I hate to be one of these people..... but, I am one of the fast guys at my track. Top 3, at least. My old XXX-S is currently the lap record holder, mainly due to my focus on car prep, and I am meticulous about keeping my car clean and in excellent working condition. Old school RC habits die hard.
Until recently, I've been content on running this more than 10 year old car with a 15 year old design. I love it and have many of them. But, the other guys started getting Mi5's, another guy who races infrequently runs an Xray (not available through the LHS either), and the old design is starting to show it's age. Speeds have increased and the XXX-S is just working the suspension too hard. The ball diffs won't allow me to be as aggressive, the weight is too spread out, and frankly.... I've run out of front body posts for it. LOL
I simply don't want to be a sheep and run the same car as the other guys. It's one of the things I love about my old Losi. To everyone else in the pit area, it's weird and different.
It comes down to this: Get the car I want and feel guilty about it every time I walk through the door, or get the car that's available locally and feel like I've been forced to buy something I didn't want.
It's probably just best to buy the damned Mi5 and be done with it. I can make either car work.