Light-weight battery mod anyone?

[Edmo83]

Sup all,

I was wondering if it would be wise to get a "mini-battery" "compact-battery" or whatever, i've seen it on EVO's, and i bet it saves a ton of weight. I still would use my car as a daily driver, so i'd carry a booster or something in the trunk.
If you wanna find some info on it, ive found a few like "buschur" and "Oddessy"

I need a new battery soon, and looked at some optimas, but i think are around 50-60 lbs.
and i dont have anything fancy audio wise....stock headunit on te JBL speakers package.

I searched and found nothing, and was wondering if anyone has any input on this, thanks!!

[touringcamry]

Won't the weight of the booster and the lightweight battery add up to the same weight as a regular battery?

[uibalnme]

Check out this site.

http://www.batcap.net/Indexnew5.htm

[Edmo83]

touring: the lightweight battery in my friends EVO is 8lbs. and a booster is what...10?

and also if u take the weight off the front wheels, hopefully helping a little handling. also if your intake is drawing in air from under the battery, it might help with air flow, maybe.

Uibalnme:, the site is cool, but i think its mainly for car stereos...i dunno if its really for battery replacement. I think it works like a capacitor in helping with charges and what not. If you look at the diagrams they have, its really works more like a supplement....but i can be wrong

If i find anything while i search, ill post it here, if not ill abandon the project and find other ways to help lighten the car lke rip my seats out, spare tire, sound proofing, liposuction, useless body panels, and of course scraping that useless paint off, lol


thanks for the input!! !

[mspringer]

Stop wasting your time thinking about this.
Saving 5 lbs of sprung weight on a 3400lb (appx) car that doesn't make a tremendous amount of horespower anyway, isn't going to shift the power to weight ratio enough to notice, or measure, really.
Putting the 17 inch wheels on it (in your sig) hurt the performance far more than the lightweight battery would help.

[Tony the Tiger]

If you want to improve handling, rather than trying to save weight, you can relocate the battery to the trunk. You should run a Dry Cell battery like the Optima if you do decide to relocate the battery.

Here's mine:

[Hamsterman]

^ i concur with the tony \

that is how the SBC rolls

[CamNub]

Maybe it's a newb question, but how would relocating your battery improve handling?

I thought it was only for space purposes...

[Edmo83]

springer, an 8lb battery is really really light compared to the stock battery, i believe its at least 40 lbs. if not more, and my 17s are only 4 lbs heavier than my stock 15s, even with the centrifigal(prob spelled wrong) mass, its better cuz of less squat, and wider contact patch

I thought of moving it to the trunk as well, i like the concept more cause i can see it in action

I'd be sooooo paranoid of damaging the woofer if its only covered with felt tony, but that setup is really really nice!!

And nate, love your work on that rim vs. the world pic from the other day, cracks me up
you think you can give me a few tips on moving the battery to the trunk?, i kno a dry cell is a good idea, i'd like to kno how you like having it back there, does it get in the way, any drawbacks?

Thanks a ton for the info dudes, if this helps balence the cars weight even by one lousy percent, its way worth it and i'll become a believer!!

[Edmo83]

camnub, our cars being front engined, front wheel drived, we have too much weight in front, and that can hurt performance because you want the cars weight spread as evenly as possible. (ideal is 50/50) im not talking about a world of a difference for us, but if you nailed a corner at 70mph, you'll eventually understand wat balence is about,

and about the weight, think.....stopping distance, body roll, center gravity, tire wear...etc

[touringcamry]

The weight on the front tire is meant to help traction, not hurt it. When you accelerate, weight transfer moves to the rear and away from the front which is why having 60/40 is helpful on a front wheel drive.

50/50 is great, but taking weight away from the front wheels is not all that helpful because you take weight away from teh drive wheels. In a FR vehicle, you can transfer weight to the rear wheels by accelerating which is why you can do 50/50 weight distribution.

[05Cam-Weasel]

the weight difference is so miniscule that you won't feel the difference

[DarkMastyr]

Most Evo owners get a mini battery so that they can fiddle with a new turbo setup, etc., not to save weight (well some do, but the hardcore weight saving Evo owners drive the RS version already which is a stripped down Evo meant for the track).

[Edmo83]

you guys are right, i never factored in the traction concept, and it does save evo owners a ton of space when they do work on the turbo,
darkmastyr, i remember the RS, that thing didnt have A/C or a radio, let alone paint on the door handles, lol, but the MR has an aluminum roof which helps save weight from the top of the car, making the center gravity nice and low, i believe its a lot more powerful than the RS, making up for the weight

the weight difference is def going to be small, but i look at it as any little thing helps. I'm a pretty heavy bastid(220 lbs.), so my weight split is already heavy enough up front

[v-cam]

Seriously dude. Unless you are racing and you are paranoid about weight, you wont notice the difference. If you want to improve handling, keep your tire pressures optimized and spend your money on suspension components not tiny weight loss. remember your engine isnt perfectly centered therefore there is more weight on the right hand side than the left. Best to keep the normal battery to equal this out a bit.

If you are really worried about weight, than dont stop at your battery, remove seats, stereos, ac, door trims, spare wheel, dash, carpet and only ever fill up to half in your fuel tank