>Our little RC cars take several hundred amps at start up.
>That's peak current for some amount milliseconds.

Not really.  Your cells usually peak at about 100A even with a direct short
across them, due it the internal resistance of the cells.

In a model boat, though, we dump RC2000's in under 2 minutes.

Most of the car ESCs are way over-rated (ie, Novak is lying).

Andy
http://www.rc-hydros.com/escproducts