after much deliberation on 1/8th scale buggies, I pulled the trigger on the EB-48 today. I had narrowed the choice down between this and the Mugen MBX6 Eco, but in the end I wanted something different, something new and I think the idea of putting it all together will be fun.
Can't hurt that Tekno has put all the knowledge from producing conversions for all the top buggys into this - they obviously knew exactly what they were going for when they designed the EB48.
I'm pretty excited to start building it - and these forums offer such an amazing amount of information, so thanks everyone for all the input.