ORIGINAL: Brent Davis
2-speed is the way to go with the belt drive cars. They do make a direct drive single speed chassis as well but IMO it puts alot of strain on engines because they have to pull harder and RPM more to get the car moving and that stresses the engine and causes damage like a busted piston
by the time you pay $285 for the kit, upgrade the 2-speed trans with the Mugen one at $55, get your digital servos at $120 for both, fuel tank at $20, body at $35, modded motor at $450, pipe at $60, centax clutch at $50, wheelie bar at $35, fuel and other extra parts that you need like plugs, rear tires, axles because you will bend some. you need to have $1500.00 for a complete ready to run car.
+1 on that Brent.
ruffrider, if you don't have to go new on everything, I would recommend searching around to pick up a pre-owned chassis with as many of the goodies Brent mentioned as you can get. I already had a fairly competitive modifed engine .21 and picked up a deal on a pre-owned pro-mod chassis fully loaded and my order to Dragrace Concepts was still about $250.
Keep in mind that when buying used, prepare to put more time in your setup, going threw the car screw by screw and cleaning up the mess from the prior owner. I spent days getting my car track ready for my big day. After two passes, and learning how to read my time slip, I realized my car was not shifting. Had to pass my next round runnning late trouble shooting and still couldn't get the car to shift. Had to pull the entire two speed off, finally realizing the two springs in the shoes to adjust the shift point were missing. A full day at the track, and only made two passes.......GRUUURRR!!!