In my opinion, the new RTR Savage X 4.6 is the car he is looking for. It goes great on asphalt, it's 4wd, and it goes anywhere any other RC car can go (except the most extreme rock crawlers). Furthermore, it has a great engine, hits about 45-50mph out of the box (don't believe Jato's 70mph claim, it is faster than the Savage, but the Savage won't disappoint I promise).

Nitro cars generally do not have the ability for reverse, but the Savage has a little module you can buy that allows you to manually shift into reverse from the transmitter.

Lastly, the options for evolution of the Savage are many and varied with hundreds of aftermarket companies offering hop ups and upgrades. It's a car I beleive everyone should have in their collection, and I strongly recommend it as a first Nitro RC.

Ooh, yeh, nearly forgot, they are extremely durable, mine has survived more than a few drops from over two meters onto it's roof. I regularly set up a ramp whcih jumps it 2m in the air, and about 6 across. Great fun trying backflips, front flips etc. I won't say it's never broken, but nothing has had to be bought yet, except dogbones (the 4.6 RTR already comes with the strengthened ones, mine didn't) and clutch bearings. And 99 times out of 100, it's an in the field repair job.

PS I'm moving this to the general discussion forum. You said the magic word 'grass', so it definitely doesn't belong here with the true asphalt eaters. <thread moved from On-road Nitro Forum>