I have both the HV110 and the Sentilon.
I raced the Sentilon last Saturday in my MBX5T. The performance was good but not up to par with the HV110. I too experienced the delay in power during initial start up. I tried many setting changes including throttle expo on my radio but nothing helped. I didn't try soft or very-soft start up but these settings seem intuitively un-helpful. As stated before, the ramp up only occurs from a dead start as punch power is readily available if the vehicle is already in motion. This esc also seemed a bit lacking on WOT as the HV110 just seems to supply more power somehow
The Sentilon is a great controller for the price but for racing performance in a car/truck the HV110 out performs the Sentilon.