Originally Posted by sosidge

I have seen lots of versions of the class work, from very restricted "box stock" classes to very open classes.

Two things are key to any cars performance - the motor and the tyres.

Unlabelled silvercan racing is far too open to cheating. I would avoid running an unlabelled motor for that reason. Labelled sealed cans work though, we have been running the HPI Saturn 20 as a control motor for a few series in the UK on a handout basis and there have been no problems at all with power or unsportsmanlike tweaking.

Brushless makes sense, mainly because people have a prejudice against brushed now, and good brushed speedos are hard to find new. It is additional cost though, especially when you consider that Tamiya include a decent brushed ESC in the kits already. Hobbywing 13T Ezrun combo seems popular, something like a 17.5 blinky would be a good speed, but then you run into all the mumbo jumbo with finding the fastest motor. If I was starting a class from nothing, I would spec a motor/esc combo with good availability.

We have had good success with the Sweep pre-mounts as a control tyre, indoors and out - there are three compounds to choose from so you can get the car dialled in. Some tracks may specify Tamiya treaded tyres only (for example), some may be completely open. Open tyre rule does cause a slight issue with rollout, the cars with 60D tyres are faster on the straights using the kit gearing.

I would also keep the class Tamiya-only, and possibly exclude the rear-drive cars. It keeps the performance more even on the track - the ABC/HPI/TOP cars are all quite a bit faster than a Tamiya, and the M-06 drives "differently" which can cause some unexpected collisions.

My view is that you may as well leave hop-ups open, because the cars need some hop-ups to run well, and most people like to personalise their cars. But some tracks are strict on box-stock parts and have successful classes, although I suspect that knowing a few setup "tricks" becomes even more important in those classes!

They are a great class, and with some well thought out rules offer cheap, close and fun racing.