Hopping up electric motors?

Where might I find info on hot-rodding yer basic 2 battery electric motor. Say, one in something like this?

I have evil thoughts of doing something with the 'chariot theme.'

Like an internal combustion engine, an electric motor responds to input. Put more fuel and air, er, electricity in and it goes faster. For electric motors, increase the voltage and frequency. You can also increase the cubic inches, i.e. the physical size of the electric motor. With more metal in the windings, you can give it more voltage making it use more current. Richard the electrical engineer

That page froze up on me. Has to be due to the extra wide sidebar. :cool:

I'm assuming this is a DC motor, right? RichardM covered everything except one hopup trick: if it's a brush type motor you can 'advance' the brush timing by turning the endbell. Old RC car trick. Caution: doing this will make it go like blue blazes in the forward direction but it'll kill performance in reverse. It will also make it gobble amperage and generate a lotta heat.

Check the RC car boards, there's bound to be more tricks out there. #1 when I was messing with that stuff: cut friction in the drivetrain anywhere and in any way you could;

#2 work on the input side to lessen battery loss through heat (high end speed controls).

Ok, dump more electricity into it and make more power, that part is simple, but what about, for lack of a better terms, overloading the motor?

Anybody remember "Stompers"? The 4WD toys from the early '80's? We dumped a lot of WD40 into the motor, and hooked an 800 amp car battery to it. It screamed!

There is a place near Fort Wayne, IN that hot rods golf carts (I have no idea what the name is). I suspect they may know how to soup up something like this.

http://www.modifiedpowerwheels.com/

I don't have a kid, but I want one so I can give them a modified powerwheels.

this is making me want to build an electric go-cart...

neon4891 wrote: Ok, dump more electricity into it and make more power, that part is simple, but what about, for lack of a better terms, overloading the motor?

The motor will get hot when overdriven. Just like an ICE. Unlike a water cooled engine, you can't put a bigger radiator in. But like an old VW or Porsche, you can put a bigger cooling fan on. Best idea is to monitor the external temperature of the motor and quit when it gets too hot.

RichardM wrote:

neon4891 wrote: Ok, dump more electricity into it and make more power, that part is simple, but what about, for lack of a better terms, overloading the motor?

The motor will get hot when overdriven. Just like an ICE. Unlike a water cooled engine, you can't put a bigger radiator in. But like an old VW or Porsche, you can put a bigger cooling fan on. Best idea is to monitor the external temperature of the motor and quit when it gets too hot.

improving cooling is a +1, but if it is possible, how about using larger windings?

man you can find a group for anything on the net.

When she's a little older, I'm going to hop up a Malibu Barbie pink Jeep for my little girl and she'll wipe the floor with the boys on the block. Gotta start her early, you know...