I owned a Vekta for quite a while, and Travis sent me a prototype of his brushless conversion (Wheelman Designz) once upon a time. I had every single hopup available on it. Ended up having to sell it to fund some business expenses. It’s certainly impressive and beautiful to look at. Don’t go into one thinking it won’t need alloy upgrades right away, as you will want a few hundred worth to keep it rolling. I constantly broke stuff.
Im getting back into it now and am putting together a brushless 5ive-b. I always really loved my 1/8th electric buggy, the handling and fun factor was through the roof. To scale that up into a 1/5th sounds like the best of both worlds to me. Sounds a lot more durable, not to mention much lighter with longer run times. Goes hand in hand.
If you want to stick to 8s, go 5ive-b for sure. If you want long run times, go 12s and 5ive-b. If you want wow factor and scale realism and sheer impressiveness, go Vekta. The Facebook group for the Kraken is good, good bunch of guys. I used to run forums for it, but I think they’re gone now.
DDM will have their 5ive-b in stock very shortly, they are in customs right now.
Good luck!
Lyle