At my local tracks, 90% of the drivers are using 13.5's. Now I am not the greatest driver in the world, but I would like to think I am armature at best... having said that, I come to my point. I am forced to run brushed due to cost restraints. I recieved a Novak GTX with my 12th scale car and have been running it in my TC5 since I got it. At first I just wanted to go out and have fun. But once I started getting faster and more consistent, I started to notice how under powered I was. This was discouraging for me as a new racer. I could keep up with many drivers through the corners, but as soon as I got to a straight I might as well have been standing still. At first I thought it was just because my motor was worn out and needed to be cut. However, even after having it tuned by a local racer, I was still no match for a brushless car. I tried adjusting my FDR, and I picked up a little. But the motor just got so hot that I had to go back to my original gearing. So basically what I am trying to say is... There are no advantages that I can see to running brushed motors. Brushless seems to be the only way to go. Maybe I am missing something important? Who knows... but as per my experiance, I do not feel that brushed vs. brushless is even worth debating. Brushless > Brushed.... simple as that...