Putting your Rustlers' electrics in the Losi will probably produce, IMO, a similar effect to buying the brushed SC10. I cannot recommend anyone spend even a penny more on anything brushed these days. On the track, if the electronics were identical, they should run very similarly.
Have you thought about buying used? Used FT SC10's go for $140-180 in the for sale
section here as rollers (I just sold mine for $160 shipped with a bunch of extras for example) and that would be a better option than any low-end RTR. Do a little poking around there and I think you'd be surprised what you can find plus many people on this forum are racers so you'd be buying stuff that was raced and not trashed/bashed like on Ebay.
For a brushless ESC, I would again recommend a used race-grand one as those can often be found for close to the price of a new Chinese un-brand one.
Originally Posted by
Gamehendge
I've heard the SCT is much easier to maintain than the SC10, of course I'm an old school AE user, so I am biased to AE.
Maintenance will be a wash on either one. Just be warned that the current made it China era Losi and AE cars will not be quite what someone who took a 20year break from the hobby will remember those brands as...