Yup its a fun car and will when i have finished it even better.

I suppose its down to what you like, me personally the Tamiya shocks are weak, and bend if you crash, which happened to me. The shaft is fine, the body is bent big time, and it wasnt even a fast crash.So I replaced with the trusted Associated shocks, as they never have let me down.

I didnt say that Tamiya copied, but the design is much better. Ok there are a lot of similarities between the cars, but the single chassis makes this superior compared to the 3 part chassis (now Yokomo did copy this design from another manufacturer).

Our track is hard pack with a little dust on it and they keep it moist. Good Traction, a matter of fact I can't keep it from traction rolling unless I slow down in the turns, and who really wants to do that. And when I say slow down I mean more then you should need to slow down, I do not try to take a 90 degree corner at full throttle. The corner even has some banking in it.
I used the factory belt and pulleys (16T,35,36) for 5 months running every weekend with no problem, we changed the track and it had some loose dirt and I tore up 2 belts and a cuple of rear pulleys. I have purchased 2 sets of the covers. But once the track was back to normal no problems, I run my rear belt a little loose then I think it should be and the front about the same as the rear. You can pull them up about 1/8"-3/16", 1/4" seems too loose. I have run 4.5L and now a 5.5R.
Your front belt last longer because when you are putting the power down the weight transfer to the rear and the front tire will slip, so most (probably 80%) of your drive is the rear tires.