I feel like the price of running a gas car is much much less than a nitro. Examples are gas vs nitro, spark plug vs glow plug, engine rebuild costs. This are pretty much all the expensive parts of it. A gallon of nitro is around 30 and a gallon of gas is around 4. Glow plugs are 8-10 and spark plugs are 8 and last a lot longer. I've rebuilt engines for as little as 60 bucks for too end kits. That won't happen with a nitro. The people that sink thousands of dollars on their 1/5 scales have major mods done to them. Maybe a 700-800 motor and a 200 pipe, the allow parts and 2 speed trannies and such will set you back some. But for the most part, stock parts are cheap.