recommendations?

[DrKnow65]

I bash and race with my family at the local track, I've got 7 RC's from large to small feather light 1/10's... My best combination car that does well on the track and can bash hard without issue is definitely the Losi 8T. It's a hair on the heavy side and being large it doesn't have the snappy steering of some of my smaller rides. The trade off is that it's rock solid and the trucks you race with at the track are all in the same performance range. Also, it takes big tires to run in the grass at the park...

I would however look to my local track FIRST to see what vehicles are raced most, I.e. 1/10 2wd buggy, 1/10 4wd buggy, 1/8 4wd buggy, 1/10 2wd truck, 1/10 4wd truck, 1/8 4wd truck... ect. THEN ask around about the most reliable vehicle in that class.

Just make sure you dont fall into the Novak/maxamps trap on the electronics side. Buy a properly sized Castle Creatons ESC and an appropriately low KV 4 pole motor. Get midgrade lipo's like Turnigy, Sky Lipo, or Blue lipo, no need to spend an arm and a leg on thunderpower or the like. Buy at least 3 sets of batteries and a charger that will do more than 1 battery at a time (or you could buy 2 cheap chargers). Radio gear and servo's can be expensive too, I'd recommend a good servo (Hitec HS-7945SH @ $79) and a cheap radio (Flysky GT3B @ $45).

Hope that helps, but I'm afraid you may find it more expensive to originally set up for the hobby than you think. Look at all the advise you can find and hopefully you'll only spend the big money once.