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Posted by: RoadGlue Jan 14 2008, 01:20 PM

My friend bought my old Fiat sedan and has been taken it to a few DE's up at Thunderhill over the past year. Each time he's getting faster and so has the car. It's a '74 Fiat Sedan with a hopped up 1.8 TC, beefed up suspension and brakes and now a 1/2 cage that's been professionally built and welded in.

My question is whether or not his battery reallocation is safe. He's taken the front mounted battery and replaced it with a gel cell Optima and mounted it where the rear seat used to be. It has a single cross over mount and it's not mounted in a battery box.

The first pic below shows the mounted battery. The second shows the car before the installation, to give perspective on what you're looking at in the first shot. The ground cable utilizes the old seatbelt mount that you see in that second pic.

From what I gathered, it's OK to not have a gel cell battery in a box, but it can't be mounted in the cab. Plus, that mount doesn't look very strong, being that it's not sitting in a tray that limits side-side, forward back movement.

What do you think?


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Posted by: RoadGlue Jan 14 2008, 01:21 PM

Here's a photo of the car from the outside, if that helps.


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Posted by: woobn8r Jan 14 2008, 03:28 PM

I'm not too sure about SCCA, but up here in CANADA the CASC would require that bettery in a CSA approved battery box, gel or not.

Otherwise if she don't move in the mount...it's all good.

Posted by: SLITS Jan 14 2008, 05:12 PM

In our SCCA race car, the battery (not gel cell) was mounted in a Marine Case and SECURELY mounted to the floor of the pass compartment. Reinforcement plate underneath the car and angle iron frame over it.

You DO NOT WANT the battery to come lose and fly around in an incident. It will split a helmet easily.

Posted by: RoadGlue Jan 14 2008, 05:18 PM

That's what I was worried about as well. I thought that if he rolled the car or hit a wall, that the battery could likely become a 30 lb missile!

Posted by: SLITS Jan 14 2008, 05:20 PM

I wasn't going to relate the story .... it ended with a death in drivers' school.

Posted by: RoadGlue Jan 14 2008, 05:23 PM

QUOTE(SLITS @ Jan 14 2008, 03:20 PM)

Posted by: Spoke Jan 14 2008, 06:05 PM

A few years ago, Robby Gordon was leading the Nascar race at Watkins Glen when a lithium battery pack inside the cockpit which powered telemetry equipment exploded and caught fire. End of his race.