[Frecklychimp]

The traxxas cars are very strong and good fun for 'bashing' but are not great when you decide to take them around a track against others, they have a high roll centre and limited settings for adjusting as a racer.

Ansmann cars are the cheapest to buy, spares are cheap and they make a good racer with some upgrades, but couldn't recommend to first time racer as they can be weak and likely to break as you are getting used to racing.

HPI Blitz is a good all rounder and popular for racing, take some punishment and easy to get parts for if needed.

Associated SC10 is worth looking at, again a good all rounder, RTR versions have scale paint jobs from full size racing but you'll need a set of imperial tools though.

Losi XXX-SCT is well worth considering, i ran one for over a year, strong (didn't break it!), competitive and a good racer, again you'll need imperial tools... this has now been replaced by the recent TLR 22-SCT which is a more competition based truck, very strong and the best spec truck out of the box on market, a RTR version has just been announced but not sure when it'll be in UK or the price.

Durango DESC210 is another recent but will be popular competition based truck, the Ready to Race version may be worth looking at as it has a good spec brushless set up.

You'll be able to get advice and set-ups etc for racing all of the above on oOple, although you'll find the Traxxas advice will be limited

In Milton Keynes area there is Silverstone club and Three Counties which both run SCT's... Watford is not a million miles away from 'HH' so worth checking with DMS Racing as they may run them at their club meetings too.

Hope this helps a little, feel free to ask any questions and i'll try my best without bias