I have had two of these planes with 50cc class engines. Here are a couple of thoughts for you to consider. First, unlike most warbirds that are tail heavy and need the nose weight (due to how they are constructed, what they are constructed of, and often having short noses), the TFGSP51 generally comes out nose heavy, that's right, nose heavy. To account for this, many builders end up putting one of the receiver batteries all the way in the tail behind the tail wheel. On one of mine, I had one receiver battery in the tail behind the tail wheel and the other one was mounted at the rear of radiator scoop in the fuselage. Both batteries were well behind the cg and needed to be there to balance the plane. My other plane has one battery in the rear of the radiator scoop and the other one is mounted under the cross spar that hold the wing bolts. Again, both batteries well behind the cg. So, if the Evolution 58 is indeed a pound heavier than the DA50, then significant tail weight will be needed. A friend of my neighbor has a ZDZ60 in his he had to put a huge five cell NiCd battery in the very rear of the tail behind the tail wheel, as far back as he could get it, to get his plane to balance. Many flyers have used the DA50 with great success. A prop hub extender allows the engine to be mounted closer to the firewall, which moves the engine head back and reduces the amount of cowl that has to be cut out. I presume that a prop hub extender is available for the Evolution 58. One final point to consider is that there have been reports of guys using the Evolution 58 in this plane having a difficult time keeping it cool. Not much of the head will stick out of the cowl and the intake opening in the cowl is really small. So even with an exit opening that is 3X the area of the intake, it may be hard to get enough air flow over those small fins on the 58. I do not have personal experience with the Evolution 58 in this plane, but I think it's worth investigating. There is a huge thread on this plane in the Warbird forum that has a lot of information about different engines used by others, including both the Evolution 58 and the DA50.

I applaud your choice of plane. I am not a P51 fanatic as far as warbirds go (I prefer British planes for their character), but I will say that this plane changed my view of P51s. It is an outstanding flyer with no bad habits. It IS as good as everyone says and makes a great everyday warbird. Top Flight used the right airfoil on this plane. Finally, unless you are a complete speed fanatic, I think you will find the performance with a 50cc class engine to be excellent. I have a Taurus 52 in my current one and with a Menz 21x12, the performance is great.

Feel free to PM me with any questions.

-Ed B.