I would suggest any 45 to 60 amp that is water resistant and can handle 3s. My son and I just got done building a gmade r1. We used the esc out of a rtr rc10sc rs and Novak 13.5 with no sensor wire. It works perfect with no cogging. He has been using 2200 3s packs. He has the throttle turned down to 60 percent. The motor and esc do not even get warm. There's like no load. Cus there geared so low. I see no reason to go brushed. His can crawl super slow and precise with gobs of power. I really think you could use a 480 size brushless motor. ( the ones that look like 540s but are just finned up) . (We just used extra electronics that we had laying around. Good luck. Have fun.