RE: Which 1/8 scale MT to buy?
I own a Savage 21 and a friend has both the Dominator and Pirate MT (they're the same platform).
My savage has gone through a lot of upgrades. So I wouldn't say the 25 will be race ready either. Though the engine will be much nicer. I've replaced my engine with an OS 21RG.
The Associated BFT is nice, but I wouldn't say it's race ready. That and I would go somewhere like rcxshop.com and buy the original Thunder Tiger truck (the BFT is just a rebranded broduct like the OFNA stuff).
The Savage is actually a 1/10... if you want 1/8 you want either the Pirate MT or the new Cen Genesis.
My vote would be for the Pirate MT or a Dominator Extreme RTR kit. (Dominator is almost the same thing as the Pirate MT) even though it's actually made by some chinese manf ([link=http://www.hobao.com/]Ho Bao[/link]). Getting a truck thats built on a buggy platform is nice cuz it shares parts so they're more readily available. However I have no problems getting parts for the Savage considering how popular HPI is around here.
Hope this helps.