Not as I read it. (see below.) He purchased the 16V alternator and battery but did not run the alternator n the testing. Baseline was a standard alternator at 14V. 6hp drop with fully charged 12V battery no alternator so it is operating at 12V and below from the start. Then other 6hp loss with a 12V battery at 3/4 charge and no alternator then a 16V battery with no alternator.added 6hp over baseline.
What the OP indicated is that with a standard 12V system in a race car at the end of the race the battery is not fully charged and the VD is detrimental to performance. If the alternator is not producing enough charge to maintain the battery in race conditions it is not sized correctly for the task - power demand exceeds output. If he increases the alternator size to combat this it will come at the cost of reduced hp to drive it. (no free power). Interesting 3/4 of 16V is 12V - the magic number to drive the components.
In race applications there are other electrcial systems that can be used - total loss systems , magnetos etc. It is not really a comparable scenario to a six banger commodore or an LS1 on a skid pan.
I'm not saying increasing the voltage can't be benficial - especially in a race/performance situation. I am simply trying to ascertain what benefit this provides to joe average and if it is worth investing the time and effort.
Some drag racers run without the alternator connected because they argue the parasitic loss of the alternator on the engine is greater than the performance loss of the reduced power from the battery alone. The example above also shows that at 12volts (battery only and should be about 12.8 volts on a fully charged battery) you are already loosing power over the conventional standard 14 volt alternator.
I watched a video recently of a drag car that lost the drive belt at about 1/2 track but the driver didn't realise. On the following run they realised as they staged the car but elected to still run the race. By 3/4 track the voltage had dropped enough that the electric fuel pump lost enough flow to lean out the motor and cause a decent pop through the exhaust. The chart I posted earlier shows a 100lb/hr loss for 13.5 volts down to 12 volts (The A1000 is a big pump), that sort of loss of flow on EFI would screw up your tune. On old school motors running carburettors and low pressure pumps the loss of flow would be considerably less.
With EFI systems fuel pressure is critical, high volume, high pressure pumps consume a lot of power.
In my case, I'm getting to the upper end of what the factory pump can supply, I'm pushing the ignition system much harder than ever intended. I could compromise and run a smaller plug gap due to higher boost but that compromises other engine tuning characteristics that I'm not will to sacrifice so I could invest a lot of coin into another ignition system, I could spend a lot of coin on a bigger fuel pump or as I have done, I spent about NZ$4 on this little mod and can get just a little more from what I already have which gives me a safety margin.
Your major concern seems to be with cooking batteries, I don't think this will be a major issue with a small bump in system voltage but I guess only time will tell.
