It's pretty sturdy with Lego having engineered a lot of strength into the chassis and frame. Having said that, a drop would make it fly into about 950 pieces. It's not a fast RRC vehicle though and I could probably drive it headlong into a wall and it would be intact. It's primary function is as a Lego model with the secondary being RC vehicle...It's not going to win any races I guess. It's fun though.
I didn't let Grouchy help with stage three. I guess I wanted to spare him the blame if the model didn't work for some reason. He watched though, and added a few helpful hints though.