F Alonso- Coming into off road from tourer you may even want to look at 4wd. tourers are bascially 4wd off road cars with short arms and shocks.
They are much easier to drive for people new to the dirt. By all means go for 2wd first if thats what you want, but its a little steeper learning curve.
For 2wd, the B4 is a great car which i highly recommend, but both the losi and the AE are excellent cars to start with. If you run into trouble with either, people are friendly and willing to help down at knox, just ask.

Make sure you start off in at least stock, the biggest mistake most on roaders make going to off road is going straight for modified. Its much more technical driving wise than on road, so you gotta get a feel for it first.

BG- as the fuhrer stated....... but no spools!