Dark Impact beginner's advice...

[Meltdown]

Howdy all,

Hopefully this is the right place to make this post, if not feel free to give me a slap!

I've never been into RC but on my way to work last week I saw a guy in the park jumping a buggy, looked awesome... so I did some Googling, found this site, read some comments and on Saturday I went into my local shop and picked up a starter kit (Dark Impact, Mtroniks evo 20, basic radio set).

I wanted a kit so I would know how it works - and I've just about managed to put it together (not done the body yet but have managed to spin it around outside).

I was planning to bash this until I know how to drive it and what adjustments do what (like, why everybody doesn't rate the suspension, which seems to go up and down to me )

I have a couple of quick questions if anyone has time:

- The stock motor is a bit underwhelming, I was thinking about getting the Tamiya Super Stock off-road as an upgrade, will this be OK? (Can I just drop it in as a straight swap? The ESC is good for fewer turns, so I'm guessing so.)
- I've got just the one cruddy 2000mAh nicad battery and a dumb charger with the starter set. I have LiPol bike lights so I know what good batteries are like: but what would people recommend for a semi-decent charger and good quality batteries for the Dark Impact?

If I got into this enough to race, I'd be willing to fork out on a race buggy and finishing kit, so really I want a sweet bashing ride for now (i.e. no brushless upgrade to burn up the tiny chassis!)

Any other advice would be welcome (should I be getting a slipper as a priority if I want to jump this thing around? Anything else?)

Sorry if these are dumb questions!

cheers,

D.