If all you want is a car that will last a while, get the base car with rechargeables, and then the metal ball bearings. The plastic wheel bushings are weak and worthless. Mine were worn out in just a week or two.

Also, I'm not sure that the XMODS rechargeables and charger are the best way to go. you can pick up some IC3's and a charger for a bit more and it will charge a lot faster. I personally have a ton of NiMH AAA's, so I stick to my one-hour energizer charger.

If you have enough money left, for fun, I'd suggest stage 2 motors. The stock stage one gets off the line great, but after it's off the line it pretty much goes the same speed.