The requirements for a replacement battery are not particularly exclusive and there's not a lot of magic to it. As long as the battery is a sealed maintenance free type (a non-sealed type can emit gasses and is the most common reason why the battery tie-down strap is gone in many cars) and it has the proper side posts to connect to, it will generally work fine. Previous messages on this list have hearlded the merits of the optima battery, which might have benefits for the intermittent use our cars often see. If your question is with regard to which battery is the proper concourse-recognized replacement, the best thing is to check directly with the concours organizer (James has put together an outstanding concours sponsored by DMC). The concours handbook indicates that the accepted battery for competition is the Delco Freedom Maintenance Free. No specific battery model is indicated, and I suspect a Delco of the proper type with the proper side terminals is fine. WHen I judged interiors a couple years ago, I only checked for Delco Maintenance Free with proper connections and fit in the compartment with tie-down strap correctly fitted. Personally, I just use a good quality (72 month) maintenance free battery with suitable side terminals that has a high CCA (cold- cranking amps) rating for my daily driver. I have gone through a couple batteries and have yet to find a side terminal battery that has not fit in the battery compartment (it hasn't even occurred to me when picking an arbitrary side-terminal battery that there was any issue with fit). Knut --- In dmcnews@xxxx, Les Huckins <jhuckins@xxxx> wrote: > Local K-Mart has Delco Freedom (Maintenance Free) Battery number 78A72, > appears to be the exact replacement for the original, is it? Not on the > cross reference guide I downloaded. Thanks