RE: Motor Swap
Reducing the mass(weight) of any vehicle be it car/truck, watercraft, or aircraft will improve it performance and handling.
As far as a vehicle the improvements are ranked in this order:
Lowering the “un-sprung weight” such as reducing the weight of: tires, wheels, differential, steering gear, suspension components, will have a dramatic effect.
Reducing the weight of the chassis, power plant/engine, and fuel/battery load.
Reducing the weight of the body.
Keeping in mind the following constraints as you proceed: you must try to keep the center of gravity as low as possible, as well as centered to the wheels front to rear and side to side.
I have a question regarding your power figures.
You said you figured it out to be around two watts?
That would mean a current of 1 amp at 2wo volts (roughly) using the P=I*E formula.
P=two watts
I= one amp
E= two volts
Or other values would be:
½ amp at 4volts= 2 watts
¼ amp at 8volts=2 watts
Does this agree with how you got your two watt figure?
Why I ask is this that means you are imputing 2 watts into a brushless motor or 0.0026hp (1/375hp). With a brushed motor such as you are using because of it inefficiency you are only getting around 0.001 hp (1/750hp) of actual torque power out of the motor, A brushless motor is roughly 90% efficient as compared to a brushed motor that runs around 50% because of mechanical drag and electrical loss due to the brushes. I doubt that you’d get anywhere the type of performance out of your setup for all the work you have put into it using the motor you mentioned, half the power from you battery is just going up is smoke. At least with a brushless motor you get a 40% increase of power right out of the gate. You could use a simple of a substitute as a brushless replacement for a speed 300/400 motor type or if you wanted to really pick thing up a motor such as a ducted fan motor could be entertaining. Either an ElectriFly Ammo 25-56-3200kv or A HET (High End Technology) typhoon 2W-23 which are 28 mm diameter motors around two inches long may work for you. You can check for other sizes/ power on either off their websites. The KV rating is the RPM/volt output for example: a 3200 kv motor will spin at 6400 rpm at two volts (no load). The down side is you have to change your speed controller, and perhaps your receiver if the speed controller is built in, not a real big deal.
You could google some cheap sources for parts…
Bp Hobbies, hobby King Turnigy are a few thoughts.
For what it worth…
For a 5 lb airplane if I go electric I use 7500-1500 watts or 1-2 hp motors to power them, I not sure how that compares to the cars.