22 Camino. When I was racing it in PURE STOCK in 1970 at Quaker City in Salem Ohio.
I pulled the tailgate cover panel and the two vertical supports and got old plastic banking bags with the zipper. Then off to the gun shop and bought some lead shot and collected some free wheel weights and put the bags in the tail gate. A little air in the shocks, get the weight right, And over to the left side.
My dad made some oilite bushings for the suspension. Made them dark with gun bluing. Unhooked the front sway bar, Untill I got caught. I DID NOT street race 37 years ago. NOT ME!!!!!!
Hey-- This was 37 years ago and Dam I had fun!!!!!!!
Bob:thumbsup:

I have a set of the UMI lower rear control arm 'relocation' brackets on my 68 elky and i'll be darned if it didn't make a huge difference- even when just cruising around on my street tires.

As said above... Rebuild your rear suspension with new bushings (if they aren't already)... Get some No hop's, Relocation brackets, or adjustable uppers.
Drag shocks will help a lot too... But numero uno is get some slicks on the car.

Putting drag radials on mine, combined with the relocation brackets were worth a full second and half off my times.

... Get some No hop's, Relocation brackets, or adjustable uppers.

I guess I need to try this on my El Camino. I don't race it much but when I do it won't hook even with MT drag radials. I have run a best of 9.0 in the 1/8th and that was spinning through first and second gear with the 700R4. :D

I am running boxed lower control arms with good bushings, a sway bar, stock upper control arms with stock bushings, a rear sway bar and air shocks. I run the air shocks low at 25 psi when I race. :D