Hello everyone! First off an introduction. I have been in R/Cs for a good while, probably for a total of 6 years. I stopped playing with R/Cs back in 2004, mainly because of being jobless, not enough money to fund the hobby, and needed to get started on my career after I graduated from college. Now I am settled in a great career and have more than enough funds to play with in this hobby again.

So with all that said, I have been a major fan of electric R/C cars, boats, and planes mainly because the technology going into electric R/Cs is almost limitless and always evolving, whereas Nitro, despite being out of the hobby for nearly 5 years, has not changed much, if at all.

I have my HPI Pro 4 (is that even supported by HPI anymore?) with a Novak Brushless SS5800 or something, and a couple NiMH packs. I have always been a major fan of LiPo Brushless systems since I had installed them in park flyers when I used to work at a hobby store while in college. Brushless LiPo systems had better performance, lasted a lot longer, and were easy to maintain, despite the volatile nature of LiPo batteries if not properly handled. And after looking around amainhobbies.com, towerhobbies.com, horizonhobby.com, and RC Universe, it looks like the LiPo scene has entered the 1/10 car market as well!! So I have some questions in terms of playing with my HPI Pro 4 again:

1.) I have been a major fan of NOVAK and I would still like to go with their products, unless something better is out there. What do people think about the 3000 GTB/Velociti Racing Brushless System (3.5R) ? How about the 3000 GTB/Velociti Racing Brushless System (4.5R) ? How about gear pitch recommendations for such systems? 64P? 32P? 24P?

2.) How do the above mentioned systems work with LiPo batteries? What are recommended LiPo batteries for Brushless systems, especially for 1/10 scale cars?

3.) Are there better brushless systems out there (very open ended and only looking for opinions and links so I may do some research)?

4.) Does HPI still support the Pro 4? How about the Hara Pro 4? I forgot HPI's website URL, so please forgive me.

5.) What are good LiPo charges and balancers to look for when going into the LiPo arena? Is LiPo sanctioned by ROAR? I have an old DuraTrax ICE charger that can be used for LiPo batteries, but it has been so long since I ever used it and forgot how to use it.

6.) Do they still make 7.4v and 11.1v LiPo batteries? Can they be used with electric cars and the Novak system(s) mentioned above?

7.) Just in case HPI has made a better version than the Pro 4 Hara, what kit would you guys recommend from HPI (again, looking for opinions and links)? If not HPI, how about Team Losi, Associated, Sportwerks, Xray, or Tamiya?

8.) Are there better systems than the NOVAK system(s) mentioned above? If so, what are they (opinions and links please)?

Any information you guys could provide would be greatly appreciated. I know RCU was a great source of information back in my active R/C days and it looks like the community exploded in size since I was last active! And that is darn good to see. I remember the days when these forums had a maximum of 75 threads and only 1300 posts. Glad to see those numbers have been multiplied heavily.

It feels good to come back. I missed this community a lot.