Well if your a racer and going to be racing a stock class then you will want Novak's 13.5 motor. Thats the standard motor at most tracks.
It should actually be the 17.5 but it wasnt out when alot of people started with brushless so alot of people consider the 13.5 the stock motor.
It's more of a 19-23 turn motor and the 17.5 is your TRUE stock motor.
The traxxas system while big in size is literally BULLETPROOF. It will take a beating and keep on ticking. This thing will shut down if it gets too hot.
I have seen time and time and time and time again with the orange one's going up in smoke and pretty sick of it to be honest.
We have had issue's with them warrantying the product and wanting to charge $85.00-90.00 everytime it goes down. Blaming it on a bad impact or something.
Traxxas on the other hand will warranty the item if it was their fault. They are really good at this.
It may be big in size but for a open class or bashing it's hard to beat the durability of it.
P.S. Novak's motor's are fine. Just getting sick of the LACK of durability and warranty support for their brushless.