[Batfish]

I don't have a problem with weight/size yet, but I haven't found a permanent mounting for the cells yet, either.

I was able to bring it to my local shop and "wow" a couple of people, including one who runs monster trucks all the time and has been thinking about going brushless in his TXT (Mike, I may be sending him your way if he's serious).

I continue to use my crappy 3000 cells while I work on a permanent mounting for good cells. I don't want to rip apart any GP3300 packs because some velcro let go, heh. :)

The 1/8th scale is a little too big for the new track layout at my shop, but it was a little it of fun running it there anyway and having people ask "They let you run nitro indoors?". Guess they didn't bother to listen to it first, heh.

The only problems I had were mechanical with the buggy: a battery pack popped out and ripped a connector off, and a couple screws loosened up (just needed to be re-tightened). The crappy cells got hotter and stayed hotter than either the motor or controller. Speaking of which, should my motor be hotter than the controller with this setup? Neither is actually "hot", but the motor definitely has the higher temp. I didn't measure it since I know it was nowhere near any danger zone - I'm just curious.

On a couple runs in the parking lot, I was able to get to top speed with the 6-cell x 2 parallel configuration. I'd say the top speed there was about 20ish with the crappy cells. I then switched, on the same cells, to 12 series and figure I was closer to 30, but I don't think there was enough room to get to top speed. I expect both speeds to increase dramatically with good cells.

Mike - I still notice very weak braking power, as I had mentioned in my email, even after re-programming. Any thoughts as to what I should check for? I've read posts from people, here and elsewhere, that have very similar setups in E-Maxxes that have to be careful to avoid doing endos, but my buggy stops only about half as fast as letting it coast to a stop on it's own. It took a good 20 feet or more to stop from about 25MPH. I expected it to be better.
EDIT - Mike, I also wanted to mention that running the receiver pack with 4 fresh alkalines AND having the BEC enabled on the 9918 definitely reduced the cogging on 6 crappy cells...definitely.

No video tonight, but I had fun :)

Next steps:
1 - find a stable mounting system for the batteries
2 - I have a small digital thermometer with a sensor lead that I plan on mounting on the speed control and putting the display where I can see it from the outside of the body. I also have a small CPU fan that I'll add to the 3rd channel of the receiver and mount somewhere.
3 - I also want to add an ON/OFF switch to the setup. Any suggestions on what to use that can handle the load and not hurt the system? My personal preference has been to install batteries, put the body on, turn the R/C on, and go. I never liked a system that's on as soon as the battery is connected.