I want to share my experience with you. My previous engine was a LRP 28 and now i have a Nova N21-7T.
At LRP i did everything to get more RPM in order to be pleased for rally game performance.I replaced both of it's bearings with Boca ceramics, change the head with a turbo head from Losi 454 and throw away the pull starter by install a normal backplate after grinding the pin of the crankshaft. All this gave me some more RPM. The performance was acceptable and the car especially when it gets in the second gear was a rocket with plenty of bottom power.
The cons were that ,as above noted, the drive drain was stressed a lot with a lot of wear at the pins and the cups of diffs. The most serious was that this engine "drinks" a lot as a German drinks beers

Now running a N21-7T by just replacing the bearings with ceramics i can say that indeed the bottom end is less than a LRP but the more RPMs you can get with another ratio at your gearbox will give the same smile and less consumption at fuel. With LRP the tank (my tank is 150ml) was empty at about 6,5 minutes and with N21 i think i can play, if not the double,at least 10 minutes.

At both engines i run a Dynamite 086 pipe