Would you spend $500 to drop 35 lbs from car?

Lightweight lithium ion battery...

100%! But you need a high quality brand, and I never charge it unattended.

I did on one of my cars. That was the least expensive weight reduction on the car I did. (cost per pound)

Sometimes it's not about the weight, but where the weight is in the car. The smaller package of the LI battery allowed me to put the battery in low and in the rear cargo bin.

XS Power XV series, IIRC

Stop ordering the double cheeseburger for lunch and you will drop 35 pounds while also saving yourself $500

Then you take the $500 you saved from the cheeseburgers and buy the Li battery. Now you've dropped 70 lbs without spending anything

I had a friend pull this out of a very high dollar Super Stocker while warming up at the track. He has gone back to lead acid.

What brand?

No. It's going towards a dual fogger

He said it was a Lithium Pro battery

Yeah, I could stand to drop about 40 lubs... getting old sucks

"Thermal runaway" with a lithium ion battery can be pretty scary. I don't know how commonly that type of battery design has issues in automotive applications, but it does have me questioning whether that's the direction I want to go

You can do it...I dropped 70lbs after a couple years ago. I definitely feel better.

As for a Lithium battery be very careful what you buy. Charging can be an issue, and running an alternator can be as well. All of them have a max voltage they can tolerate and need to take that into account with an alternator. We have had very good luck with Go Lithium batteries and alternators with regulators turned down to just under the for the battery

A good lithium ion battery supposedly has a built-in battery management system that will prevent the conditions that cause the battery to catch on fire. Of course that's no guarantee that there will never be a problem. But that's why it's a good idea for us to keep track of what brand of batteries have the fire. I have been using anti-gravity batteries with no problem and they claim to have a superior battery management system, such that you can use the cars alternator to charge it for street driving. I have done just that on drag week.

Losing 35lbs, don't think I would feel good at under 130 so gonna pass on that one

I thought about a Braille battery for the new project, but decided to move the existing lead-acid unit to the trunk and put the weight to good use.
But adding a switch for it doesn't bug me.

As for driver weight: I've always been skinny - usually 160 lbs - so it's always seemed a curiosity to me when big round guys are worrying about car weight.
I'm not being judgemental, it's just something I've never personally had, though my younger brother did get the "weight gene".
But everyone I've known who's returned to a more proportionate weight has felt & performed better.

I used to feel the need to carry weight around for my job, not necessarily round But upon being done I was headed there. I am no longer a military contractor and just felt there was no reason to be as big a guy. Plus I am old now I still go 220 but I am 6'3" still

IMO Lithium Pros is one to avoid. I have seen to many who have had issues with them including me. Not fire issues with it just charging, battery life an unexpected failure as well as poor customer service.

I use antigravity brand battery , Weighs 8 lbs and it is a group 24 size case. Battey and charger was $425 2 years ago. It runs my fan in between rounds with no issues . I like it and would buy another.

YEP. Spent more than that on less.

If I were chasing ET probably. I would be more inclined to spend $ on weight reduction if it were a onetime buy like a fiberglass bumper vs a "maintain/wear" item like a battery. Personally I wouldn't waste my $$ on a lightweight battery, but I'm a cheap bracket racer that can just change my dial.

$500 for maybe .03 in ET? The rest of this "heads up" car would have to be maxed out. Bracket car? Not in this lifetime.
Doug

Eh, I might go $500 to pick up a few hundredths. I try to qualify for the quick 16 at my local track and have missed it many times over the years by .02 or .03

I looked into 16V lithium and it was a lot more than 500 though. Till I bought a charger and different alternator I was way over $1000

Agree. Just adjust the shoe polish.

Last year, I had a battery crap out. Went to the parts store, and picked up a new one that dropped right in. Where are you getting a back up lithium at?

AGM batteries will get you pretty close for a lot less than 500 Simoleons. My 8 pounder would spin a 15:1 ~ 560 incher over like it was a toy.

batteriesplus.com/battery/sla-sealed-lead-acid & AGM batteries

That's a fact.

I've seen and heard too much to put lithium in mine. I don't even trust the little ones around the shop.

We have 30lb total worth of AGMs in the Stockers. Hold up pretty well.

I spent 300.00 to add 150 pounds. Removed my fiberglass doors and went back to stock doors with wind up windows.

Why?
Which car and what year are to doors for? Are they for sale?

Sold them probably 5-6 years ago.(1970 duster) I made this car old man friendly. I pull in the trailer and climb out the window

I winch mine in now, I bought and use a Super winch 4500 Lb rated single line winch now
No climbing out of them for me

I can't remember now how much it costs me to switch from the old heavy Crager SS steel chrome wheels the new lighter weight race Crager Super Tricks a long time ago
Maybe near 500 for 4 back then including the longer lug nuts

5 hundred is a little much for me for 35lbs.And i try to weigh every thing that goes on and off this car.

I moved mine to the trunk (lead acid) and picked up exactly nothing. It did clean up under the hood though and the car starts better than it ever did.

Nah.

I do like the idea of a lighter weight battery, but the value is not there for what I want to do.

Absolutely, and have spent that and hundreds of hours to shed 35 lbs, but still running a big AGM battery in the stock location. I would change to lithium, just want to be sure it is not a replace it every couple of years thing.

The more digging into the subject, the less I have confidence in the original type of battery I was considering. Even though I know someone who has used the same model I was looking at successfully for the last couple of years in the same car, the manufacturer specifically says to use only with a charging system of below what I know his and my cars put out. I don't know if he's playing with fire (literally), but I won't.

The lithium ion batteries that look to have built-in management systems aren't in the $500 range, either. The comparable AntiGravity model is $950 for a 30 lb weight savings, so the cost-per-pound just got doubled by looking at a more reliable option. Hmmm... not at this time.

BTW who sells a $500 lithium battery? FWIW we switched the Vette to a lithium last year to loose weight. We only had a 22lb Odessey ATV battery in the car. But when we went to the Lithium we also removed the 120amp alternator and the cables and wiring to it. It wa also a change to 16V from 12V. We saved about 28lbs...

XS Power; they have "racing" batteries that are way more expensive, but I was looking the XV series of lightweight stock-replacement batteries: https://4xspower.com/collections/xv-automotive

They state no more than 150A charging system, but a 6.4 Challenger/Charger has a 220A system. There's a guy w/ another Challenger 1320 who has been using one since 2021, but...

Interesting, yeah their race batteries are substantially more for sure.

For a race car without a charging system, I'd think a marine lithium battery would work. My fishing boat has a lot of electronics on it, with the Group 31 lead acid battery after four and half hours of fishing it would be down to 11.4v, after six hours my 90hp outboard would crank slow and the depth finders would go off when the OB was cranked. I installed a new Impulse Lithium All Purpose 105ah, now after seven hours my voltage is 13.1v and the battery still has 48% or so charge. it's pretty cool to look at my phone and see the voltage and state of charge on my battery. The new battery required a new charger too, with a 15% discount on the battery it and the charger were still over $1k. Impulse Lithium has the best warranty that I found when researching lithium batteries.

i have not read the whole thing here, BUT YES i would sure spend 500 or more for 35lb weight savings !!!

I've seen some of you guys... skipping the beer and donuts would drop 35lbs and save you $500... at least.