Hey guys,
I don't know if this goes here but we shall try it. For out Formula SAE car we are loking for the smallest and lightest battery that we can find while still having a lot of power. We had a lot of trouble with the battery almost dying on us after only 2 or 3 start attempts, so we are looking for a car battery. If any of you know of a really small one thats also pretty light weight i would really appreciate it and just for fun heres a pic of out frame:

 

Why bother having a battery at all? Just have a setup that allows you to connect it in to start the car and then let the alternator run the car while it's running. You're never going to get a good life out of these small batteries. But if you have to run a battery for some reason or another people have had good success with the Oddysey batteries.

 

We used a marine battery for our FSAE not sure for what application. I was not cheap but it was small and had some good amps.

Also try ATV batteries. Polaris was nice to us with alot of stuff.

 

Get a Varley Red Top 8 from the UK. Not so good for a daily driver, but should be fine in your application. 5 pounds.

 

well the problem is that there are a bunch of event in the day so we have to be bale to shut the car off and start it again relatively soon afterwards, we will have a generator this year but we would prefer not to have to use it especially since it wont really be too close to us

 

id get something like that you can carry around maybe a big battery, plug it in to start it, unplug let the altenator do its job.


Some of those freeze "keep cool" lunch boxs would fit most say civic batteries easily

 

My car has what I think is a motorcycle battery. I will have to go downstairs and read the brand. It is tiny but the damn thing works. I have had the car a year and have really had no problems using it. Now you can't crank the car while the headlights are on but that is no big deal. The car is a track car, not a daily, but I drive it to venues not on a trailer.

Barry H.

 

what school is that ?
That chassis looks like weight isnt an issue!

 

I use a hawker G13-EP i got from surplusev a few summers back in my car - weighs about 13 lb and starts my 11:1 NA motor every time. you can probably get smaller/lighter, but thi one has served me well.

I'm with the others suggesting a battery pack you can disconnect though, and have the car run on teh alternator once it is started, ten you don't need any weight in battery on the car. - or just use a "jump box" to start it

 

i vote for using a jumper box... keep it charged the day of the event and you should be good to go all day... i know i've jumped at least 4 cars in a day with mine... keep the battery out of the car...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Want2race &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">what school is that ?
That chassis looks like weight isnt an issue!</TD></TR></TABLE>

Well we ran into a snafu where we were supposed to make a carbon fiber honeycomb monocoque chasis but the person making the template for us backed out so we had to design that as a last minute thing. It's not tremendously different from other years and we have always weighed right around the 515 mark.

 

We're using a champion motorcycle battery ... the same one in our Buell Motorcycle .

 

for autocross competition you'll want a battery on board. you DON'T want to stall on course and not be able to refire until you get a pushstart or return back to the pit area. think big full bodied car barreling down on your immobilized race kaa. (most course workers shouldn't be push starting an open wheel car but few think of their ankles in these situations)

the formula karts in our area can really screw up an event when they stall a half mile away from the paddock/pit area. we've resorted to driving the starter motor out to them to speed things along a bit. fortunately reruns aren't a big issue since real cars aren't allowed on course while the karts are out there, but we have had some good kart turnouts and seen the heat the karts run in take significantly longer to finish. bottom line, you want to be capable of restrating in the very likely event you spin and stall.

nate

 

A oddessy battery is small, but not light. Puts out a lot of amps, but in general not as much life in it. If you have a alternator in the engine, it should be enough to charge it inbetween runs.

Goodluck....I did FSAE back in '96. First time team and didn't do so well, but it was fun and it got me start in a low paying automotive career which started off in racing.

 

I've been very happy with my Odyssey battery. Weighs about 13lbs and starts the car very well. Never had any problems with it needing a charge.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jzr &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Get a Varley Red Top 8 from the UK. Not so good for a daily driver, but should be fine in your application. 5 pounds.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Varley Red Top 8 seems to no longer be available for import to the US. I tried earlier this season. Good thing, though, as I found something better: Yuasa YTZ-7S. Keep it on a good battery tender between events and it will serve your needs just fine. Not good for a street car, though, as it will lose its charge just by leaving the lights on for 15 minutes. Ask me how I know...

Oh yeah, and its lighter than the Varley ( to Jason).

--Andy



Modified by Andy Hollis at 3:56 AM 4/19/2005

 

The Battery on my Rotax max might be big enough and would work,its really small doesn't weigh very much and needs to be recharged before races or motorcycle battery

 

these are light (11.5lbs) and powerful enough to start any car engine:

NRG Cell

 

What's wrong with bike batteries for your application? You're using a 600 from some Suzumahondasaki aren't you?

Sounds like Andy's on to something though. All you need is to be able to restart the car in case a driver has a big oops during the enduro or the autocross competition and needs to get going in a hurry, don't need anything more than that.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by solo-x &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">the formula karts in our area can really screw up an event when they stall a half mile away from the paddock/pit area. we've resorted to driving the starter motor out to them to speed things along a bit.</TD></TR></TABLE>
Our guys seem to throw more chains than they stall it

And I have the Odyssey, works great

 

Yeah we are using a honda engine as well as a honda battery.
Thats the big problem, should the car stall during one of the events, we wouldn't be able to go out and push start it. The battery we are using just doesnt hold power for long enough. That battery from heel toe looks pretty nice. I really appreciate all of your input in this guys.
Matt

 

Pep boys has a sealed enegizer battery for about 60 bux. I've used several of them on street cars over the years and even left some with the stereo on for quite some time. The weight is less than 11 pounds.

Currently I am using a similar one from westco battery in my street car with a stereo and drive all the time and it starts the car up beautifully everytime

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nonsense &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">these are light (11.5lbs) and powerful enough to start any car engine:
NRG Cell
</TD></TR></TABLE>

These are simply relabeled Odyssey batteries...

You guys *need* to read this: http://www.stealth316.com/2-dynabatt.htm

Notice the extreme similarity of the NRG Cell and others to the real one...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kb58 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

These are simply relabeled Odyssey batteries...

You guys *need* to read this: http://www.stealth316.com/2-dynabatt.htm

Notice the extreme similarity of the NRG Cell and others to the real one...</TD></TR></TABLE>

you missed the point though

A: the nrg is mad tyt3!

B: see A:

The NRG seems to be about 2 pounds less and is still much cheaper (110 with extra pimpy gold terminals) 95 without, rebadged or not.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by kb58 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

These are simply relabeled Odyssey batteries...

You guys *need* to read this: http://www.stealth316.com/2-dynabatt.htm

Notice the extreme similarity of the NRG Cell and others to the real one...</TD></TR></TABLE>

Odyssey PC 680 7.27" x 3.12" x 6.67" 15 lbs
NRG Cell 6.875" x 3.25" 5" 11.5 lbs

I guess by "extreme similarity" you mean sorta the same size and sorta the same weight and sorta the same price? Yeah there's more than one small battery, I can say that HeelToe is not only a respected H-T sponsor, but it's run by a great guy who has exceptional customer service.