hi and welcome to the smartech cult, hehe well:

1. Here are some tutorials about nitro cars, so these should help - http://www.hpi-europe.com/walkthroughs.php?lang=en

2. Yea parts have greaty improved, i can crash into stuff harder with out anythin breaking

3. Yea they still have plastic clutches which are unpredictable , Ive had 1 last over 3months and then ive had 1 thats lasted only a week. But Ive got an alloy 1 in now. You can pick 1 up up for like £10. When i first got my buggy, i had trouble with pins in driveshafts coming out and cogs in the diffs snapping, but its fine now. The standard electrics are crap, theyre good enough to use, but your first mod should be to upgrade the electrics.

4. The clutch on excelhobby is plastic

5. Servos are completely universal except the scale size, e.g - a 1/5th scale servo wont fit on a 1/10th car. Also when we mean metal servos, we mean the cogs inside are metal. And with upgrading the electrics, you can buy kits that include the servos and reciver - or you can buy them spereately.

Ryan.