what gear ratio on your geardrives? i see you want 140kv motors but higher kv is actually more efficient (not significally, but still)
personally i would actually buy either the 6384 battle hardened flipsky, or the 6374 battle hardened ones. The APS ones are not really different, + they are not battle hardened and so you MUST do that if you buy those. you also never actually use 4500w, so having that extra 500w headroom achieves nothing (in theory you have slightly better high end torque, meaning better torque response closer to max speed but eh, again very minimal)
also make sure your motor shaft is the same diameter as you geardrive pinion. either 10mm or 8mm.
I don’t have any personal experience with the hobby but i heard they lack a pit of power.
I personally own APS 63100, they are great, but def need to be battle hardened and since you are starting out DIY i wouldn’t venture into taking the motor apart when flipsky offers good, cheap, reliable battle-hardened motors
Peli is a good choice, i also think @Apex will sell an MTB top mount enclosure but they are busy af so i don’t know when that’ll drop.
other possibility is a 3d printed enclosure with bottom aluminium plate like i have.
12s8p p42a is a great middle ground. i have a 12s6p, i get around 35km with heavy mountain offroading (30wh/km) and about 20wh/ full speed on the road (~60km), it suits my needs perfectly
12s8p will take it just that step further without worrying about range.
I actually have a very similar setup to what you’ll have, 5.1 gearing with 8’’ wheels also.
the only other thing you may consider is changing the esc (like spintend), getting an 18s battery. this way you’ll have more speed and torque for the same gearing. it’s probably the best diy builds you could possibly build as of now with the current tech.
note you’ll have to change the remote as well if you do this, but consider this like top of the top build if you go this route.
It’s the one thing i regret with my build, even having 8’’ 5.1 gearing with 140kv, i would like even more torque, and higher speed because currently i can only do 41km/h, whicj imo isn’t fast enough. 50km/h would be better. especially with apex air trucks you will have so much stability. i can do 40km/h with my eyes closed, with the right setup going fast is easy.