Using a 51 I would say it would have enough power, maybe not unlimited vertical but definately enough.The 80 I used even as little as I did seemed to have more than enough power, then teh 100 pulling the firewall loose clearly has way more than enough.
I haven't had mine long enough to really tell how the covering is going to be, but mine is also the version 2, I don't know if Jaysbird is though.

matt13,, turns out it was the main firewall that came loose not the box glued to it.It was just glue joints that failed, nothing broken.And it was just the top.I wasn't really suprised as I hear alot about ARF's having bad glue joints on the firewall.So I poured the epoxy to it inside and out, I am guessing the airplane gained about half a pound!But it is worth it to have piece of mind.

When assembling you could add a little epoxy to it on the inside of the plane if you want to strengthen it up.I think I am going to do that to all ARF's from now on anyways, even if they aren't as overpowered as this will be.I can't really think of any other tips for building it, just be prepared for the usual annoying things that plague most ARF's.One thing I can think of was the aileron rods were too large to use standard E/Z connectors and the supplied connectors don't have the snap on plastic piece, it is a nut that screws on and you have to loctite it.After it was all said and done the loctite ended up on the servo arm on both of them and the ailerons were very hard to move.So I ended up just making new rods for both of them out of a standard size rod that would actually fit the connectors I already had.Another alternitive would be to just make a z-bend.I just prefer the E/Z connector for its adjustment and it just makes things easier.

I can't really think of anything else that was enough trouble to really make me stop.Cutting the holes in the cowl for the engine and exhaust was kind of scary.Such a nice looking cowl to start cutting in to, but no big deal.A hole saw worked great for that.Until I changed engines and had to make the hole bigger, but it still looks ok.

Something I am thinking about doing is painting the inside of the canopy black or tinting it because the canopy I got was really foggy and not very good looking and I think a black canopy on this would look very nice.

If you have any specific questions about it go ahead and ask and I will try to answer as best as I can.By the way here is a picture of it when I had the 80 on it on the first day it flew.I do plan on getting a nice looking aluminum spinner for it, and a shiny new prop.
In fact I was actually thinking about a 3 bladed prop with this 100 just to be different, it might look pretty cool.I will have to try it since I have one for this 100 somewhere.