Re: Looking for battery replacement opinions

Posted by su8overdrive On 2023/6/2 19:26:34

Stay w/ Optima. Despite online laments from those w/ too much time on their hands, Optima quality continues. Moving assembly to the northernmost strip of Mexico where most manufacturing plants exist the better to ship northward has no bearing on quality, everything overseen by Optima as in their Colorado plant.

Some years ago, a friend was concerned when parts for the 470-ci flat-six Continental in his Cessna 180 Sky Wagon were from South America, 'til a veteran machinist friend, one of the leading Merlin rebuilders at that, told him to relax, for the same reason as above.

Bigotry is pervasive. Fair trade w/ our friends to the south ensures less immigration, more drivable roads.

Ten years is normal for Optimas; has been for me, and we know of a fellow w/ a '41 Cad who went 14 years.

BTW, notice you have a '40 160 sedan. Years ago i owned a well fettled '40 120. 1940 Packards were the lightest ever, with the best power to weight ratios. Your nascent One-Sixty 356 was one of those cars rightly termed "a banker's hot rod" in the day.

Traditional batteries are heavy, Optima aren't. I'm a sport car guy long ago sidetracked by 1939-47 overdrive Packard 8s and Super-8s, by wide accounts the best road cars from either side of the Atlantic or Channel in their years. Hill & Vaughn president Raja Gagour found them "more satisfying" than a concurrent Delage D8, and I believe he was referring to a Delage D8S at that.

But for some reason, few old domestic car owners grasp the concept "weight is the enemy."


Stay w/ Optima. While you're at it, even tho' an Optima a bit lower than traditional off-gassing battery, you might pop-rivet some very thin plywood (plastic will do) to the underside of your under-seat access panel as i did in my '40. A friend with a supercharged '37 Cord Phaeton recounted unintended excitement when he crested a hill at speed and the battery posts touched the bottom of the front seat springs.