I busted mine the other night too, I bought another tank!

I am trying to incorporate Tankduel into the pictures so you will have to be patient.

I'm new to this forum thing, and there are so many conflicting answers. I like you want a variable speed control, for more realistic movement. I noticed your posting was all the way back in 2006. Did you ever find out what the answer is for a 1/16 Tank?

Nowadays, all HL 1/16 tanks come with a variable speed ESC integrated into the control board (I believe the old non-proportional boards are now discontinued). The current system bundled with HL tanks are the RX-18 boards, it's not the best in terms of proportional speed control, but it does the job just fine. Most of us replace the stock setup with third-party control boards and battle systems. Some popular ones are:

-Clark TK-20/TK-22 series
-Elmod
-DBC

All systems above allow you to use a hobby grade radio and adds IR battling capabilities.

Not entirely true. If you want variable speed control in a stock HL system, you need to get a "smoke and sound" version. Their basic lineup still does not have it. I just got a PzIV that didn't (was going to upgrade the electronics anyways). If you buy a Taigen, then even the basic version comes with variable speed control.

As mentioned, you can always get improved electronics that have it.

Hmm, I wasn't aware that the non-S&S versions were still in production, I thought they were discontinued long ago.

Yea, that's what I thought, too. I was a little surprised when I got my tank that didn't have the usual RX-18 in it and the box was black, rather than grey/white.