So far I haven't had any issues with the 12A unit but I would say if brute force was the main weapon then you are going to find the limits of the speed controller soon. If you have a 14.4v unit running at 12v you should not find too much problems as the current draw would be less than the specification for the motor. providing you don't get stall conditions you should be fine. Gabriel has a 4:1 reduction after the gearbox because the wheel diameter is a little under 400mm so the motors on Gabriel are driving the equivalent of 100mm diameter wheels. after a fight the speed controller is net even warm. But I do drive quite slowly both on the road and in the arena.