i ve been in the racing game for a bout 22years and i ve tryed a lot of cars and i dont think the madrat was/is that bad qualitly dont forget its around a third of the price of the rest of rc cars out there so they ve saved money somewhere but hey even on the more expensive cars the same bits break thats just racing
im just waiting the snow to disapear then i can give the mid motor version a blast
regarding the gold rush motor if its been skimmed and got new brushes on it then yeah it will be faster but i think the one in the kit is a 20t anyway so not much faster
speedo wise if your going brushed have a look around for a lrp quantum 2/nosram dominator (same speedo just different colour)
there was a few of these for sale a little back and people where asking only 20 quid and you ll never go back they where the ones to use when we where all running brushed any way
although saying that there are loads of brushed esc out there all as good as the other but go 2nd hand as you ll save loads and you ll prob find if your planning on racing you ll be upgrading to brushless so there no point on buying a new brushed system
