I am putting together a small electric drag racing car and need help with the type of motor, battery, switch, and connectors to buy. I may also need gears for the motor and rear axle, but I can also print these.
The car will be roughly 210mm long and 50mm wide (excluding wheels). I’m not certain of how heavy the thing will be, since I don’t yet know the above components. Without the aforementioned components, I imagine it will be less than 500g.
Realistically, I want the car to be able to reach more than 80km/h in a short burst. The higher the better.
Can someone please give me some advice on which parts to buy?
Thanks!
Edit: I am not opposed to using a brushless motor, if that would achieve better results. In this case, I would then need to know which ESC you recommend.
At that size and speed target, I’d be looking at RC-specific brushless gear, not the brushed robotics motor controllers/LiPo pouch cells that suit slower robots and microcontroller projects.
A good starting shopping list would be:
small brushless motor + matching brushless ESC from the same RC scale class, likely 1/24–1/18
RC-grade 2S/3S LiPo with a discharge rating that exceeds the ESC’s burst current
matching LiPo balance charger
proper high-current connector and an arming method
For connectors, XT30 connectors are a good compact choice if your ESC current is within their rating. If the ESC/battery combo is larger, step up to XT60 connectors. I wouldn’t use a normal toggle switch in series with the main motor power — use the ESC’s switch if provided, or a removable battery/arming plug rated for the current.
For gearing, pick the wheels first, then work backwards:
wheel RPM = target speed ÷ wheel circumference
From there, compare the required wheel RPM with the motor’s loaded RPM and choose the reduction ratio. Printed gears are fine for early testing, but for repeated high-speed launches, I’d expect metal or quality RC gears to survive better.
Also, 80 km/h is ver very fast for anything RC - test it with plenty of run-off, LiPo protection, and containment for any driveline failures. At this point, you’ll have to start considering the material you use for everything.
You’ll be surprised how fast 20km/h is!
Liam
I really appreciate all of your advice and I plan to follow it. Do you know if Core Electronics sells all of this? I would really like to stick with them for all of the stuff I need.
