Evoracer, he stated he wanted a top end TC. A car that would not be the limiting factor, just his driving, so people are giving advice based on that. I wish I had bought a race worthy TC right from the beginning. I bought my first mid range hobby grade RC car a few months ago. I always wanted one from when I was a kid, but never got around to buying one until recently. I didn't think I would want to race at the time, just drive it around parking lots and empty streets. I was happy with it for a couple of weeks. It was fun to rip around my neighborhood, but I soon realized after trying many things to make it handle a bit better, it was not really designed for it. I was hooked on RC cars though and decided I did want to get into racing now, but this new car of mine was not a wise choice for that. Maybe I should have bought a mid or lower range Tamiya kit, since people actually race the lower end Tamiya kits, but I didn't know that at the time and I never really liked the name Tamiya (I really don't know why, I just didn't) so I stupidly chose an HPI car instead. Other than giving me a lesson in basic maintenance, rudimentary driving skills and what not to buy, it is pretty useless. Even if I added every hop-up, which would end up costing quite a bit, the car would still not be competitive in the only classes it would qualify for. I felt drawn to 1/10th TC more and more every day, but knew I had to get a new car if I wanted to start racing, so that is exactly what I did. My new car is almost ready for the track(drives fine, just needs a better radio and servo for racing, and also waiting for a transponder). By the time it is all done, I will have spent far more than $1300, It will be much closer to $2000 , maybe over(Extra parts and many tools are a good chunk of this total..taxes and shipping too) , that does not include what I spent on my first car. My only regret is spending so much on my first car that I could have put towards my new one. I think even if I had bought a Tamiya kit first that I could start racing with, I would not be satisfied with it for long. The high end TCs were calling my name, and now that I have one almost complete, I just want to get out and race it. I expect I'll probably break some things, but at least I'll be replacing parts on a car I love and if I do get good, I don't need to buy something better to be competitive, I already have it. If I suck, well I still have a pretty damn cool car to drive and I fully expect to keep driving it regardless of my racing abilities I'm now completely hooked on RC cars and once I'm hooked on something there is no stopping me.

Way2Evl, good luck...to both of us

Sorry for the length of this post