have you been racing longer them me?
in my 21 years of racing it has never been 5 minutes for 12th scale accept on oval. now back in the days of 1200sc packs and parma enduro 23t motors the local track that I ran at ran 7 minutes, but changed a couple years later to 8 minutes when the 1400scr came out. that was like 1989
there was a time that the only class to run at the us indoor champs in cleveland was 12th scale and they got by fine running 8 minutes.
the novak race is touring cars only which is why you'll never catch me racing it. 12th scale is cheaper and you get more run time. take that away and I'll stick to 8th scale nitro and yes I just said that.
it's a shame that 12th scale doesn't get the reconition that it should have as the hardest class to drive hands down. TC is for rookies and track time. 12th scale will always be faster even with 4 cell and even more now that tc is going to 5 cell. all TC cars are the bastard children of tamiya and HPI