Poor Performance & Confused

Hi all,

I'm new to the ZZ world and have been reading here to figure out what I can do. About a month ago I bought the older Black Cobra on clearance at RS. No lights, so I guess this makes it an orginal ZZ. I also bought for my friend's birthday the Firebird along with the Trans Am body upgrades. This I also believe is an original ZZ. His birthday was last week and I gave him his car. Before then I barely touched mine after trying to get it to move, which it did at a crawling speed. I figured what could I expect from a cheap toy. But after reading here, I know this thing should be going faster. I'll be seeing my friend Friday, and since we always pick on each other about him having a real TA and me a real Mustang GT, we now I'm sure will have a Chevy/Ford RC challenge Friday. So I went to RS yesterday and bought the Muscle Car Power Upgrade Kit. I installed the Purple (not as purple as pics I've seen) motor and the red gears. It replace my stock green motor and stock blue gears. Well, the car is much faster now. But I still have the same problem as before. It doesn't have the torque to start moving on it's own. If I nudge it a little, it will start creeping forward, then kicks in. Reverse is nearly impossible to get it to do, even nudging. If I hold the car off the ground, the wheels fly, and steering works great. There is some noise as the wheels spin, whihc I had with both motor/gear setups. But with it on the ground, I can hear the engine click, the car wobbles, but goes nowhere without a push. Steering also doesn't work well until it is moving. Do I have a bad car? Should I buy another? Will his stock TA beat me, even going slower because it actually moves? :-)

I like the idea of the lights, and was thinking about pulling them from one of the bodies from the muscle kit and installing them in my Mustang. Probably more work than it's worth, though. Plus it looks like I would need an SE to get these lights to even work. But reading here, it sounds as if the SEs are not quite as good when it comes to performance. The Mustang Prototype I saw on display at RS yesterday did seem to be a little more solidly built than mine though.

Also, I keep reading about all these mods you guys are doing. Where are they listed? I see discussions, but nothing in Tips & Mods, Articles, etc. explaining the actual hows and what mods are already available. I'd like to take a look, read what I need, and head over to RS and get the parts.

Lastly, I saw that there was a Mustang Mach 1 out now (or was). Is this one of the new and improved SEs, or an older model I haven't seen yet. What about that Mustang Prototype whihc I think was just discontinued?

Thanks for the tips and help.

Mike