You say you're new to 1/10 racing. Have you done any other type of racing? If your just starting our, in my opinion, you might want to get a $75-$100 from the top brands. After you get good enough to fully handle the speed, basically where you get around the track without losing control, then you can start looking at the custom tuned motors. I don't have a custom tuned motor, but I'm not quite able to make it around a track more than a half dozen times without losing control at least once. I blame it on the age thing.