Recommendations for a first on-road vehicle?
I want an on-road vehicle that runs on nitro, and has enough ground clearance to handle slightly damaged blacktop (the kind that has been cracked long enough that bits have chipped away from the edges of the cracks).
I have an HPI Bullet ST, which is great fun and can obviously handle anything that could be described as "pavement", since it's an off-road truck. I also have a little 1/16-scale nitro buggy that has slightly less than 1" of ground clearance, and it has a sexy little Italian screamer under the hood, but it's not the most durable vehicle in the world.
I'd like a vehicle that screams like the little buggy does, but is durable like the HPI Bullet is, and can run over busted-up blacktop without losing control. A small-block engine with a two-speed transmission would be nice; I've never owned one of those before. If it could handle driving over a speedbump too, that would be great, but I realize that may be impossible with anything less than an off-road vehicle.
I could just get a stadium truck or something, but I'd kinda like to own at least one vehicle that looks sleek and has fendered wheels. RWD is okay, and might actually be an interesting change from all of my other vehicles which are 4WD or AWD.
The closest category I know of would be a nitro-powered rally car, but I'm not dead-set on the idea of owning a rally car if there are other options available. Suggestions?