Im doing the same thing only with an mt2. Is your car a center transmission? Not sure about the motor it may be a little big. Im using a brushed 17t hackmoto with a hobbywing quickrun 60amp esc. The nimh batteries ive tried dont have the stones to push it. I too didnt want to deal with lipo however after looking for a nimh that would work and the price upwards of $80 for a 7 or 8 cell I now have a 2s 5000mah lipo on the charger. It should be done soon so I can hopefully test tonight.