Would those 20AH sealed lead acid batteries be able to survive a full race
season in a street/weekend warrior car? Would it be able to reliably start
the car in cold conditions, not winter mind you, but early April and late
October Midwest events? How would it like being attached to a regular car
alternator as a charging source? I have to wonder since they were not
specifically designed for automotive applications. I think, at least for my
application, that in order to get one of those Panasonic type batteries
that's large enough to work well for a while that any weight savings would
be lost versus a standard wet cell car or motorcycle battery.
A fellow STS buddy ran one of the high dollar ($150) dry cell batteries in
his Subie and it worked well. But for that kind if money I don't think he
gained anything over me and my smaller battery (read below) except for an
additional 4-6# weight loss.
I know that Bruce was looking for a sealed battery (most likely to install
in the passenger compartment) but I purchased a Lawn & Garden "lawn tractor"
battery at Autozone for $35. It's half the weight (about 18#) and size of
my stock sized battery, still delivers 440 CA and 340 CCA (stock was 440CCA)
with a 45 minute reserve capacity. It worked well for daily driver duty in
my car all this past year. It never failed to start the car or complained
about running the stereo for up to an hour while working on the car in the
garage. I fully expect it to last another full season in the Neon and serve
Yeoman's duty doing so. I'd imagine it'd work very well for a FF type car
as well since it's designed for the similar electrical load of a lawn
tractor.
Even though my class rules (STS) allow for battery relocation I didn't want
to do it for several reasons. First, it's a royal PITA to do so and second
the weight savings would almost entirely be negated by having to run 0 gauge
wire all the way to the trunk and all the required mounting hardware to
secure it. I also didn't want to have to deal with the chances of the cable
shorting out on something and starting a fire at the worst or simply not
starting the car at the best. So, I chose to simply leave it mounted up
front in the stock location.
That's my 2 cents.
Eric Linnhoff in KC
'98 Neon R/T (see-dan)
#69 STS #13 TLS
knuckledragger@kcweb.net
www.geocities.com/eric10mm/KnuckleDragger
----- Original Message -----
> I don't have the messages but here is a link to the battery I'm now using
> in my Formula Ford. The Panasonic Sealed Lead Acid batteries seem to have
a
> good reputation and are a bunch cheaper than some of the "famous racing"
> brands. Mine was about $55 delivered.
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