Brett I found some interesting work on Direct Drive some time ago by a group which Mel Bartels is associated with.
http://www.siderealtechnology.com/Di...InProgress.pdf
It seems to be some way yet from being viable for amature use but was an interesting read. Mel Bartels, Dan Grey and others are part of a group working to bring large professional telescope technologies to large amature telescopes (1 to 2 meter diameter from memory). I can't find links to articles about the group at the moment but they had some interesting projects under way.
I'd not be racing into trying to use direct drive at this stage but it is an interesting idea.
Bob