Gears and Brushes

I talked extensively with a friend in Montreal who is an expert on electric motored vehicles.  He then talked to a friend who is also an expert at building electric vehicles and here are the main points I got from them.

1) My racer should have gears to maximize the torque to the wheels to the ground in an efficient manner.  The friend of the friend who built the electric T-Rex used a Harley Davidson gearset.  The amount of weight added by the transmission will be more than offset by the way the power will be applied to the ground.

2) Using a DC brushed motor is the most simple setup to use.  It's almost plug and play.  Plus the wear on the brushes on the cummutator plates will be minimal since the runs for an autocross is so short.  This will lessen the costs I think.

3) I can probably get away with using cheap standard lead acid batteries.(ie. car batteries)  That should cut the costs somewhat as well.

So far so good.  I just wanted to put some notes down to show my progess.

Thanks to some of the guys on the Casc-OR forums who directed me to the locust forums,  http://www.locostusa.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1409 for all the stuff I needed to get the dimensions for a Miata's suspension.  It's awesome how well documented the Miata Suspension is.