My 17 year old son has developed an interest in RC cars and I see it as a 
way of getting him off his computer!
Neither he or I have any experience of RC cars but I have built RC aircraft 
in the past and am becoming rather interested myself, a joint project.
Building from kit is essential, that is half the fun and very educational 
(as explained to wife).
Budget is flexible and I expect that by the time we are finished it will be 
about £500.
After a lot of reading we fancy the HPI Savage XSS 4.6 it seems quite 
ambitious but pretty good at about £330. It will be used on grass (sports 
field) and anywhere else we can find a bit of land, we are in the country so 
that helps.

What advice is there about radios? Again, having read a bit (no hands on) 
the Futaba 2PL looks sensible or should we consider 3 channel? I cannot 
think what a third channel could be used for but read that a reversing 
accessory could be available and wondered if that would need the third 
channel to switch the car "gearbox" into reverse (if we had one).

I have only ever used joystick type RC and the wheel type look odd but seem 
to be popular for use with cars, any thoughts on that one?

As far as servos are concerned the Savage seems to need up to 160oz of 
torque (4.5Kg) and again after a bit of searching around the net it seems 
the Futaba S3010 may be appropriate, but again any advice gratefully 
received. One spec suggested 2Amp per servo, that sounds like a lot.

So in brief.... Am I sensible to consider the Savage and what advice do you 
have for suitable radio / servo / batteries / charger / failsafe

The cost of all this is pretty scary but I would like to avoid mistakes and 
get good kit from the start.

Many thanks for listening

Les