Thinking about buying a car... any advice?

Some friends of mine started up a little RC club of their own, so I'm thinking about jumping on board with them.
Not exactly sure about what I need to get, and I'd like some input.
As far as cars go, the Tamiya Toyota Corolla WRC TA03 kit caught my attention while I was looking them over.. can anyone tell me any good or bad things about this particular model? or perhaps make some suggestions?

damn your lucky the only person i knew with another rc car was someone down the street, but he had a slow baja bug from hpi i think it was the dash..., but then he got rid of it and anyway my tc3 would smoke his car if it wernt for the pathetic 5ft long oval he made for it...,

back on topic... if i were you i wouldnt get a tamiya, i would go with something more like Team Associated (http://www.rc10.com)or HPI (http://www.hpiracing.com) or something like that, i dont own any tamiya products except that my dad has a grasshopper from a while back but i dont think tamiya has much customization of the suspension or anything else for that matter..., if someone can prove me wrong please do...

but if you dont mind that then yeah i would think it would be a good buy, how much is it

I Think Tamiya has a very bad ass kicking car. Tamiya is World Champion with the TRF 414 M2 and the new TB Evo III Surikan as also a very good car. But i think a TA03 is an old car. A TA04 S is a cheap and very good beginner Car. An Asso or a HPI is not a good car for a beginner. You can't compare a Grasshopper with the new cars. The best cars here in germany are the new Tamiya's.

Tamiyas are soooooo plasticky, I got a TL01 chassis and its so slow that I crashed it on purpose and its so plasticky and slow that it didn't even break, I hate that car!:mad:

LOL a TL01 isn't compare with a TRF 414 M or M2. The 414 is a car with aluminium and carbon, the plastik parts are reinforced with carbon fibers. The HPI Pro 3 are more plastik than a TA04 R or a 414, TB Evo III.

Originally posted by BMW325iRacer
LOL a TL01 isn't compare with a TRF 414 M or M2. The 414 is a car with aluminium and carbon, the plastik parts are reinforced with carbon fibers. The HPI Pro 3 are more plastik than a TA04 R or a 414, TB Evo III.

Damn! I shoudda waited for the TRF!:p

I would also suggest the TC3 or another shaft driven car. This is not known to many, but the there is a good chance that the next hpi car will be shaft driven along with the next taimiya top of the line touring car.

The TL-01 is a good beginner car, but it depends on what you want to do.

I would not suggest the Corolla kit, the chassis type on that kit is out of production so any spares you need are going to be hard to find and expensive.

The TC-3 is another good chassis, but it depends again on what you want.

If you want to get something that is pretty good to start out with, and can be upgraded infinitely, and from the Tamiya range, look at something in one of the TA-04 chassis, they come right up to a pro set-up kit and you can build them up to a very raceable car with one-way pulleys and everything you can dream of.

It also depends on what you have to spend obviously.

HPI cars are just beginner cars and they claim to be coming out with a new car for far tooo long. I have the new xray car and they are very well built. True tamiya is world champ now but you have to understand is not the car that makes the world champ is the driver. So rather than suggesting what is the world champ car now I usually suggest to the new comers what type of driving will they be doing, if it is for bashing around no point in getting a pro car, a tamiya prebuilt cars will be fine. If they plan to go to the track then a pro car is my chice and putting a beginner motor, this way they can just upgrade the motor later on. Also you have to see in your local hobby shop what they carry the most, if they carry tamiya parts a lot more then the other then get a tamiya, if they carry xray or assosiate then buy those instead.

any car can be upgraded to the fastest car but if you don't have the skills you will end up in the wall more the driving around the track.