Hey everyone,
I posted a long response earlier today while at work, I'm not sure why it isn't showing except maybe having a new account it has to be approved by a mod??? Anyways...
Thank you all very much for the replies. I've read every word of every reply and it has really helped me get some direction with my research. I spent every free moment I had at work today and home tonight looking over all of the suggestions, reading online reviews, etc. I even pulled a couple of my old cars out of the closet just to see how amazed I am at the differences from 10 years ago to now! I literally have 12 packs of 6 cell NiMh Trinity batteries all for waste now (I have 12 because I raced 2wd, 4wd, and stadium truck) along with a huge box full of old P2K Pro Motors and armatures. I was showing everything to my fiance for the first time and she was blown away at how incredible these cars are. We've been together 4 years but this was the first she's seen any of my r/c stuff.
As I mentioned before, my local track is an indoor, offroad, hard packed clay surface. I plan on going to the track soon to ask about what the most popular class is, battery type/size, motor, etc. but looking at their facebook page it appears the 17.5t 2wd buggy makes up the large majority as I expected. Here's a rundown of all the "basic" items I'm leaning towards to get started, let me know what you guys think and if you have any more suggestions or pros/cons to these items. Remember, my goal is to get back into Pro-Stock and be competitive but I'm not planning on going to the worlds anytime soon lol.
Car - TLR 22 5.0 SR
Radio - Sanwa/Airtronics MT-44
ESC - Hobbywing XR 10 Pro Stock Spec V4
Motor - Tekin Redline G3 Spec-R 17.5t
Servo - Sanwa/Airtronics ERS-961 High Speed Titanium Gear
Charger - Junsi iCharger 406 DUO with Brick Power Supply.
Battery - ProTek RC 2S 120C Si Graphene + HV Shorty (7.6v/4900mah)
I'm not sure if I would need 2 or 3 batteries, if I need a lipo charging bag, what connectors to use, or if I need any other battery accessories. Hopefully you can help.
Something else I really hope you can help me with....I come from the days of "direct soldering"...meaning I would directly solder my battery to the ESC every single time I went out for a run. This was a major pain in the *** but in the name of better performance, it's what we all did. Do you still have to do that or does everyone now use connectors? I always had to have a hot iron on the table because I was swapping out motors after every 3 runs (to re-cut the comms on my little lathe) and for every single time I swapped out the battery, which was for every run of course. I know things have changed a lot but I don't know if this has.
Thanks again for all the help and advice. Trust me I read every word and appreciate all the help!