Battery (re)location

A previous owner of FRP#31 has relocated the battery to the boot of the car. The installation has been done well, the battery sitting in a proper sealed lid battery box and the positive cable tucked away under the sill carpet (negative goes to a seat belt fixing bolt).

I can only think this was done to better optimise weight distribution as the battery is probably the biggest/heaviest thing you can actually relocate and getting it further back and lower in the chassis can only do good things for the handling. The problem is that in both practical and aesthetic terms it's not the best solution for the already limited boot space.

Given the cables are already there, and the FRP does not have a spare wheel, I though I might re-re-loctate the battery to under the boot floor by using a Varley Redtop (or similar) sealed battery, mounted on its side in an underslung mount. Something like this (but better weather proofed)...
http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/Motorspor ... /1450/1270

A lighter battery would be a good thing as would the weight being even lower in the chassis The car is going to be used sparingly and only in good weather however it will need to live outside (under a car cover) albeit permanently attached to a battery conditioner... when not being driven of course!

Anyone else done this What do you think

Cheers

Mark

sounds like its been raced, or somebody is trying to make a full-on race-replica maybe?
cheers
bonnietiler

well it's certainly no racecar, all trim is present and correct and it lacks a rollcage, external battery isolator switch, fuel cell and fire extinguisher system etc etc. Of course like most FRP's it could, and should, have found it's way on to a circuit at least once in it's life before now.

Given the FRP's well documented mobile, even wayward, tail in wet conditions, my thinking was that a previous owner had attempted to contain/improve this by moving some weight back, to to improve the weight distribution (because the same weight comes out of the front) more than anything else. As I said before the weight is also moved down in chassis a foot or so which is where you want it.

My other thought was they were making room for forced induction of some sort? Both the turbo and supercharger kits I can find reference to on various Ford forums don't really need the room at the gearbox end though.

Cheers

Mark

markc wrote:

:lol:
Given the FRP's well documented mobile, even wayward, tail in wet conditions, my thinking was that a previous owner had attempted to contain/improve this by moving some weight back, to to improve the weight distribution (because the same weight comes out of the front) more than anything else. As I said before the weight is also moved down in chassis a foot or so which is where you want it.

Mark

A lot of work just to improve the weight distribution.
I used to carry a spare wheel in the boot to help keep the back end under control, but have since found a slightly less subtle way....But it gives me back a usable boot.

Dogsbody wrote:

markc wrote:

A lot of work just to improve the weight distribution.

Indeed but the hard work has already been done by a previous owner

I do want my boot back so I either put the battery back under the bonnet or move it to under the boot floor, from where I'm starting the latter looks easier.

Cheers

Mark