To be honest I have only been racing 1/12 for a year, but I raced 1/8th on road for many years, so I asked around the pits about the equipment the fast guys were using and I would say 8/10 were using this ESC, and were noticeably faster down the straight even using the same motor/gears etc, but it's more than that, power out of corners controllable, small amounts of brake into corners on long straights, this is a no brainer but do buy the programmer to get the best.