Rally on a budget

Ok so I like rally cars, I like RC Cars, so why not have a Rally RC Car. Thing is I have around a $100 budget. I am not looking for something fast or excessively complex and I could care less at this point for "hop-ups" such as carbon fibre chassis and big motors. I am pretty new to the RC Car thing and I do see a future for me in it cause I will get more money and buy cooler cars and then I will care about all the stuff you guys seem to care about. I just need a cheap car to romp around in the dirt at the local baseball field to piss the little people off and to have fun jumping over the bases and so on. I want to get the HPI Dash, and yes I have read that you all hate it and you think its complete crap and that may be so for you but I dont need a 100mph car that can take turns like an F1 car. I just need something to keep me busy! I can change the tires, battery, wheels, shocks, springs, and body and that is fine for me, seems like a great way to start. I just have one question...what do I need to do to keep the dirt out? Or should I just clean it after every run?

Try this link:

http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0095p?FVPROFIL=++&FVSEARCH=tamiya+wrc&FVPROFIL=++

Hopefully it works. If not, goto Tower Hobbies web site and type in tamiya wrc. They make a few kits in the $85-99 range and some RTR from $99-200. My advice, save your money and do not get Tamiya's QD RTR cars, may as well go to the toy store. But the kits and Expert Built series of RTR are great for what you want...upgradable and fun. The tower hobbies thing is just a place for you to get started...check eBay as well, good deals there. But Tamiya has always made good rally cars. Well, Kyosho does as well, but they are a bit pricey for what you are looking for.

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make sure what ever u get is shaft driven not belt... when rocks get stuck in the belts the teeth on the gears break

Well I am not buying it, it is a gift for christmas. Should I just get a kit, and then gradually buy the electronics? I guess it could be an expensive car model for a while I guess. Any ideas would be helpfull.

Well, if the price is restricted because it is a gift...hmmm, well, get the kit and build up the electronics later. Unless you can talk the gift giver into the Expert Built RTR cars since they are upgradable. But in a way, you may as well go for the kit since if you want to quite a bit faster, then you would have to change the speed controler anyway.

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What about the Carisma M14 RTRs? Although they are 1/14 scale they are only $100 and you can change out the ESC, Motor, and everything...
http://rctechonline.com/products/misc/carisma/m14rtr.html
http://rctechonline.com/products/misc/carisma/m14kit.html

Never used them. But one of the RC mags reviewed one of the Ferraris before and thought it was fun. Two things would hold me back on those, one...2wd, for the other cars, fine. For the Subaru, I would rather see 4wd. And secondly, not sure about hop-ups. Might be able to change out the equipment, but I would like to be able to go into any RC hobby shop and buy parts. The car might be too specialised for parts, ie can only get them from that company. Don't know for sure until I see the various parts...might turn out that one can use regular RC parts.

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