Sooo cheap
Had a hiatus away from nitro for quite a few years but I recently bought a Hyper 9 Roller, a Go21 and a 2.4ghz radio, cost me $500 all up (still need servos tho).
My fist ever 1/8 was a Kyosho Inferno DX back in 1994, still remember paying $900 for the roller (it was the 'budget' 1/8 scale of its day), $400 for the Pirate .21 engine (gutless), $300 for the Hitec AM radio and $$$$ for the Sanwa servos and other bits. A set of 4 tyres cost $100, that was without rims and 1 litre of cheap nitro fuel was $20. 18 years ago as well and I was 15, working 12 hours a week at Maccers.
The racing club was next to a 1/10th club. On a nice day the 1/10th electric club had about 50+ racing, we used to have 5 or 6 turn up... 2 fields of 3 cars racing, half the time no one finished.