1/18th Project

[BrianG]

I too was thinking of a 1/18th scale project (RC18T factory team) for basically the same reasons; it's comparatively cheap to hop-up. Plus, the ESC/motor is much cheaper. I'll probably just get a CC Mamba package. Anything bigger may just be overkill IMO. The A123 batts might be kinda big to fit in a 1/18th though - maybe someone else will chime in about that.

As far as servos, pretty much anything will work. Since you don't need super high torque on such a small vehicle, you can get a fast one for steering. Anything around 50 oz.in should be more than enough (I'm using an 85oz-in in a Jato and it is fine).

For radio, I'd pick one that has a receiver unit that is as physically small and light as possible. I like the Spektrum DX2/3 and I heard there's even a smaller receiver available.