As someone who has recently made the same jump, I can only tell you that it's a lot of fun. More than ebuggy imo buuuut you need more time. With an ebuggy, I was at the track at 10am and on the track at 10:10. With Nitro, it's probably 10:45 until I'm up and running. Fill the bottle, fill the tank, connect the starter box battery, connect the receiver battery, fill the tank, let the engine pre heat, prime the engine, start the engine, make sure the tune is still correct and so on and so forth.

Also, don't cheap out on nitro equipment. Getting started is expensive and it's about $1500 all in if you go new. Obviously less if you go used. This included all the tools and bits you need.

I would suggest to go with the nitro version of whatever ebuggy you have now so you'll have familiarity.

Engine: Novarossi or OS. Both are easy to tune and lots of people have experience. I love Reds but they are more finicky to get right.