Hello, My name is Randy Banks. Im a team driver for a 12th scale company called V-dezign. as far as differences in new 12th scales, there really arent very many. The most different is by far the yokomo or the speedmerchant rev.7 because the yok has a front shock, not a true kingpin style suspension, the SpeedMerchant uses a dual turnbuckle style upper arm front end and an inline battery setup. The most race ready though in my opinion is the V-Dezing carpet ripper v.5 although a little more pricey then others out there its well worth it, it comes with all upgrades possible, It uses a CRC style pro strut front end with the longer upper arm conversion, ceramic diff balls, and a boxed wide rear pod for more durability. as far as best car for the price, i would go with the CRC Gen-Xi car, it uses a true inline design or sideway style battery. I ran the XL for more then a year and then switched to the Xi and now im running the CR.5