[lincpimp]

As you mentioned start can be an issue. Mainly due to the very high loads placed on the outrunner if used in direct to wheel or direct to diff setups. I found that using very high quality batteries, an esc with high ratings, and the max voltage you can will help greatly with startup issues. Since "gearing" is very limited in these applications it is very important to get a correctly sized and kv spec motor, as you really have no way to compensate.

The adjaustments available to the mamba series escs are very helpful although the quark escs (not really relevant anymore) provided better startup in every application I did. Adjusting the expo on the throttle channel was alos a big help, even when setting the startup power on high.

I never messed with timing too much, usually only went up 1 step from the default timing. A capable battery seemed to be the single most important part, todays crop of 40c batteries are very good, and have low internal resistance. Outrunner direct drive is one application where crap batteries will just not work (so leave the flaming labels in the crawler).