As some of you might have been made aware of, FFR changed their chassis design a bit in mid-2017 and added a 3/4" brace above the new 2015 IRS mount, which is right where the FFmetal battery box would be mounted.
I've been mulling over ways of working around this, and I think I may be on to something.
Obviously I'd have to go with a smaller battery to design the box around. I took some measurements on JRcuz's car this weekend and it seems the limiting dimension is the depth of the box (front to back), which is 5 inches now between the new brace and the existing brace the boxes are riveted to. Plenty of room width and height-wise. So my quest is to find the best battery 4" deep or less, with enough Cold Cranking Amps (CCAs) to design the box around.
There are new lithium batteries out there, but their design rules them out in my book, mainly due to their inability to crank an engine longer than 10 seconds or so and then needing 30 minutes to recover. And if you run seat heaters, wipers, radio, etc., it just can't keep up. Would be great for a race car, but not a street car.
Keep in mind the specs of the typical battery the FFmetal box was made for, the Optima Red Top 34. Weighs in at a whopping 38 pounds, has 800 CCAs, and costs about $240.
Here are a couple of AGM contenders.
- Braille B2317 (ad from Jegs ) Nice battery, only 17 lbs, 475 CCAs, around $200
- Odyssey PC1100 (ad from Jegs) Also nice, a bit heavier at 27 lbs, a little stronger at 500 CCA, around $247
I'd like to hear your feedback.