I cannot give a comment on a range of cars as I am pretty new to the current scene and a learner driver really but can give my perspective on the B44.1 as I bought one. I got a great deal from a work colleague who bought a kit and shortly after decided to go 1/8th nitro.
I highly recommend the B44.1 as it was fun to make and very well designed for servicing and replacement parts. However the main reason is that it is so easy to drive and improve my driving on. Setup change lead to big changes in the handing and there are loads of other drivers setups out there on the t'internet.
I have found it extremely robust and have not broken anything yet (probably not going fast enough yet
) even the shock shafts. I have heard that you can use the std steel shafts from the B4.1 and they are much more resilient.
The out of the box setup worked brilliantly at my local outdoor astro course and I can just lower the ride height and go well indoor on a carpet track. Parts are cheap and there are loads out there. Only one Durango I know of and they love it but spares have been harder to get for them.
As someone above said, I don't think you can go wrong with any of the major car makes mentioned here, but worth seeing what is running at your local club so you can share spares/experiences.
Have fun!