RE: Looking for a nice starter plane for speed.
Pass-N..........
take a look on matneymodels.com
They sell a few nice Q-500 designs (glass and foam basic kits - require additional materials and building) that are excellent as first-time speed aircraft. You will also find the Zoomer, which is a 'cleaned up' quickie once used for some regional racing. All 3 wing variations fly well. Any of these can be powered by any .40-.50 size engine, and you will have a decent speed ship on your hands. By there nature, the Q-500 type aircraft are very smooth, and will slow down very nicely for landing.