How to best transfer power at 90 degrees for high torque applications So, I am building a tank model and this is the transmission I have been working on: 





Description: 
There are two gear pairs for gearing up (16t to 8t gears) and one gear pair for gearing down (worm gear to 8t gear hidden beneath it) for each of the two M motors. The final gear ratio is 1:2 resulting in half the speed and twice (roughly) the torque of the M motors. The grey 24t gears are the ones who transfer motion to the tracks.

Questions:
I would like to know if there is a better way to transfer the power of the two M motors to the 8t gears which are located beneath the worm gears. The problem I have is that the worm gears I use require a lot of gearing up to rotate fast enough (even what I achieved above is not enough). The additional gears result in lost energy and more points that could potentially break. Specifically I want to know if it is possible to achieve similar gear ratios with less gear pairs? Also are there any tips that would help me reduce the size of the above configuration? Is there an entirely different  configuration other than the above which would lead to better results (gear ratio preferably less than 1:2, tougher)? Should I prefer bevel over normal gears? Is it worth it upgrading to two L motors? And lastly do you have any general tips regarding transmission and tank building?
There are plenty of gears designed for 90 degree, search bricklink for "technic gear bevel" and "technic gear crown". There's also the "technic knob wheel", that seems to be used a lot outside technic, but I have a feeling that goes badly with a motor.

In my building the only application for worm gears is to gear things down, with regards to to size you can't beat the solutions it offers. But you're first gearing up to then gear down, that looks silly.