I'm actually something of a success story for the kids into engineering schemes i guess, I found out about remote control racing from the formula schools scheme (should come up on google for those interested i think) and soon after got a tamiya nitro car, tried racing it on road and soon found out that it was a hell of a lot slower than everything else
Then my dad found out his workmate raced rallycross, I found a cheap hyper 7 and got into that, found out that racing was much more than buying a kit and turning up, so that got too expensive quite quickly (soon as the cast hubs wore out and needed a £50 replacement actually

)
Then recently just before uni I looked at some cheaper options for racing, wanted to get back into rallycross but the thought of an engine blowing or a major crash halfway through a student budget didn't appeal so I moved to electric, and 10th off road

Although after spending out everything I did on chargers etc I could have bought a spare engine and half a car i think