Hobby Action is a great track, its also my local track (only 30 miles away!). it has a technical layout and pretty big jumps compared to what I have seen from pictures of other tracks.

If you plan on racing, a OFNA Jammin buggy or OFNA Hyper 7 buggy is a great platform to start with. I would say build your own kit if you plan to race, but if you absolutely can't afford it, you can get by with an RTR. RTRs are cheaper than their kit counterparts for a reason. Many components have to be downgraded in quality in order to be able to throw in radio gear, and an engine for the same price. Things such as shock quality, shock tower quality, chassis quality, chassis brace quality, drive line quality are sacrificed to make the kit more affordable. Also, the radio gear and engine are typically just enough to get by, so that costs can be kept down.

To put it in perspective, a Hyper 7 PBS RTR is around 400 dollars. I made a sheet that includes the cost of building up a kit Hyper 7 with average quality components (budget engine, middle of the road radio, proper 1/8th starter box) and the cost comes in at just under $1000.00. So you can see that quite a bit has to be trimmed to come in at budget. You can see the list here:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=3456130