E-maxx battery, motor, etc - general questions

Hi all,

I'm hoping someone can shed some light on all this for me. I've been trying to read through pages and pages of forums but I find it's just slightly above my level at this point (...or a lot above).

Basically I have a stock E-maxx. I have the cash set asside to invest quite a lot into it (1-1.5k). My priorities are: 1. Durability in bashing 2. Runtime.

I don't know anything about which aspects of the truck are important to consider for those things. Brushless will obviously be the way to go for run time. Then should I consider LiPo with a ridiculously good ESC? (And which?). Or should i just get beefy 7 or 8 cells?

I'd also like to get a lot of alluminum if it's advisable - just because it's extremely sexy. Is this a bad idea? I know it's asking a lot but any advice about which parts I can/should get in allum would be good too.

As a small sidenote my wife has surprised me with a beautifully custom painted body that is stock size.. Does this limit my ability to get an FLM or Gmaxx chassis?

Please - I'm hopelessly confused... Any advice about anything I've mentioned would be vastly appreciated.

Mike