Its hard to put a limit on what you want to spend, especially if you are going to race. Because you will always need spares, you don't want a day to end short because you don't have the part. You will end up upgrading it so that is more money.

In your price range of 350.00 I would look at a LSP, you can usually get them all hopped up with king headz and other improvements with a ton of spares for your price range. Its an older based truggy but still competitive on the track. There a few on truggy racers loaded with tons of spare you can get for a steal. I know I sold mine all hopped up with king headz and a bce chassis and enough spares for anouther whole truck for like 360.00 Because eveyone wanted a crt or str so the value dropped quickly. This might happen with the crt and even the kyosho with the mugen truck and the losi comming out.