I think the biggest thing is that you can have the lipo and brushless motor that are less hassle, more power and in the long run a lot cheaper than before. Also cars are a lot stronger now so it's quite rare to actually break something.
I've never been a fan of the smaller cars as they are quite twitchy and hard to drive in my experience.
I think it would be good if we can get a league going between the two clubs so we can actually pool our racers together and get a league going with 20-30 regular racers over the winter. Then when the summer comes the real fun can start outside