my take on ansmann is that they have made big leaps of recent time. the virus i have found is a fantastic buggy. cant speak of the older ones though, this is less than 4 months old and been run less than 10 times in total. but like i say runs and drives perfectly!!
i have upgraded/modified the battery tray to take "real" size lipos other than that its completely standard. it does not come with any radio gear as i use spektrum in all my cars and will need the reciever in my next car....
as for batteries, 1, is a turnigy 5000mah 3s 11.1v 30-40c discharge and has been charged and used once.
2, again turnigy nano-tech 14.8v 5000mah 4s 25-50c discharge and been used 4 times.
i did run it on 2s lipos but its more suited to 3s, if you want insanity the go for the 4s, its crazy fast with that!!
the motor and esc is the factory fitted items, the esc is 2s to 4s compatible.
you will need to run it, a charger for the lipos, radio gear and a steering servo.
hope this helps, i will take pictures of the batteries as soon as my camera has finshed charging up.