I have experience with both HPI and TC3 Nitro's but for the price brand new, yeah $265 is the best I could come up with. I'm more inclined to get a brand new TC3 and a cheapy gyro than the HPI Nitro Drift.  I certainly have deep pockets for electric as well, but I am not that techno savvy and would rather just stick with old school nitro. Eventually i'm going to take those training wheels off and learn to drift on nitro w/o it. Also does it matter if I choose to get a single speed vs a 2-speed for drifting because I know that in electric's everyone uses a single speed. Also chose the tc3 because it doesn't use belts, so again trying to mimic the experience as much as possible without buying electrics. How much of an advantage does shaft have over belts in terms of sliding the car and maintaining speed/drift.