Brushless conversion options
Hey all,
I haven't run my cars regularly for 5-6 years, and back then everything was still pretty much all brushed power systems, so that's what I'm familiar with. I just pulled my old Tamiya F201 (AWD F1 car, basically a mutant 1/10 TC) out of the closet, and I'm contemplating upgrading to a brushless system for maintenance-free bashing around.
Oddly, unlike my RC planes, where the brushless/lipo EP revolution has made everything cheaper & easier, brushless power for cars seems to have made everything more expensive ($250 ESCs!?) and complicated.
What I'm really looking for is an easy, cheap (less than $100-125 ideally, $150 MAX) drop-in brushless system (ESC + motor) that's at least as fast as the brushed system I was running. The F201 has a 7.15 FDR, and came stock w/ a 23T brushed 540. Lots of guys that ran them found that 19T spec motors were a nice upgrade and worked well with the (essentially fixed) gearing, so that's my performance benchmark/goal.
What are my best brushless options? 17.5/13.5 blinky? boosted? fixed/locked timing? If I'm reading right, I've already gathered that 25.5 or 21.5 will be way slower than 23T/19T brushed, so I'm avoiding that. My research has pointed me towards some of the "spec" systems like the Cirtix Club Sport, or Novak Havok 2, probably in 13.5, as being closest to 19T brushed.
Keep in mind, since my car is an orphaned chassis with few/no-one racing them, I'm not trying to conform to any class rules. I'm just trying to find the cheapest way into the new tech while maintaining similar performance, and the non-boosted/blinky systems seem to be the best option I'm aware of. If there's another option, I'd be glad to know of it.
Thanks for any advice.