how fast to be competitive?

[telboy]

To be honest, I'd go for a more common motor like the ones that jimmy mentioned. the tamiya motors are ok, but nothing compared to the mainline 19's etc.

We use to run tamiya 11turns in the eurocup, but compared to an orion or something similar, the tamiya was more like a 15/16turn orion.
Tamiya motors aren't as fast as most other makes. So if its speed you're after then look at others like the orion/peak/reedy makes etc. they're much better.

[JCJC]

There is work involved in maintaining brushed motors, most racers will skim the armature regulary, this is why brushless are popular, (£180+brushless esc & motor combi). as there are more brushless used, brushed motors are becoming good value secondhand (the V's, peak or orion & checkpoints £60ish new)

Advantage of the V's & checkpoints is the longer/better wear of the brushes, less maintainance, we found the checkpoints easier to solder to, but not much else in it. If you are racing at a local track it will be tires & suspension that make all the difference.

[Col]

How fast to be competetive? Simple answer is not very!!
At york indoors we run several classes and when you look after 5mins of racing, the std 540 class leaders are rarely more than a lap behind the average modified car and ahead of quite a few. As has been said several thousand times in the past, the fast drivers are the ones that don't crash!

[sosidge]

No, you don't need much power to be competitive.

Example - at the Teesside Aces a couple of years ago I ran a 19-turn motor in the 4WD (had killed most of my hotter motors!), and although it felt a little slow it was easy to drive and got me round the track pretty well.

Switched to a 12-turn half-way through the meeting and the car felt much quicker but was only a couple of tenths faster on each lap which was a bit gutting because I thought the motor was what was holding me back! Turns out it was me.

Another example - last week I went down to the local touring car club who run 27T stock motors. I don't have one at the moment so stuck in a Tamiya silver can 540 motor (widely recognised as the slowest motor in RC!).

I qualified fourth for the A-final (out of 17) and very nearly won it! Again, I was only losing a few tenths of a second per lap to people of similar/better ability.

So it goes to show that driving skill (which I do not possess a great deal of mind you) is much more important than the power of the motor.

And the more power the more likely you are to lose control and crash, you see lots of people who are ballistic one lap, then crash into every track marker three times the next!