Mike-
Ahhh.... I see now.
I've had mine (well, 3 of them) since about mid July.
While I have the aluminum option part you're talking about, I actually run the stock plastic one to save a hair of weight. Same with the rear suspension mount, but I'm thinking about changing to the aluminum version
As for the springs, the black ones are stiff, but they sent me some other gun metal ones that are crazy stiff. Actually too stiff for the truggy. I believe I'm running the 6 hole pistons stock all the way around with 400cst oil in the front shocks and 500cst in the rear.
Do you also have the newer 1.5mm truggy body? The 1.0 is too thin for racing and gets thrashed pretty easy, but the 1.5mm body feels like a tank. The new wheel hex nuts don't fit in the box, huh? Well then the wide hex hubs definitely won't make it!
You can't really argue with the plastics on the Z-Car buggy or truggy. While it's super tough it's not indestructable. The rubber sleeves in the arms do take a little bit of abuse, but if you crash hard enough you're bound to break something.