So I bought a new old stock SLP dual cold air intake setup which requires moving the battery. I don’t really want to put it in the trunk and do a cutoff switch and sealed box and all that for NHRA as I like to drag race it from time to time. Has anyone ever tried to mount the battery directly under the battery tray? It looks like if you moved the fender brace and the plastic under the tray you could fab up a tray to mount it directly under the stock location and just run longer cables.

 

I moved the battery to the spare tub on a couple of cars. Fabbed a mount but found it essuer to modify one of those steel speedway trays. Route a thick cable under the car (I went through sfc's) done.

 

Would a smaller battery help? I run one of these https://www.summitracing.com/int/par...c925/overview/ They're half the size, can turn them any way and it has more than enough juice.

 

This is even smaller but yea that helps a lot. This in a cortina race car Im building.

 

Yes the spare tire well is the best suited spot, and that’s where I have the battery in my 4th gen bracket car, and it’s very nice with the BMR tray and tick cable kit. However, to run it down the drag strip with the battery in the spare tire well, that requires a master cutoff switch on the back of the car, as well as running cables to the back of the car. I know there’s plenty of safe ways to run the cables either inside the car or underneath, but I am just trying to stay away from butchering the back of the car up for a switch and running cables through the firewall. It’s pretty wide open up front, and I think the optima 78 would fit under there, just wondering if anyone else has used all the dead space up there for a battery

 

I can't vouch for a battery ( so I get that I'm not really answering directly) down there but there is a ton of space under each (l&r) battery tray. I have fairly boxy intercoolers directly underneath each tray and there's lots of room. I mentioned the Odyssey at 7.05x6.64x5.04( wxlxh) only because they are a good bit smaller than the group 78 Optima. I don't see why you couldn't fab up a a couple of good brackets to hold a battery in place.

Brian

 

That’s kinda what I was thinking. I was even half tempted to give a little PC680 a shot and just leave it on the maintainer when it’s in the garage. They are cheap and tiny and I see a handful of guys starting racecars with it, and I don’t think my stock 9.3:1 L98 is too much to turn over, especially with a C4 gear reduction starter.

 

SLP put the battery in the back under the locking glove box. Granted they skipped the shutoff, and had the cables mate up to the stock cables under the hood. Honestly, with all the HUGE drain holes in the back body, I'm thinking a person could run all the cables and vents and shut-off switches under the car without making any new holes. Just run everything through existing drain plugs.



Just an example. Pretty sure there's another plug on the driver's side just like the plug near the top of this photo. I've been able to run 4ga and 4an nitrous supply lines on every thirdgen I've owned without drilling holes. I'm sure there's a way to get a couple battery cables from inside to under the car without too much trouble.

 

That still doesn’t cover the master cutoff requirements by NHRA.

 

No great suggestions there, sorry... I would expect a person could mount a switch wherever it's convenient, and run a rod to the rear of the car to push to shut-off. Should be able to come up with a solution that could be connected for race day and removed the other 364 days a year. Just thinking out loud, don't mind me.

 

that’s exactly what I did on my 4th gen drag car but I don’t really want to drill a hole in fresh paint on my 92 lol

 

Some of my friends have battery in trunk for weight distribution. They only go to Test 'n Tune events once or twice a year and always get in. They might get some coaching or raised eyebrows but nobody remembers them a year later and the cycle starts over. Cars are obviously street cars on street tires and not drag cars.

 

Mount the rod under the car, so the shut off sticks out below the bumper. Or get an extra tail light and run it through the light. When you don't want the obvious switch, it's as easy as changing a bulb to swap the light for one without a hole.