Wallet Friendly Lightweight Battery Options
 

I feel like all the threads I find that talk about this are pretty old. Just curious to see what people are running as far as lightweight batteries and how often they drive the car with their setups.

I run a Deka powersports battery in my racecar, but since the racecar has been down and the battery in my daily Miata took a shit, I just swapped the Deka over to that car and have had zero issues with it so far. I have the ETX20L in there right now, and it is much smaller and lighter than the oem battery.

You can get an Antigravity ATX-20 for ~$190 if you speak with a sales rep vs. a dealer. :dunno:

this one is nice at the however, you have to trickle charge it if you store park your car for long periods and if forget about using yuour radio, this battery doens't have enough juice for long periods, just enough amps to start the car. i love it..super light.

Another vote for the Antigravity battery. I'm running the ATX-20-HD. Cost me ~$200. Weight is 3 LBS. Haven't had any issues at all with it, even doing a track day in freezing temperatures.

Where do I get in contact with an Anti Gravity sales rep??? If I knew how to get an ATX-20 for 200 bones I would have never made this thread :facepalm:

FYI...I lied, I'm running the ATX-12-HD, not the ATX-20, but the ATX-12 should work for a stock engine Miata.

Amazon...$202.49 & at your place in 2 days... (Look at my build thread if you want to see how I mounted mine, (post 188) I basically made a bracket that attaches to the stock bracket.)

I can't speak to which lightweight battery you should buy, just wanted to chip in a thought.

The introduction of those tiny battery jump boxes has made me more willing to consider a lightweight battery for street use. Worried about the summer car not starting on a colder day? Just bring along a jump box that you keep at room temp-ish on your person, or at work at your desk.

Thoughts on if the ATX-12 would be suitable for street use as well, aka radio and lights at normal temps?

I run an Antigravity AG-1201 on my track-only K-swap. It'll start the engine a couple of times, no problem. I am religious about using the kill switch to keep away any draw while not running - even the draw of the ABS computer, ECU, and dash make a dent in the charge pretty quickly. I would not run a radio or headlights from it without the motor running. (The ATX-12 is a more sophisticated version of my battery, but it seems to have the same amp-hour specs.)

Just be aware with any small battery that if your alternator goes out, you're not going to get very far. You'll make it to the side of the road but you might not make it to the next exit if you live out in the boonies. My alternator went out at the last event and I barely finished one lap before I was really hurting the battery.

Since I'm not actually competing (yet), let alone at the pointy end of the class, it's probably more trouble than it's worth. I might shelve this unit for a while and wire a stock battery into the passenger footwell. I could charge the battery up between sessions and probably run all 20 minutes as a complete-loss system.

For a bit less than 100$ I’m running 8ah headway cells, 4 in series and 3 in parallel for 24ah. From batteryhookup. And one of their bms’s. Some aluminum battery posts, padding added to the top and bottom, covered in kapton tape.

Same LiFePO4 chemistry as antigravity, same ah as their 51r battery that they sell for 660$.


Weighs around ~8.5 pounds with buss bars and bms.

I let it sit all winter and it dropped .1 volt. Cranks it over extremely fast, I’m sure just 4 in series would start it for a track car. It’s never been questioned in any tech inspections.

A bit more info, please? Exact parts used, pics, maybe? Does it charge just like a regular battery both inside and out of the car?
Would you be willing to fab and sell another one?

Personally, I've been running a powersport ETX15L for years but it's starting to go, time to replace. They are about $100. Also, what's the difference between this: and this one: https://tinyurl.com/2847d9kd

I'm using an ETX16 Deka AGM battery. Works fine, but I keep it on a battery tender tho. Not daily driven.

BTW, I've compiled a list of dimensions, weights and cranking amps of assorted motorsport battery sizes. Maybe someone will find it useful.