I absolutely LOVE my D8T, great racer right out of the box, been racing it for 2 years and have only broken 2 parts after countless nasty crashes.
If you get the CVD boot kit and grease the joints they last plenty long, leave them dry and open to the dirt and they will wear.
Only real hop up you need is the HB alum servo arm for the D8T in whatever flavor of teeth you run.
For racing you need a .21, 5 minute runtimes with a .28 don't work too good in a 20 minute A-main lol.
All the info you'd ever need about the D8T -
http://www.rctech.net/forum/nitro-of...d8-truggy.html
Plenty of tips and setups on TY's site too -
http://www.tytessmann.com/