Need brushless buggy advice

[RobK]

Hello All,

I've been frustrated with the diff reliability of my E-revo, so I'm looking to get a new 1/8 brushless buggy--likely either the Losi 8ight-E 2.0 or a Mugen MBX6 ECO, for durability reasons. The RC8be also looks looking interesting, but I'm not clear if it would hold-up as well as the other two from what I have read. Parts for me would almost always have to come mail-order.

I would love to race it, but around here (Portland, OR) it's only something you can do a few months of the year. So realistically, I will be bashing in grass fields or doing high speed runs down my street.

For high-speed runs / street bashing, I'm thinking 70-80MPH would be a blast. My XXXT on 3S w/Mamba 5700 was a lot of fun--looking for something at least that fast--getting rid of that because the motor is too exposed in high speed crashes. 3S on the 5700 got too hot, so street bashing was short & sweet, at least in summer months.

For the motor+ESC I was thinking of picking up a Castle 1518/1800kv w/Mamba Monster, to run on 6S.

For racing, I would probably use a 4S pack. Would 6S be too much for the motor + ESC in grass (heat) ? If I was down on power I would try 5S, but I'm not that great of a racer.

I'm not sure what size batteries these battery mounts can take in terms of a large (6500?) 5S or 6S pack. Would something like 138mm x 45mm x 72mm (2xMaxamps 6500 3s) fit or would it have to be smaller?

Given the above, is there something better than a 1/8 buggy for my usages?