Believe it or not, I'm still running the original oOple review car
http://www.oople.com/rc/photos/reviewx5/index.html 
The car has had the squared update and runs a stick Lipo, other than that its pretty stock. I can honestly say in approx 5yrs with the car I have done only 2 belts, and one of those snapped clean in half within 20m of setting off, so was almost certainly a faulty one.
I still love the car and I don't believe an average driver like me would be much faster with anything else.