What is the prefered brand and how has it been holding up?

Braile.
Keep it charged by running it often without sitting for longer than three months idled and you are good.
I have one now for a couple of years. The last one I let sit for all Winter and it went bad by not holding a charge.

I have a hard time stepping away from a conventional lead acid or AGM battery. Anytime a mainstream battery comes out that has higher CCA or high Reserve capacity they don't get smaller or lighter. You're giving up something when you go with a smaller lightweight battery and most of that is going to be reserve capacity. If I were to run one of the little lightweight batteries I would only use it on the track and use a regular battery for the road.

I have seen some of the high $$$ batteries come through our recycle pallets(I manage a battery distributorship) and I have pulled some out and charged them with success. The Lithium motorcycle batteries can throw down some serious power and they charge very fast. However I am curious what caused someone to throw away a $300-400 battery in the first place. Some of the "special high performance" batteries are just motorcycle or wheelchair batteries wrapped up in a fancy label for twice the money. I have seen some stinger brand batteries that are just a 18ah jump box battery that you could by from me for $60 RETAIL.

Race Car Only, lightwieght makes a lot of sense, since you have a street car you have way more to consider. Like starting your car at a gas station in cornville USA when it is 100* outside.

I like my 5 year old yellow top Optima but my car sure does need to lose some weight.

I have been looking at the same thing, especially as I just found my red top to be dead.

Didn't find much on the Bullet either.

Same here... being a street rod I will sacrifice a
bit of weight for a good dependable battery that
will support the starts... and a good alt that has
enough for night time driving.... just put the weight
of the battery where its needed.. in back

I looked into this for racing , running without an alternator and using mechanical alky injection, so there is no fuel pump draw as well as no cooling fan draw. With what I need to run the ignition, water pump and restart to move up in line, a small Optima is as small as I can get away with and make two rounds. After that the percent of charge is too low for another run. Those two runs are consistent, by the way. Figure you need twice the reserve for actual good function in an auto. Below about 50 percent charge and the car may/probably will go below minimum ignition voltage requirements just to get it started. I decided it wasn't worth considering after looking at the numbers for these small batteries and knowing what I need.

There is a thread on YB about lithium batteries in the electrical section if you want to read up. This company offers the most economical lithium battery I have seen.

http://golithium.com/

I prefer to just stay 12 volt.

I run 2 Orbital gel batteries and would rather have the wt. where I need it in the pass. side of my trunk PLUS, you get twice the cranking power and better hook. If it`s in the ft. then it makes more sense.......

I really don't believe in the weight where you need it thing. Maybe because I'm just slow but I never really have a hook problem so I would rather just be lighter. Thump, your way lighter than me, not exactly sure how but if I could just lose 200 lbs I would be thrilled

I have had great luck with Lithium Pro and light weight XS batteries but both are 16 volt. We run an light weight Odyssey in the heads up car, it weighs 14lbs. Same battery was used in the car when it was a street car and never an issue. We are changing it out this year as since it has become a race only car and has 8 O2's it is just not as happy as it used to be. We ran a small 12 volt Turbo Start in it the last race of the year and there were zero issues. I have also used that battery in the dragster with no issues.

I gutted as much as I could at the time and have no under dash cowl ducting and cut here and there till I got burned out.......Was 3050 w/12 gallons of fuel and one batt. but it spun and didn`t feel right so back in the 2nd batt. went and I`ll weigh it again here soon and see where we`re at........

maybe you have a cable, starter or ground problem goin on. Hell, I was thinking if you got one of those light batterys, Just put it back up front and pull all the heavy cable back out of the car

I have one better.
Start the car, hand over the battery to a buddy in the burnout box and go down strip with nothing. The most lightweight battery system known to man. LOL

Race cars take very little power to RUN........they take lots of power to START. If you have the appropriate alternator, those huge batteries with lots of reserve power, is just carrying weight for no reason. You need cranking amps and the appropriate alternator.

Have a friend who runs a twin turbo, big block radial car, on gas(which means intercooler and needed pumps) on two RC helicopter batteries banded together. The batteries weigh 3lbs.......for the PAIR

Most starting problems are the result of poor wiring and over 50% of cars are poorly wired. That big 00 starter cable does you ZERO good, if your ground cable is a 4 gauge cable, with a bolt run through an eyelet somewhere in the trunk. The cable is too small, the starter is NOT in the trunk and your chassis is one of the WORST conductors there is. The most bad azz starter in the world and a diesel truck battery won't fix that. The ground side MUST be as good as the hot side........few are

What! 3 lbs?

Yep, 3lbs for the pair. They are from a remote control helicopter. The whole thing is less than the size of a Coke can and the car carries NO alternator. Like everything else, battery technology is growing in leaps and bounds, but most tend to do what they always have, instead of embracing technology

My junk likes the wt. in the back but this is good info for sure...........

Maybe........maybe not. The weight in the trunk, gives it more rear percentage.........but with less rear percentage, the "hook" issue may have just as easily been fixed with shock adjustments and hitting the tire harder.

Too many guys try something a couple times and then conclude "well, that didn't work". You always have to keep in mind, that when you change ONE thing, that may require you to change something else, to get the most benefit from change ONE. Seldom if EVER, is loosing weight from the car a bad change. Just may take a tweak elsewhere to optimize that change