where in Connecticut are you located at? I lived there till October.
There is a good selection of Hobby shops around there, RC Madness in Enfield and Wolcott Hobby in Wolcott come to mind.
If you want to race your mini vehicle, make sure there is enough to make a class. At madness you shouldn't have a problem with finding Mini-Ts to race with as that was big there. I am not sure however how they handle the RC18T but it should be popular too.
The mini-sedan class is kind of hit or miss. People got them, but the micro RS4 was a big pile in stock form. Way too easy to flip over at high speeds. Lot of guys just got out of the class all together.
I would probably go mini-t unless there is a good class of micro sedan around.
If they let you run it, the BRP SC18 V2 looks to be quite good. Very cheap and durable too.