Most of the muscle cars and street machines I've owned over the years have had batteries re-located to the right rear of the trunk. Now my Crossfire is about a half a ton lighter than most of those cars so moving the battery to the back should have an even greater effect on the weight distribution.

Anybody do this yet ?

You Auto-Xers and SCCA types, would this bump you up a class and out of "stock"? I ain't really racing, just playin' at it !

Slim

 

been giving that some thought as well ... i've done this all three of my neons in the past to make room for a large cone filter. only reason i have not done it in the XF is cause i really don't need the space and the cable weight that is added is prohibitive as well.

i always run both a positive and negative to the back ... never liked the installs where you ground to chassis cause over the years those tend to fail especially in damp weather. don't forget the 200 amp wafer fuse on the positive wouldn't want any more charred crossfires.

 

The Crossfire's weight distribution is darn near perfect (53F/47R) compared to the Neon (64F/36R) so I'm not entirely sure if moving the battery in the car will buy you much at speeds driven by us mere mortals. Once you get above 8/10 of course, every little bit helps so I guess my question is this:

Is the amount of work going to be worth the benefit? You might be better off installing SRT-6 sway bars with urethane bushings & lowering the car an inch or so before you move the battery.

 

Do a search, HDDP listed the weight per wheel on his car - drastically stripped down. I think his weight distribution was within 25 lbs per wheel.
However, more weight on the rear end may be helpful.
Why do you want to relocate the battery - are you drag racing?

 

I have moved the battery to the right rear. It fits perfectly inside the pocket welded into the rear body floor which was originally designed for the jack and accessories. It obviously has some benefit since the sanctioning body that I race with (NASA) assesses 1 point for the modification. It was easy to do with a stripped and gutted car, but I can't imagine the time involved to do it to a daily driver without messing-up parts of the interior.

 

It is more of a safety thing, because the battery is so close to the fuel lines and fuels rails, which are easy to damage during a collision. I sure don't want an arcing battery near any broken fuel injectors, rails or fuel line.
In fact I've been thinking about replacing the flexible rubber fuel line over the driver side exhaust manifold, with a SS braided piece from Earls. I can't believe they allowed such a stupid design. Keep an eye on it for cracking and leaks, that thing is dangerous.

 

Safety is paramount in any car, a track car especially... But, installing the battery in the rear where I did is not really the smartest thing to do since it now sits within 12" from the gas tank that they so intelligently installed in the car, directly behind the seats.

On my very long list of things to purchase is a safety fuel cell to replace the OEM tank. I've got so many things on that list I can't count them... Or, the expense associated with them.

 

I think it is safer in the rear than up front, because the frontal crush zones collapse and short out the battery and break fuel lines during a crash, its much safer in the trunk. You could also mount the battery in a safety box to further protect from fire.