As I tend to agree with some of these guys, their is questionable variables as not all motors are the same, as I went thru my 17.5 motors a while back as had some tekins and figured they where good, as kept turning up the timing till it maxed out and still where duds, as tried a Novak stock spec motor with no timing adjustment and had over a 1,000 more RPM's, so going from one manufacturer to another is like comparing apples to oranges, but if you find their "sweet spot" it will show you what motors are good and the ordinary motors, and we all have had them motors and nothing you ever did would make them faster, but on track will give you the best options, provided you can get to one on a regular basis, but like myself I am 125 miles away from my favorite track, so I cannot afford to spend race day playing with motors, so I need to have my stuff ready and have set many motors to the way the OP has described as I have a motor analyzing tool, as it gives me numbers and I can make my best judgement on what they can and cannot do, as I gotta ask what the heck does driving cleanly around a track have to do with having a faster motor, just asking as that makes no sense to me, as the way I see it as I can get around the track without problems and a lot of the time it's others or lap traffic that causes the biggest issues