Hey Speedy!
Wow! a very ambitious project. I thought the White Lightning was in a museum somewhere. I'm building electric also so I will be following your thread closely as well.

Regarding C rate mentioned below......
Quote Originally Posted by Speedy G View Post
2) Battery management system - I'm thinking of using a battery management system just so I an keep track of the battery voltages. I plan to abuse the batteries to 10C (1C would be a discharge rate of 30kWh), so keeping track of failing batteries is probably a good idea.
C rate is actually a discharge rate relative to cell Capacity. So, 1C for 100Ah cells would be 100 amps. 10C would be 1000 amps.
Ah and kWh are both measures of energy. Ah usually used for individual cells and kWh usually used for packs. WH (watt-hours) are a more accurate measure of energy than Ah (amp hours) because they take into consideration the voltage and current, not just the current.
So, a pack consisting of 100 pcs of 100Ah cells (if LiFePo4 chemistry) would have an energy capacity of 3.2 (cell nominal voltage) x 100Ah x 100 units = 32,000wh (watt-hours) or 32kWh.

To determine how much horse power you could get from this pack, you would need to know the voltage level at the specific current level. Lets say at 1000 amps, cell voltage would sag to 2.5vpc (volts per cell) x 100 cells x 1000amps or10C. That would be 250,000 watts or 250kw.
250,000/746 = 335HP
If your drive train was 90% efficient, you would have 300hp at the wheels.

Sorry, got a bit carried away there. Was just going to correct the C rate. . . but thought some folks may benefit from the explanation.