It's a great question, and one that has been asked for all of the 35 years you've been racing. That we have never found an answer tells you all you need to know - people do not want to learn, they just want to keep up with the other racers.
In my nigh-40-years racing, people who come racing want to learn to race. Within limits, it doesn't matter much what kit they have or how fast the motor is. What matters is whether or not they have managed to build the car properly and set it up right. Much, if not all the problems with people not being able to handle their car is that it handles poorly due to being built wrong or set up wrong.
If the technology is problematic, it seems to me that it is in the arena of equivalence. Yes, maybe a 13.5 motor was equivalent to a 27T brushed five years ago, but it sure as hell isn't now. We are living in the past where better batteries allowed us to use faster motors, so every so often we upped the spec.
35T was a stock motor in the late '70s, then we went to 32T, then 27T and finally 19T. Over that period we went from 1200mAh cells to 4000mAh. Now we have 7000mAh+ and a good 13.5TBL is the equivalent of a 10T brushed. Back in the day you couldn't start with something too fast because it wasn't available, and the cars were simple to build right and set up.
If things are to change today, then we need to make classes slower, not faster. Each year we need to dial back the motors, or put limits on the cell capacity. In LMP12 and GT12 we've done that, going down from 10.5T open speedo, to 10.5 blinky to 13.5 blinky in LMP12. In GT12 we've introduced the 17.5T ProductionCup using the same cars as the 13.5T SuperCup.
No, we should not expect that everyone in the Beds club goes out and buys a 17.5 to encourage new drivers to get into that class too. So perhaps you could say that in 2016 the club will change its premier class to GT12 17.5, giving everyone plenty of time to get one. Start a 17.5 heat now, make the Club championship that class next year, and then run it as exclusively as you can in 2016.
If you believe that the speed is the the key to learning to drive, then do something long term to get that class into your club. After all, we've been trying to tackle this problem for over 30 years, so what's another one if it gets a class going that you feel will attract more drivers to your club?
As you have discovered, new drivers think lap time is a function of straight-line speed and therefore see no need to come and learn how to build and set up a car. Slowing things down makes the set up window wider and the cars easier to drive. In the end, slowing it down is the only fix you have when people can't see that set up is crucial, and their fundamental understanding of race cars is more power means more speed. Just my 2p...
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