I don't know - you two and your doing things the hard way.....
The biggest change has been the decent RTR.
This one is the most popular 2wd buggy out there, fitted with a reasonable brushless motor and esc, and also includes a nice modern 2.4ghz radio and metal geared servo. 2.4ghz is really worth it even if you have a decent 27/40mhz radio as there are no crystal clashes or interference. Whole lot comes to £220 - you'll need a
factory team alloy front brace to beef up the front end on the B4 chassis and thats about it. Fit it with Schumacher Yellow minispikes front and rear for dry days, Green minispikes for the wet and you are go.
Just one of
these Lipos is all you'll need - unlike NiMH/NiCd you can top up between runs, and one 5000mAh pack will probably do for 20-30 mins running anyway! Any lipo charger would do,
this one is cheap and does the job like all the rest.
So thats £220 for the car, £50 for a battery, £40 for the charger, and £30 for a brace and some new rubber. - £340 all in! Leaves you a lot of money for other stuff later.......