Big Jon

Xpress has a pretty decent FWD touring car https://www.rcmart.com/

I don't care if it's a monoshock DT-02, if it's made out of modern materials, I want it.

A couple of Arrma Sentons would be about right for heavy bashing. We use Granites as our demos, and other than replacing spurs once in a while, they're nearly bulletproof. Upgrading to the aluminum motor mount and 32p slipper unit would make the motor the weakest part.

A Hobbywing Quicrun 10BL60 and a 17.5 with the biggest pinion that'll fit would probably be the Goldilocks combo.

I manage a hobby shop. It's pretty cool.

They're just fine. Definitely not a "premium" motor. Absolutely fine for any runner that could use a little extra zest.

Chipping like that occurs when the set screw contacts the spur. That super appears to be well worn, but the damage is probably from the set screw. It must have sounded awful.

I don't know if I'm a perfectionist, but I'm never happy with anything that I do. One of the many reasons I enjoy my various hobbies is that I can build stuff to the best of my abilities, which are never good enough, so I'm always trying to do better. It is very frustrating at work when my employees don't perform tasks anywhere near my standards, or don't actively try to improve their skills. You gave me a lot to think about; maybe I need to learn to be happy with "meh, good enough."

I don't think that there's much benefit to using a brushless motor for slower "sport" type builds, unless you want/need the additional torque. Yeah, there's less maintenance, but Torque Tuned motors are so cheap that you could buy ten for the cost of a sensored setup that drives as nicely. Now, if you want more speed, brushless is great. A moderately geared 13.5 is a great choice for 4WD, and a 17.5 is good for 2WD. I prefer a 2-pole sensored system for most applications, with a four-pole for heavier stuff. Sensorless systems aren't as controllable as sensored, and aren't very satisfying in lower speed stuff. Hobbywing Justock combos are a great deal and drive beautifully. They're my "go-to" for a basic combo.

Think a Terra Conqueror would fit? Or any number of vintage buggy bodies?

The TS120 speedos that I have drive very similarly to Hobbywing, ORCA, Tekin, etc. They all have slightly different programming features and options, of course. The difference in "feel", what little I can detect, is probably just tuning or motor differences. I'm not much of a racer, so I don't have millions of laps on each to compare. Most of my stuff has Hobbywing sensored setups, some have SkyRC sensored, one Tekin RS Pro, one Speed Passion, a few Trackstar, two Mamba X. The Mamba X is fine and has pretty good throttle feel. It's enormous, though, so I don't put it in the same class as a racing ESC. Any application I'd want to use one, other than a basher or crawler, there's something else that I'd rather use, and I don't feel like it has enough tuning options. I do like them in my U4 and trail rig. The Castle Sidewinder 4 is the best driving sensorless ESC I've driven. I was very surprised, because I hated the previous Castle throttle feel so much that I never used them until the Mamba X.

All this beefin' about cost and competitiveness, and I'm just sitting here happy to have a fun weird DURABLE Tamiya 4WD buggy coming next month. It's not another boring racecar that isn't fun to play with, that I'll have set up perfectly in five runs, that I'll only get the chance to race a few times before it's "obsolete"; it's the Tamiya buggy of '87 for '21. I'm going to play with it, club race with my usual (lack of) success, modify it, try all sorts of tuning, paint sexxxy bodies, do all the things that I buy Tamiya kits for. As usual, Tamiya is selling us the fun side of RC.

The TS120 and 160 are superb, and what I was going to recommend. I've got a Hobbywing XR10 Pro Stock and 13.5 set aside for mine.

What tires are those? They really suit the dump.

Are they toy RC tires? They use some strange non-standard wheel/tire sizes and construction.