I can understand the appeal of the Ofna, since your LHS carries parts. I, myself, run a Sportwerks Turmoil. I have a group of friends that I run buggies with and we're pretty diverse in what we like. A couple run the Sportwerks because our LHS shop carries parts. A few run Ofna, a few have Kyoshos, a couple have Mugens, and a couple have X-Rays. I've had the opportunity of drive a bunch of them and have been around other's buggies enough to have made a few observations.

This first thing is that when you get off of the bottom of the barrel and into the world of "good" buggies, they are all nice and are really a matter of preference, in terms of performance and their ability to fit your driving style. Of all of the buggies that I've experience with, I'd have to say that the X-Ray, XB8, is the easiest to drive and was the toughest. Once the X-Ray's suspension was tuned, anyone was able to grab the radio and run quick laps with it.

At about $375 at Team Helotes, the XB8R is, I believe, the best deal going in a buggy. My buddy, Mark, has an XB8R. We've been bashing and racing with it, since he got it. When we bash on the track, it's down right stupid. We beat the hell out of our buggies. Lots of high speed crashes, cartwheels, slamming into posts, etc. I've broken a few parts. Knuckles, arms, and bent a bunch of drive shafts and a couple of chassises. To date, Mark has only broken a tie rod. It appears that the shafts on the X-Ray are made of spring steel. Very tough stuff and resistant to bending. If you run a tight, short track go for an O.S. RG. Very dependable with lots of bottom and very easy tuning. If you run a short to medium size track, for a bit more I'd go for a Novarossi P5X. Excellent bottom and mid with a decent top. They can be had for about $250 these days.

Good luck and run it like you stole it.