yup, it was my duff esc
 

I've finally nailed the problem from the last 3 meetings, Losi esc has been randomly changing settings. It was showing this -

http://a.imageshack.us/img718/6195/losiprob2.png
(i have been running a 2s Lipo)

This is what it has been programmed with -

http://a.imageshack.us/img525/8118/losiprob1.png

It explains the reversing and the cutouts. The only other kit I have is an ezrun 5.5T + esc, tho got the top end dialled down. I'll give it a go next week.