[terry.sc]

Originally Posted by eyeayen

Yes I see your point but as I said when I've asked people have often said to me about getting certain ESC's and when home from the track and checking prices they're phenomenal money. ESC's seem to be the most expensive thing these days.

From my experience racers will usually tell you that you need this high spec ESC and that it's better than anything else. You never seem to see a racer pointing out they are running with the cheapest equipment. For beginners the racers should be recommending the Fusion Xceed or Etronix Fusion combos when in reality the racers suggest whatever they use, and how many new buggy racers are recommended a 7.5T or 8.5T motor when they would be faster with a 10.5T or even a 13.5T.

Originally Posted by eyeayen

The clio cup series idea is a good one. One make series, cheap speedo ( what's the cheapest brushless set up ? ) and a basic chassis, I'd like to do that myself just for the cheapness.

Nothing wrong with setting up your own 'Clio cup', if your local shop sells a cheap RTR buggy then make that the car to use, it doesn't matter how basic it is as long as it's relatively cheap and everyone in the class uses it.
Why does it need to be brushless? For beginners there's nothing wrong with the kit 540 motors when the intention is to get round the track rather than the typical buggy setup which appears to be as much power as possible that can only be used on the main straight and then try and control it round the rest of the track.

I've been looking around and a lot of people you ask advice from seem to just bang on about how much they've spent as opposed to telling you how you can start cheaply.

I've got a good example of this. Some newbie racers came to my club, they had 20 year old Tamiya TA02 tourers with the kit motors in them. They first visited Phoenix Raceway, only to be told by the racers there they needed the latest spec cars and top spec motors, ESCs and batteries and had to spend £800 on their top spec cars before they started. They didn't go back there and Phoenix eventually closed due to older members moving on and no new racers coming in to replace them.
They came to Stockport and were told what they already had was good enough to get them going. The next week they turned up with what they had, and as they didn't have a fast charger the other racers charged their batteries for them. They ran in with other novices with their basic cars and kept on coming racing after that.