Being the owner of 2 RC10GT's, JATO 3.3, and soon to be the owner of a SAVAGE X 4.6 I can tell you for sure that the JATO is not a good truck for beginers. Not becuase of quality cuz the JATO has taken more beatings with out breaking than RC10GT's ever did. But the JATO is just a handful for a begginer. I would to agree with nitronate that the Firestorm or the RC10GT2 would be way better to get started. Once you get the hang of it you can modify them to go faster if thats what you want. Good Luck.