I used starter motors for the drive power in Velocirippa for 2 years and actually qualified for series 3&4
with them. They had tremendous torque at only 12v but the current draw was horrendous. In combat I
would often find cables stripped of insulation or even melted together, and lots of puddles of solder.

Reversing was pretty straight forward with heavy duty relays, but speed control came from switching from
6v to 12v batteries (2 speed). It was almost impossible to make the batteries last 5 minutes, if they did they
were totally flat, so I had a car full of charged spares.

I finally bought 2 littons but to match the torque output of one 12v starter I have to push 36v through both
motors.

That said I would not touch them again ever, even as a weapon drive. I now have reliability, batteries that
will go 3 or 4 fights without charging, speed control, and smaller cables. I also don€™t have a box full of
melted relays.

If you are working to a budget I would recommend scouring the scrapyards for air-conditioning fan
motors from audi or VW€™s, some of these use 12v Bosch motors and are pretty powerful, I know, I have
one that was given to me by a friend and it only cost him a tenner. Visually they are identical to the 24v
Bosch motors used by many builders.