Food for thought
I've been doing this for a little over a year. However, I have attacked this hobby/sport/obsession with a vengeance and have improved rapidly. I started with a TA-05v2 in VTA and a mini cooper. This year, I got frustrated with the mini cooper and bought a TRF-417 and started racing in stock 17.5 rubber TC. We recently added a 21.5 GT class so the TA-05 got converted to this. We use USGT rules except we use X-pattern belted tires as spec. I'm a set-up fanatic so I'm confident that both my cars are set up really well for our track.
Last weekend, I was able to do 28 laps with my 417 in 6 minutes. I did 29 laps with my TA-05 GT car. We have some really talented drivers at our track and two of them race FF-03s in GT. They are about a half second faster than I am. When we leave the drivers stand at the end of a GT race, we are smiling, laughing, commenting on how much fun that was, etc....
There is a lot that can be taken away from this.
1. A faster car isn't always faster.
2. A more expensive car isn't always faster.
3. It all comes down to the guy holding the controller.
I know it was mentioned by someone else earlier but I think it's worth repeating. Perhaps the ideal spec tire may be the front tires we use for VTA. It's hard to beat these things for price and performance. I don't have any experience racing on asphalt, but they seem to work there as well as on carpet. We could throw HPI a bone by using these. They certainly deserve it for the support they have given USVTA.
Lastly, and I realize that this is kind of out there, but I would consider making this class or USVTA a molded bathtub chassis only class. We need new faces in on road racing and the big issue is cost. If one of these classes were limited to TC-3/4, Tamiya TA-0?, FF-03 type cars, it would be a lot easier for the noob to get started. Look at the success of the Tamiya M chassis cars. It isn't because of their performance.