Does anyone have any RC car knowledge?

Over christmas my little nephew got this RC toy and i was unashamedly having a blast smashing his "Smokescreen" WRX into the walls etc! When i was a kid all my RC cars took D batteries and died in 10 minutes, so i always wanted one of those expensive ones in the hope that they'd last longer (and go about 10 times faster!). But, looking around now, there are so many options, i don't know where to start...