John McM

Macca, any help you can give me on cost effective supply of an Odyssey PC 680 and hold down? There seems to be a very big difference between US and NZ prices.

Macca

Hi John. I used the 925 as I need to run a cla with loads for air con, lights, radio etc which would be used in winter and see periods of inactivity. I believe the battery was $400 from Odyssey on the North Shore (www.odysseybatteries.co.nz). At the time CCS wanted similar for a Porsche branded lead acid battery. Its lasted maybe 3+ years and has been brilliant never missing a beat and is 1/3 of the weight. The 680 should be lighter and cheaper as it s a race battery. The holder and cut off switch were from Rennline in the USA. They make great stuff, top quality and fairly priced and Paul the owner will send directly to you. I have a fair but of their stuff including extinguisher brackets etc and its all beautifully made. The cut off switch mean you can cut power when the car isnt used and easy turn it all back on at the turn of a ****.

Macca

John. I would buy a CTek quick charging port with battery level indicator and have this wired up at the same time. A Ctek 3800 or similar should have the cold charge function which is needed for these gel cel batteries and they are a great lightweight trickle charger.

Rennline can supply the batter cut off switch which works with their mounting kit.

Some pictures below might help. Bottom one is 680

Macca

ooops 680 here

peterC2S

Macca - unfortunately Tirerack also advised they could not ship OZ wheels due to manufacturer restrictions. I enquired about these the same time as I was looking at tires.

Macca

;Thanks Pete. You just saved me $2500+ kiwi. Ill stick with the three piece I have on there now. I don't think I really needed to be spending any more money anyhow!

Macca

John. Just re read your post. Sorry, was early morning! I couldn't find a cost effective airfreight solution for Odyssey batteries from the USA so I paid NZ Retail Ransom price for this item. One of the few NZ purchases on the car! If you find a solution for getting a battery from the states Id likely order another PC 925 for my car as they don't last forever and the savings would be worth having a spare tucked aside...

Macca

Gents. Although Puke isnt available on the 12th September to do a "tripple whammy" track tour I have heard back from the organizers and we can have the whole track for the day with saftey crew for approximately $4800. This may be a good option for a separate date in the future and I only mention it should someone here want to follow that up separately (I can pass on details and contacts etc)...

peterC2S

John - Element 82 who is the supplier in NZ and who also sell the CTEK chargers is just down the road from where I work. If you need one collecting just let me know. I got my CTEK from them with a bit of a discount. Nice guys to deal with.

Obsessed

Interesting... I thought it would be more than that. For some reason I have the number $6500 in my head (no idea where it came from, so probably wrong) for doing a similar thing at HD.

A group of 20 or so would be enough to make it pretty cheap per person, and you'd still get an awful lot of track time (maybe too much to use).

Macca

Yes Mike. I was equally surprised. HD is more like 6500 and I expected Puke to be as expensive as HD and Taupo but turns out its quite "cheap". Im working with Playday to see how far Prestigio will go in terms of group size and conditions for insurance coverage. If they could extend the group form 10 to 15 it would make any one of these tracks viable as a private rental in the future even accepting the Playday fee to run under. Two groups running 15 minute sessions with 15 minute cool down periods from 10-4pm would give a comfortable 100 lap day for $300 a head or $3 a lap...

John McM

Thanks for the offer. I may well take you up on it. They have a 680 and fixture 'special' at $455. Of course that's hard to take when the 680 on its own is USD 130

Macca

Gents, by way of small update we now have Neil Dewar (Dentist from SA with white 997.2 GT3 at Playday 29th March) on board. Updated list below. We should have everything firmed up with Payday over the next 10 days and at that time we will know exact costs and when payments are due. I will also be looking to post this on CarreraSport site to fill the last of the positions...I don't think we will have any shortage of takers as I've already been approached by a few....

1). Mark (yes)
2). Paul (yes)
3). Peter (yes)
4). Michael (yes)
5). John (yes)
6). Steve R (yes)
7). Neil D (yes)
8). Matt (to confirm and based on new vehicle)
9). Sean (to be confirmed dependent on dates and availability)
10). Jamie (Yes but need to confirm based on dates)
11). ??
12). ??

Macca

Gents can you all have a look at the potential group names already mentioned on this thread and come back to me Friday with your picks (and new ones if necessary). I will then get a poll posted over the weekend on CarreraSport site so we can finally put this one to bed. We need a name for booking with Playday for the track tour and other events...

John McM

I'm for RSR