I have a HPI nitro MT and a traxxas nitro sport and a Duratrax nitro evader. But none of them have their stock engines nor did they ever have their stock engines. The 2wd ST's are great to race against eachother but there is no way they have better handling than the 4wd HPI MT trucks.
For bashing I'd go with the HPI nitro MT2, but if you have someone to race against that has a 2wd ST, I'd get either an evader (cheap to fix, and most everyone carries the main parts), or the RC10GT (more expensive to fix, a bit harder to find parts, but proven race truck).
The nitro evader, RC10GT, and the HPI nitro MT/MT2 all have aluminum (some titainium) upgrade parts available (if if they aren't available they will be soon). I'm thinkin about selling (or part out) 2 of my trucks. I don't have enough time to drive 3, and I only need/want a race truck.