quick question
 

about how much voltage can the vedetta motor take?
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXLYA6&P=ML

and will this speed control power the motor?
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...&I=LXGTY8&P=SM
or this one
http://h1070215.hobbyshopnow.com/pro...sp?prod=CSETB6

Not sure about the voltage for the motor, but I would suspect 7.2 to 8.4 volts would be about it. At least if you expect reasonable life from it.

For the speed controls, I believe that both of those are airplane speedos, they won't be able to handle the starting current demands of a car application and won't have brakes.

And the Thunderbird is a brushless speedo so that won't work with the brushed motor at all.

we've run 7.4 V on a stock vendetta motor with no problem. They're fairly stout so may actually live briefly with 3s lipos, but good luck fitting them into the chassis. My advice - buy an inexpensive 12-15T speedo for 540 motors (1/10 scales) and you won't have to worry about burning it up on any 280-370 motors.