I started with nitro. Screwed up the tuning and ran wayy to lean a couple times I broke a ton of parts too. The compression is still good, but the top of the piston is almost black. It's all behind me though because I got a new engine. Anyways, I think I learned much faster by just starting out with nitro. It was more expensive but in my opinion, worth it. There is definatly more of a learning curve but I prefer nitro, and didn't mind the extra work it took to keep it running.