Who in here has one? I know Mike has had trouble with his. Anyone else have problems?

Where are these purchased and for how much? How much do they weigh?


Questions, Questions....

I know some people who use these for the dragstrip. Each person carries a portable marine jump start box just in case. They are very light, but may not be optimum for daily use.

I just sold mine to a guy from near Lansing last weekend. It might be OK with a front mounted battery location, but with a mid mounted battery and some long wiring to a kill switch it just wasn't enough to consistently start the car without doing a trickle charge between rounds. When it died on me at my comp license school weekend that was what finally sent me home.

By the time you get a Hawker dry cell battery into the cranking amp ratings of the gel cells, they weigh and cost more (56lbs vs 38lbs, $145 vs $90 comparing a hawker odyssey and Optima red top of comparable amperage ratings). The only reason people run them is they choose a smaller hawker and sacrifice cranking amps and amp hours for weight. If you use a battery that is too weak, it may not crank the car reliably. If every time you start the car there is a backup available (as mjf454 points out) its not an issue. Also, check for legality in whatever class you want to run. Many classes specify a battery size anyway.

Over a year daily driving, 5 track days. Never once been charged or failed to crank the engine--including in temps below freezing. However, when I lived only about a mile from work I found it took more juice out of it to start the engine than was charged back into it in the short trip. So I'd "take the long way home" once every other week or so. Now that I live about three miles away that isn't a problem anymore. Other than that, no problems.

After hearing about Mike's problems, I did suspect it of causing my high RPM miss somehow but we put jumpers to a real battery on the dyno and it made no difference.

Most of the SM croud out here uses these relocated to where the rear pass seat used to be. They seem to work well. I am the only one with any issues and I am begining to suspect that my starter is in fact headed south. I don't think any of us have had any failures to start.

Jason S.