[Sachiel7]

Sorry about that. We used 8" wheels.
We didn't really use impact force for our pushing. We pushed bots from a low impact speed. I'm sure it helped, but it wasn't our "source of force".

In my defense,
My big thing is you have bots out there with 2 speed transmissions that shift from 5 fps to 35fps. In what sense do you need all that speed? Even if it was 10fps, you're planning on clearing the field in less than 6 seconds? I do understand the need for speed, but I think there is a line somewhere in there.
If you can find a good balance between torque and speed then I usually stick with it. We didn't sacrifice much torue in that design, I'm trying to dig up our spec sheet to put some numbers up. But we had just enough speed and torque we needed to get the job done. Isn't that the key?
I can understand teams who think having a torque and speed shifting transmission would be good. It can be, but why slam the drive with more torque needed than the task requires? Why give it so much speed when it doesn't need it?
I like youre definition of a competitive drive train. I pretty much agree with it. Although, depending upon which region you're coming from, things might be different. In our region (VA) most bots top speed was 7fps or less. They were also running off of drills or lesser equivalent. So, we topped them with our speed without shifting, and their torque, apparently.
Our key is just to maintain the KISS principle; if we have a drive that has the speed and torque we require for our tasks, why take it over the edge?
Also, remember, we wouldn't be able to construct a shifting transmission if we wanted to anyway, as our resources have been very low.