Hi -

I suspect this will be an easy question for this crowd.

The battery (new optima red top - 1000CCA) is trunk mounted with a big (possibly 0GA) wire leading to the starter. It was set up with a trunk mounted battery when I bought the car.

The car will always start, but the first time I turn the key it tends to crank really slow (almost sounding like a weak battery, so I put in the new optima, but same results with a brand new battery). It usually takes a second crank to really get it going so it wakes up and starts. Behaves similarly warm or cold.

One time I left the lights on and the old battery died and I needed a boost from the AAA guy. He hooked it up with his booster cables to the trunk mounted battery and the car fired up like a brand new car...got me thinking maybe I don't have enough battery to do the job if I'm intending on keeping the battery in the trunk.

Is there anything I can do to help this (short of moving the battery under the hood)? I like the trunk mounted setup for now.

I have a spare (new-ish) optima red top - could this be linked up with the other battery in some way to improve starting (right now it's just collecting dust)?

Thanks!