This thread is great! Zip tie to hold the motor, awesome! That'll serve as a good motor overtemperature indicator. When the zip tie melts that means you are running your electric motor way too hot!
I'm glad to see you moved up from a 1/16 inch adapter plate to a 1/4 inch steel adapter plate. That extra mass will help give the front wheels more traction in the snow. It's also a good start on the 1/4 steel scatter shield you'll need for racing! You just need to wrap a 1/4 inch thick steel band around your adapter plate such that it covers the clutch parts. Hmm, while we are at it a steel band like that around the brushes is a great idea, too, to catch flying comm bar and brush parts from when you overspeed the motor by going max acceleration down a steep hill. If you make the band tight enough, it'll keep dirt and water out of the motor, as well as cooling air molecules. Again, that extra mass will give you better snow traction, and will slow your acceleration on the level, making overspeeding the motor less likely. The mass will make the motor overspeed more quickly down hills, though, so exercise caution.
Standing in front of the car when connecting a jumper cable maximizes the chance you'll notice you forgot the car in gear when it lurches towards you. Fortunately you have several built in safety stops:
- Knock you over, tangling you with the cord and pulling the clamp free of the battery
- Flip you into the motor compartment, enabling you to grab the shifter mechanism and put the car in neutral
- Stop by ramming into the other car used for volts 13 to 24
- Go far enough to tauten the cable, pulling it free, unplugging the car
- Test the home's hurricane resistance if the car was in reverse