Jimmy Skids addressed the concerns regarding the T-34 and expectations regarding maintenance of scale fidelity for a scale warbird race. If you can live with it that way (especially for just an initial racer), my suggestion would be to leave the gear fixed. As I stated previously, reliability and consistency is the key. It may not look as pretty, but fixed gear are far more reliable, with far less headaches and tweaking; and, reaching competitive speeds shouldn't be an issue with the OS 55AX. I believe that is what most of the guys are running with the T-34. (I tried to verify this by looking at the registration forms which detailed the plane/engine combinations from my race last month, but it looks like Trashman held on to all the registration forms. Sorry.)

One of my good friends is putting a YS70 in a 60-sized Hanger 9 P-51 and with sufficient nitro, expects it to be competitive in Bronze. But, you're easily looking at a YS 115 to power a 60-sized warbird for Silver. A 60-size would have enough wing area for a YS 140, and likely have sufficient wing area for a YS170, even -- just note the wing area for the plane and refer to the Engine/Wing Area Chart in the SAM Warbird Racing rules that Skids linked you to, to know for sure. However, I don't have any experience with those engines, so I'll have to hope someone else is willing to chime in on their effectiveness vs. the new Warbird Racing version of the YS115, and what is the better choice for your intended airframe. For a better likelihood of accurate responses, I would suggest that you specify which 60-size airframe you are intending to use.

I called Kyosho personally, m-a-n-y months ago, regarding the unavailability of the Spitfire, and the rarity of their other SQS series warbirds; as I love them, too. Their personnel informed me that these were all discontinued; that they had "no intention of building any more for the forseeable future"; and, "if [they] ever decide to produce warbirds again, that these models would be new designs." So, unless you find one at a swap-meet, E-bay, or similar, I'm sorry to say that a Kyosho Spitfire is not likely to be an option.

Ollie