19t is probably as quick as you'd want to go as a beginner. The trick is to not go for big motors & try to compete with everyone, but the 1st thing is to get round the track without crashing... i've seen umpteen people who try to start racing, then because they are bimbling about at the back with a slow car, drop in the biggest motor they can but then they don't go quicker & crash more so they finish in the same place as they did before & then try bigger motors again until eventually they give up, when if they had gone for a slower motor & learned to drive round the track they would be OK.. there is nothing wrong with taking a step backwards to come forwards, i know when i started racing, silvercan motors were what i started with & even when i switched to 19t motors i would still drop in a silvercan every now & then if i needed to as the trick with RC is not to go fast, but to be consistent.. you could run with a silvercan & not hit anything & keep out of people's way as they pass you, but still end up doing well because those that are quicker will make more mistakes. To give you some example there is a guy at club i know who races a basic Mardave on cells with Ansmann clash 21t or 23t silvercan type motors & usually finishes 1st or 2nd in the championship, simply because his car never needs to be marshalled & he never hits a barrier but to look at the car going round you would think it would be quicker to push it round. Likewise i remember running a TRF415 with a 19t Checkpoint motor at club one night & a guy who races regular (& to be honest is better than me at driving) came along with a near standard TT-01 with a 27t motor & wiped the floor with me, just because i was making more mistakes & he wasn't.
The Ansmann thrasher is a good motor to get you started, Etronix do a Sport tuned motor (with "Sport tuned" written in the exact same font as the Tamiya black can motor) which they do a 19t version of, these are probably as good as anything out there today. Another good motor & i used a couple of these myself are the Venom fireball motors.
You could look around on ebay or the RC sales places on forums etc & see if anyone is selling something like a 2nd hand Checkpoint money motor, a Peak Dynasty or a Reedy challenger which were probably the 3 best 19t motors out there that came along for 19t racing, however i would advise against buying 2nd hand & suggest you forget about it & go straight for a new one such as the Ansmann Launcher, the Etronix Sport tuned, Venom fireball or similar which are about half the cost or below of what the top motors cost 4 or 5 years ago so now fetch about the same price 2nd hand... when buying 2nd hand you never know what state they are in. I've seen someone buy a 19t motor 2nd hand off ebay & it ran but was a bit sloppy, on closer inspection the comm was shaped like a banana & had chunks missing out of the contact material so it couldn't even be lathed. Sometimes you can get get lucky & get one that has only had 1 run, but often these motors have been sat in a box somewhere or left to rot & end up on ebay etc when people are having a rid-out, so i'd always say go for something perhaps not as good, but fresh out of the box so you know there are no problems with worn comms, knackered brushes (you can replace brushes, but what is the point spending £5-£10 on a set of brushes for a dead 2nd hand motor when Ansmann Launchers cost £15 brand new), cracked magnets or rotor windings that are burning out etc etc which you can't see until you strip the motor & tinker about with it & often the more powerful 19t race motors fail because they haven't been run in before going in the car, so it's always a gamble if you drop on one that has been looked after & runs sweet or one that has been used by a complete ape that is only 1 run away from going into the bin.
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