Some good advice from Jo90.
Personally, I got a durango 210 at the start of the year, and have been running it entirely as it came for 5 race meets. Only incident so far was I tapped our timing caravan with the rear wheel at speed, and it pulled the rear quarter off.
After finding all the parts that came off, she went back together fine, with just a small groove inside the rear arm holder (next to gearbox).
Since then she has had big landings, cartwheels, knocks e.t.c, and nothing has come off. Just make sure you threadlock where needed, or things may undo (front wheel, gearbox screws, shock nut! I've had personally.)
There are other good cars though, Associated B4 (though it's imperial and rear motor... can be converted to mid, and also seen them working well), Team C TM2 (looks fast, expecially on astro / smoother tracks), Kyosho RB6 and plenty of others.. as has been said before, see what gets used at the club, handy for tips + spares
Charger is up to you. I paid £40 for a G.T power charger, and my friend paid £20 for the pretty much same thing from China. Both work fine after 2 years. As long as it balances, and you can power it, it seems it's all good.
Batteries can be tricky. I had 2 demon power products batteries, which were £40 2 1/2 years ago but they wouldn't fit in my 210
I now run an ancient MuchMore 5500, which a friend gave me. Great battery. I've tried some really cheap chinese batteries which struggled to power my car, but it depends on luck really. I'm going to get some tunigy nanotech batteries next, they are cheap off ebay, and seem great value.
Speedo: Nothing but love for Hobbywing Xerun, but they are not as cheap as they were. The two 60A versions I have have powered all sorts, but one powered me to 2nd place in our 4wd club championship, powering a 6.5T LRP .. I had to get the gearing right though
Radiogear, The ~£180 sanwa stick set looks good, and a racing buddy just got one and loves it.
I also have a friend who converted his £40 sanwa gemini 2 to 2.4ghz using the FrSky system (see related thread in electronics section). The conversion was around £35, but he now has a rock solid system, with the bonus of £15 receivers.
I use an ugly Hitec Pro-Car, converted to FrSky 2.4, and love it. Didn't like the feel of the Futaba transmitters..