If you want ease of maintanance and bashability then I would recomend electric and sticking with traxxas. The parts are seriously easily available and you wont have to deal with tons of tuning and engine breakin and all of that other stuff that comes with nitro. If you want power to match the nitro then go with one of the traxxas vxl trucks. The rustler vxl is pretty durable and fast with the included brushless motor. Just make sure you get decent batteries to power the whole thing. If you decide to swing to the electric side, we will talk batteries haha.